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The Negro Press in the United States
By Floyd L. Calvin
The growing importance of the Negro press in the American
social order is attested by a number of factors; the publication
each year by the U. S. Department of Commerce, of a list of
Negro newspapers in the International Year Book of “Editors
and Publishers,” the official newspaper trade publication
which carries data on all newspapers published in the civilized
world; the care given to the cultivation of the Negro newspapers
by the major political parties during national and some local
campaigns; and the emphasis being placed on journalism by the
Negro colleges of higher grade; and the increasing number of
highly trained young Negro journalists coming out of the best
American schools of journalism. Just this spring a young man
became the managing editor of the “Louisiana Weekly” of New
Orleans, upon completing his journalistic studies at the
University of Michigan.
Since the term “Negro Press” is being used rather
freely in this article, a word of explanation.
The Negro press is now of age. It is well over one
hundred years old, having celebrated its centennial in 1927. Its
first editor was John Russwurm, the first Negro college graduate
in America.
There are about 150 Negro publications of varying
importance, practically all of them weekly, except one daily,
the “Atlanta Daily World” of Atlanta, Georgia founded March
13, 1932, by the late W.A. Scott. There are about fifteen
national weeklies,-that is, papers edited in approved
journalistic technique, issued in some instances from plants
valued near six figures, with trained staff, and some of the
staffs, mechanical and editorial, are unionized. The national
weeklies carry from twenty to thirty-two pages, cover
elaborately major news events of special interest to the Negro
reader like Joe Louis fights, Negro college football classics,
and extraordinary phenomenon like the Ethiopian war.
The Department of Commerce, in its report dated May,
1939, says: “Not less than 227 Negro newspapers and 105
magazines and bulletins were published by Negroes in the United
States during the year beginning November 1, 1937 and ending
October 31, 1938.
The combined circulation of the 145 newspapers, from
which the Census Bureau received circulation figures was
1,322,072. The total city circulation of 119 newspapers was
801,751,546,740 (68.2 percent) of which was local. A comparison
of the reports submitted by 59 newspapers in 1936, 1937 and 1938
shows for the period of 1936-1937 a circulation increase of
46,850 and for 1937-1938, an increase of
56, 475. The total circulation of 97 newspapers from
which reports were received in 1937 and 1938 increased 102, 087.
The number of Negro papers operating by geographic division
during 1938 were: New England, 2; Middle Atlantic 33; East North
Central, 37; West North Central, 16; South Atlantic, 57; East
South Central, 36; West South Central 31; Mountain, 5; Pacific,
10.
One hundred seven newspapers, reported 1,066 full time
employees and 944 full time workers were employed in the home
offices of 97 newspapers. Seventy-six newspapers employing 898
workers had, during the year, monthly payroll of $60,929.
The estimated value of the equipment used by 82 Negro
newspapers was 2, 221,903. Fifty-two newspapers used during this
year 4,626 tons of paper.
Why the Negro press? Simply because the white press does
not carry Negro social news, and it is not interested in
developing the Negro group as a social entity. The Negro press
serves this special need of stimulating the morale of the Negro
in fighting for progress in the American social order, and in
keeping step with modern civilization. Nowhere else does the
Negro get news of his special events, encouragement, stimulation
and laudation for his achievements. And nowhere else is the
fight for his civic, social, and cultural progress more
vigorously championed, as a perennial theme, and with more
vitality, because the approach is always from the intensely
personal angle.
It may not cross the mind of the average white American
that the Negro thinks in terms of the beauty of his women, the
social future of his children, and the social, cultural and
spiritual contacts afforded by his group. Any Negro paper
reflects, first of all the outlines of this picture in a given
locality. No other paper gives this reflection of Negro life, so
the Negro turns to his paper to know what is going on of first
importance to him. Of course the Negro reads the white press,
too, for he must if he is to know what is happening in the world
at large. Another penalty of being colored-you must buy two
newspapers and keep up with two worlds!
The press of a group is expected to reflect the thinking
of the group. This is true of the Negro press and the Negro
group. However, peculiar conditions in the Negro group make for
oddities in the Negro press. Some white readers, even those
fairly neutral in their thinking on racial topics, on becoming
acquainted with the Negro press, feel that it distorts news,
discredits its own people, and altogether gives too much space
to unwholesome news.
As one who has worked with the Negro press for more than
twenty years, and speaking not as an apologist, but more as a
guide to the new field, the writer states that Negro editors,
because of their limited experience in building a society,
unfortunately too often do not take the constructive social
approach in the treatment of the news. This tendency is deplored
among certain circles of Negro leaders, but the tendency has an
economic background, as will be shown below, hence it is not
easily corrected.
