THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO P
CHICAGO. ILLINOIS
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY
THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDOB
THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
TOKTO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, 8KMOAI
THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY
HUMA1
THE NEGRO PRESS IN
THE UNITED STATES
By
FREDERICK G. DETWEILER
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
PN
COPYRIGHT 1922 BY
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
All Rights Reserved
Published August 1922
Composed and Printed By
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago, Illinois. U.S.A.
TO
MY WIFE
PREFACE
When Colonel Robert T. Kerlin's book, The Voice
of the Negro, appeared, it startled a great many people
into serious thought about the Negro press. Professor
Robert E. Park's The Immigrant Press and Its Control
was then almost ready for the public, and the idea of
making that public better acquainted with another of
its great minority groups had for me a strong appeal.
Colonel Kerlin, too who has been consistently helpful
held that his study of Negro newspapers as they ap-
peared during a certain four-month period should call
out an extended inquiry into the actual numbers, circula-
tion, history, economic connections, and social implica-
tions of such papers.
It is impossible to name here all those who have
helped in the production of the present book. Negro
editors have responded courteously to many letters of
inquiry. The newspaper men in Chicago, where the
study was carried on during the greater part of two years,
have especially deserved mention. The gentlemen of
the Associated Negro Press have been very generous in
offering the use of their exchanges and in countless other
favors.
To Professor Park a debt of gratitude is due which
these rather formal phrases cannot be expected to dis-
charge. His wide knowledge of the field of Negro life,
hi- kindly interest in this undertaking, and his unique
way of offering critic ism and suggestion have been indis-
pensable.
vii
viii PREFACE
In presenting the results that follow, the author has
probably failed of that degree of objectivity he desired
to attain. The purpose has been to describe rather
than interpret, to set forth facts in as straightforward a
way as possible, and to let the Negro press speak for
itself. If there is any contribution here which might
help the races to understand each other better, well and
good. It may be, however, that these pages will be to
many readers what they have become in the author's
thought an offering of materials for the further study
of human nature.
DENISON UNIVERSITY
GRANVILLE, OHIO
August, 1922
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PACK
I. VOLUME AND INFLUENCE OF THE NEGRO PRESS .... i
Number and Distribution of Periodicals i
Why No Negro Dailies 5
Influence in Terms of Circulation 6
titude of Negroes toward Their Papers .... 8
Literacy among Negroes 1 1
The Newspapers and the Cities 12
Geographical Area of Circulation 15
White People and the Negro Press 18
Comparison with Foreign-Language Press .... 22
Newspaper Mortality and Economic Success ... 23
Press Organizations 28
II. THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 32
Early Background 32
The Negro Abolition Press 35
Frederick Douglass' Paper 40
The Christian Recorder 42
The Negro in the South 44
A Partisan Press after the War 45
Religious and Fraternal Organs 47
The Press and Growing Literacy 51
III. THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 53
Early Papers Now Surviving 53
Lives of Representative Editors 53
Attempted Dailies 59
Growth, 1870-00 60
The New Militant Note 61
irdian, Crisis, Defender 62
The Press and the Great War 67
The Press and the Migration 72
Three Papers of Today: Why They Began .... 76
IV. FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS 79
The Keynote 79
Distribution of Space in the Paper 80
Leading Themes 82
Race Wrongs and Clashes 83
Race Progress 87
Race Movements ... 94
Crime ... 96
Politics 98
Africa 99
V. WHAT Is IN A NEGRO PAPER . . 101
Makeup 101
Local News ... 101
ix
X TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorials 106
Special Features 109
Poetry no
Advertising 113
Cosmetics; Medicines and Magic; Organized Activi-
ties; Advertising as a Business
Negro Magazines 126
VI. THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 130
Protest in Negro Newspapers 130
Interpretation of Race Riots 136
Negro Demands Defined 141
Demands Stated by the Crisis 144
Policy of the Guardian 147
Distrust of the White Press 149
Hostility of Whites toward Negro Press 152
Patriotism of Negro Press 157
Attitude toward Other Issues 164
VII. OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 165
Radical Magazines 165
Program oi Messenger 167
taboF Organizations and the Negro 172
The "Economic Way Out" 175
Garvey anH Nationalism 176
Inter-Racial Committees 190
Avoidance of Conflict 192
Reconciliation 193
Disagreement among Negroes 195
Significance of Negro Poetry 198
Vin. NEGRO LIFE 203
The Press Reflecting Negro Life 203
The City 205
The Country 210
The Church 213
The Lodge 217
The School 219
Politics 222
Society 224
Music 226
Theater 229
Sport 232
DC NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 235
Why Criticism Exists 235
Moral and Aesthetic Attitudes 236
Attitudes toward Racial Values 243
Interesting People 255
Race Friction 263
Place of the Press in Negro Life 267
BIBLIOGRAPHY 270
LNDKX 273
CHAPTER I
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE OF THE
NEGRO PRESS
SOMERVHLE, TENN., Feb. 7 White people of this city have
issued an order that no "colored newspapers" must be circulated in
this town, but that every "darkey," the petition reads, must read
the Falcon, a local white paper edited by a Confederate veteran.
