[6] After his death, his hometown of Dayton gave an honorary designation of "Joe Madison Way" to Cowart Avenue, the street he grew up on.

Joining an otherwise white lineup at WWRC-AM in the early 1990s, he developed a crossover appeal handling issues that included race but were aimed at the station's multiracial audience.

[11] He publicized claims of CIA complicity in moving cocaine into the United States, sought evidence, and promoted legislation to declassify possibly related documents.

On October 15, 1996, Madison, Dick Gregory, and John Newman launched a hunger strike to promote this legislation.

[13] Research done for Finding Your Roots revealed that his great-grandfather was a white man from South Carolina who fought for the Confederates during the American Civil War; and his biological grandfather was included in the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.