For instance, color prejudice not only blocks the Negro
wage earner when he seeks a job, but it blocks the Negro editor
when he seeks national advertising. The lack of this advertising
makes the Negro editor a marginal man-he must live on “short
rations,” the pennies his consumers pay for his product,
rather than on advertising revenue, as is correct in the
publishing business. This abnormal situation causes the Negro
editor to present his news from the more shocking angle, to make
more of his people buy his product so the business will pay.
That is why the Negro editor seems to have a morbid viewpoint.
But suppose American industry, as such, paid into the business
offices of the Negro newspapers $1,000,000 a year for legitimate
advertising of products which are bought by Negroes, what a
difference this would make in the development of the Negro
press! But it will take a great deal of interracial work to
bring about this happy, but just event. The Federal Government
guarantees that the Negro press has circulation of importance.
When will American industry give this press a square deal on
national advertising?
In spite of all this, it is the belief of this writer,
however, that the Negro editor is one of the most liberal in
America. Take a cross section of the hinterland in the United
States and it will be found that Negro newspapers are as quick,
if not quicker, to give ANY cause a fair hearing than will be
given in the white press. Even this is noticeable in the
carrying of Catholic news by the Negro press throughout the
country. Denominational papers like the “Christian Recorder,”
official organ of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
Philadelphia, Pa.; “The Star Zion”, organ of the A.M.E. Zion
Church, Charlotte, N. C.; “The Tampa Bulletin” owned by the
a high A.M.E. churchman; and many other Negro newspapers owned
by Protestant editors, carry Catholic news as readily, as
prominently, and as frequently as they carry any other religious
news. This is just as true an example of liberalism as if it
were the white press; and if this were not true, it would
reflect an unwholesome spirit in democracy.
This shows that the Negro editor can be counted on,
basically, to help build a stronger and greater democracy, a
fact of which Negro thinkers, and white thinkers, too, are
proud.
We who love America are hoping that, as the Fourth of
July orators exclaim, she will continue to move forward to her
“manifest destiny;” and that Negro and white leaders and
thinkers will consult with each other in an effort to see at all
times, that no group is slighted; that ALL AMERICANS will be
given a square deal; and that the old traditions of neglect of
the weakest will be discarded. When we look abroad and see how
hate has climbed into high places, we shudder for our own
country. We do not believe such will ever happen here; but we
ought to use precautions to safeguard our own liberties. To be
effective against intolerance, white and colored of like mind
and heart must work together to stem the unholy tide. The Negro
press can be counted on to stand firm for the principles of true
democracy. But the Negro editor is logical. He wants the right
hand of true fellowship for his own group so that his arguments
for fair play will not sound hallow in his own ears. After all,
the Negro editor must live with himself. If he is
convinced that America is moving steadily toward the
light of tolerance and fair play for ALL, he will throw the full
force of his strength on the side of social justice.
The Negro Press has already shown that it likes the
program of the Catholic interracial movement, As long as
Catholics continue to move forward as they are now going, there
can be no doubt that the Negro press will bid them Godspeed, and
will give them cordial
but firm support.
Source: Interracial Review
(October 1939)
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Samuel Cornish (above left) and John
Russwurm (above right) found during the 1820s Freedom's
Journal, the nation's first black newspaper. Cornish was
a minister in the Presbyterian Church. His partner, Russwurm, a
scholarly man, was the first black American to graduate from
college. Freedom's Journal was quite popular for a while among
blacks in the North and among sympathetic whites. The Journal
lasted four years.
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Left: Robert L. Vann, an attorney,
built the Pittsburgh Corier from a religious publication
into a nationally-read journal.
Right: Robert S. Abbott found modern
black journalism with his Chicago Defender in 1905. It
is now one of the two black dailys.
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Left:
In 1934 John H. Sengstacke (1912-1997) became Vice President and
General Manager of The Robert S. Abbott Publishing
Company, and served as its president, following Robert
S. Abbott's death in 1940. He
founded The National Newspaper Association in 1940, and
served as its president for seven terms. The
organization was established to unify African American
newspaper publishers and currently has over 200 members.
He started the Chicago Daily Defender in 1956.
In
this photo
Sengstacke
rides
in a motorcade with President Harry S. Truman and
Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley |
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Right: Two leading publishers, William
O. Walker (l.) and the late Carl Murphy, were
giants in the field of black newspaper publishing.
Walker published the Cleveland Cal and Post.
Murphy headed the Afro-American, a chain of East
Coast newspapers. |
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Left: Frederick Douglass,
the foremost black abolitionist was the publisher of
North Star, a newspaper whose avowed purpose was to
oppose slavery "in all its forms" and to
promote "the moral and intellectual improvement of
the colored people."
Source: Ebony (1975) |
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