The whites stated this step was being done in order to keep the
''nigger from getting besides himself, and to keep him in his place."
Since the invasion made in this city by newspapers of our race,
people have been leaving by the wholesale, seeking better oppor-
tunity and development in northern cities. The edict was issued
against the newspaper when white men were forced, because of the
lack of help, to plow the fields.
Somerville is the county seat of Fayette county. There are
20,000 of our people residing in this section and only 7,000 white.
Our people furnished five soldiers to one white soldier from this
district to the National Army in the fight for democracy.
Items like the above, which appeared early in 1919,
lead the inquiring reader to ask what is meant by
the " colored newspaper." This particular piece of news
could be traced to the weekly edited in a northern
city by a black man from the South. Within a stone's
throw of his desk other similar papers have offices, which
contain exchanges from cities and towns all over the
country. What are the facts about the entire situation ?
There are nearly 500 periodicals published by Negroes
in the United States. While accuracy in the statistics
ot possible, it is true that there is evidence for the
existence, in the summer of 1921, of 492 paper s.
2 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Only ten states in the Union are not represented by
these publications, and these are the three northernmost
in New England and seven in the sparsely settled West.
The state of New York has twenty-one titles; Alabama,
thirty-five; Arizona, two; Michigan, six; and Virginia,
twenty-six. Naturally the greater number belongs to
the South, but of the 149 north of Mason and Dixon's
line many have a large circulation and wide reach of
influence. Of the twelve great urban areas in the United
States containing over half a million of people each, only
Baltimore and St. Louis could be called southern; and
all of these are centers of Negro journalism, producing a
total of seventy-six papers. In the 310 that are pub-
lished in cities with population ranging down to 10,000,
the South is better represented. It may be said that
smaller towns and rural villages publish altogether only
1 06 papers that have come to general notice. 1
Until recently the existence of such a press has been
virtually unknown to the white group. To Ray Stan-
nard Baker, writing in the World's Work, this fact is
alarming. "Few white people realize that there are
1 These statistics result from an extensive correspondence with pub-
lishers on the basis of the list hi the Negro Year Book for 1918-19, Tuskegee
Institute, Alabama, Monroe N. Work, Editor, pp. 460 ff., and Ayer and
Son's American Newspaper Annual and Directory for 1921, Philadelphia,
1921, pp. 17 f. and 1271 f. The Tuskegee Institute Department of
Records and Research, the National Negro Press Association, Nashville,
and the Associated Negro Press, Chicago, have also been consulted.
The Year Book gives a total of 450 periodicals, but, if one counts
the titles listed, the sum amounts to only 391 (for the United States).
The larger total assumed is justified by the extreme difficulty in securing
complete returns. The results embodied in the text are to be thought
of as holding good for midsummer, 1921. During the two years in which
this study has been in progress many periodicals have begun and many
ended their careers, not to speak of consolidations and changes of title.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 3
more than four hundred and fifty newspapers and other
publications in America devoted exclusively to the
interests of colored people, nearly all edited by Negroes.
.... The utter ignorance of the great mass of white
Americans as to what is really going on among the colored
people of the country is appalling and dangerous." 1
Warren G. Harding, however, when still a member of
the Senate, was typical of an awakening interest. He
wrote in 1920:
It would be a very sorry contradiction to the policy of the
developing of democracy if the Colored people of the country
should not find marked advancement in this fluid state of world
civilization, and it is very pleasing to note the growth of Colored
publicity service, which means that educational advancement and
intelligent enlightenment which always speaks of the progress
of any people.
