Noble, Gilbert Edward “Gil”
1932-2012 · Contribution: 1968-2011
Television host and documentarian
Created and hosted WABC-TV’s Like It Is for 43 years, the longest-running Black public affairs program in New York television history, producing landmark documentaries on Malcolm X, Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1932, Harlem, New York
- Active since
- 1968
- Category
- Press & Photography
- Best known for
- Creating and hosting WABC-TV's Like It Is for 43 years
Impact on the world
Noble built what many consider the largest single body of television programming on African Americans ever produced in the U.S., preserving voices and perspectives mainstream broadcasting ignored.
Sources
- New York Amsterdam News
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