The Lamar Life Company began broadcasting Mississippi’s third television station in December 1953 and, at the same time, moved radio operations here from its downtown tower (JM20). With its interlocking volumes, window walls, varied materials, and a strong horizontal line, the structure showcases Canizaro’s functional but sophisticated modernist approach. In the 1960s, WLBT became embroiled in law-suits testing the Federal Communications Commission’s Fairness Doctrine after it refused to allow Medgar Evers equal airtime to respond to broadcast speeches by segregationists. In 1971, the courts revoked the station’s license for failure to comply with the Fairness Doctrine, the first such case in U.S. history, and turned the license over to a biracial, nonprofit foundation, which ran the station until 1980.