Publicity is going to be the greatest weapon of all in furthering
the cause of the Colored people of the United States. 3
There is still a great deal of the "ignorance" Baker
refers to. Out of fifteen individuals interviewed for the
Chicago Commission on Race Relations as representing
the more intelligent members of the white community,
several had no knowledge of the Negro press even in
Chicago. On the other hand there is a growing desire to
learn the facts about the Negro. The editor of the Des
Moines Bystander, a colored weekly, told of a speaker of
his group who was asked to address a white audience
on the condition of Negro people. He took with him to
1 Quoted by the Crisis, August, 1916, p. 183. With reference to the
Washington riot of 1919, Robert T. Kerlin says (The Voice of the Negro,
1919, New York, 1920, p. 76): "But how the Negro viewed that riot,
what to him the causes of it were, who the instigators and real rioters
were, doubtless it never occurred to one white person in a bunded thou-
sand to consult a Negro newspaper to discover."
Letter to the Associated Negro Press, Chicago.
4 THE NEGRO PRESS IN T^IE UNITED STATES
the meeting^ large assortment of Negro newspapers;
and, as he later described it, nothing evoked so much
curiosity as that exhibit. The papers were eagerly
passed from hand to hand and thumbed carefully as
though to make sure they were real. Stephen Graham,
an Englishman who went on foot throughout the South
and followed the trail of Sherman's march to the sea,
writes, in The Soul of John Brown, of a "passion for
journalism" outrunning racial capacities. Referring to
Norfolk, Virginia, he says: "I visited the publishing
office of the Journal and Guide, where the Negroes not
only edit a paper but manufacture their own type and do
everything themselves one of a hundred Negro news-
papers published in the United States." 1
When we come to examine in more detail the character
of these papers, we discover that they fall into classes
somewhat as follows: eighty- three are religious, being
official organs of some denomination or a means of edifi-
cation resorted to by representative religious leaders;
forty-five are accredited as journals of fraternal orders,
labor organizations, or similar bodies; from colleges,
institutes, and schools come eighty periodicals; thirty-
one may be called magazines, these including a medical
journal, four business periodicals, and five music maga-
zines. Thus there are left 253 periodicals to be called
newspapers. All these are first and foremost "race
papers." In other words, they all keep race interests
pre-eminent.
The avowed newspapers are all weeklies, with the
exception of the Washington Colored American and the
Richmond Colored American, which are printed as daily bul-
1 New York, 1920, p. 58.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 5
letins on one side of a large sheet. With the exception of
a few monthlies and quarterlies, other Negro publications
are weeklies. Why not dailies ? The evident answer is
that the Negroes in the United States bejong to the same
language group as the whites, share in American industry
and politics, and are in general dependent on our entire
machinery of social life. They dare not give up reading
the great American dailies. In New York City Negroes
have sometimes discussed the possibility of success for
a daily paper there. The Brooklyn and Long Island
Informer, April 23, 1921, wrote editorially, "as to a daily
newspaper":
Recently the National Review .... carried an editorial in
which mention was made of the fact that in a certain section of
German East Africa, 3,000 white people were publishing three
daily papers .... the writer drew a parallel of 180,000 Colored
people in the most progressive city in the world, with only half a
dozen weeklies to their ciedit, and badly written ones at that.
The New York Age did not agree with the "impatience" of the
Review, as it felt that the time is not ripe for a Negro daily in
New York
A Negro daily paper in New York is just as much a necessity
as is a Negro bank. Fifty years ago we had to look to real estate
men, undertakers, hairdressers, and even barbers, for economic
leadership, but in these days of high specialization we must have
bankers to organize banks, editors to edit papers, reporters to
write news articles. To run a daily paper we must be able to vie
with the great metropolitan dailies in point of capital, organization
and literary efficiency
It was said in a recent investigation "Negro newspapers
are published weekly because they cannot compete with
the daily papers in providing any part of the public with
AS from day to day." 1 It must be allowed, however,
1 Unpublished notes, Chicago Commission on Race Relations.
6 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
that the two bulletins printed in Washington and Rich-
mond seem to fill a special place. The large, one-page
sheet can be posted on the wall, in a barber-shop for
example, where individual reading may be followed by
group discussion.
How far does the Negro press really represent the
race? This depends upon the response the printed
page receives and is first of all a matter of circulation.
There are difficulties, as will easily appear, in reaching a
very satisfactory knowledge of this subject. Circulation
means different things to different editors. There is a
feeling that the paper reaches many more people than its
subscribers, and this makes one editor say, "Its circula-
tion, based on 1,000 readers to every 100 copies of the
paper, is a fraction over 50,000. " x Only four papers in
Ayer and Son's Newspaper Directory, out of a total of
217 listed for Negroes, make sworn statements of circula-
tion. Foremost of these is the Afro- American of Bal-
timore with 18,916. Estimates generally furnished for
advertising purposes suggest revision downward. 2 The
two largest circulations are those of the Crisis, which
represents the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People, and the Chicago Defender, a news
weekly. The former averaged 62,417 copies monthly
during 1920^ The latter has been said to have sold
more than 150,000 copies an issue. 4 On the basis of all
attainable information, one may say that the combined
1 Personal letter.
* Two series of estimates of this sort have been consulted.
s Eleventh Annual Report, N.A.A.C.P., January, 1921, New York.
* Both these periodicals sold more copies before the advance in paper
and labor caused the price to be raised.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE
circulation of Negro periodicals in the United States is
probably over a million. 1
But the actual number of readers of the papers is no
doubt far in excess of this figure. As long ago as 1905,
L. M. Hershaw, writing in Charities said: " It is a diffi-
cult matter to find a Negro who can read, who does not
read one or more of these race papers. He may not
always be a subscriber, but failing in this he has an
unfailing faculty of borrowing his neighbors' papers." 3
How the paper is passed from hand to hand, especially in
the South, is emphasized by a communication received
by the Chicago Enterprise. A copy of that journal, so
thumbed and worn as to be scarcely recognizable even
to its publishers, was returned as a sample for a new
duplicate copy desired by the writer of the letter. A
white man in a Virginia town, although wishing to get
copies of Negro newspapers, does not attempt to find any
among the local colored people, who are too busy borrow-
ing and lending to have any papers to spare. If, as cer-
tain white people in Louisiana believe, the Negro wishes
to keep the white man from reading his papers, whatever
the ulterior motive, there is evidence of a very lively
appreciation of their value on the part of the Negro him-
self. It is a common custom for a group to listen as
someone reads the paper aloud. At about the time
Hershaw wrote, an observer in the far South saw the
Freeman of Indianapolis draw a circle of auditors in a
small- town barber-shop soon after the paper arrived on
1 There are various items on which to ground this estimate, some
of them statements from individual publishers, some of them suggestions
of persons who have seen presses in operation.
' Vol. XV, No. i, p. 67, "The Negro Press in America."
8 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
the train. An audience of this sort can still be quickly
obtained in Georgia.
There are other indications of an interest in their
press on the part of the rank and file of Negroes. Some
may be readers of the paper and yet be very slightly
blessed with education. Letters come into the news-
paper offices so poorly spelled and written that they are
hard to interpret, yet they show how greatly impressed
the writers are with the possibilities of publicity. The
following is better written than many:
I am this day writing you a few lines of business. As I was
looking over the Chicago Whip. And Saw your warning to the
Colored race to beware of March, beware of Ides. Why yes I Say
So my Self, because I have never seen any good that our race has
every received from they White Brothers yet. And I am 44 years
of age. if our race dont look for they own Selves, and stays ask-
ing White mens to do this and the other for them. Why we Will
always be the White mens cows tail to keep the flies of him. or
I might say into another place. We are his Bull dog. he will
keep our race tied down with a Slavery Chain in close you
will find 75C. for your Chicago Whip for three months
The degree of literacy in letters which appear in print in
the columns is, of course, not discernible. But that all
such represent different types of readers among the popu-
lation is clear. The next two are found in the Hephzibah
Herald (Hearne, Texas, February 5, 1921) a paper that
stresses the religious motive. First a glowing personal
tribute :
Dear Editor and Saints and Readers of the Hephzibah Herald.
Greetings in Jesus' dear sweet name. Love, joy and peace be mul-
tiplied unto you I want to tell you all how I was healed.
I came home from church with a severe earache in both ears, and
I suffered severely, and I took one of the Hephzibah Herald and
placed it under my head and fell fast asleep. I did not know when
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 9
the misery left. Children this is a great Savior, bless his dear
name I thank God for this paper and for the Editor a
real man of God.
The second is from the agent-reporter:
Dear Editor. After reading and distributing a number of your
wonderful papers I find it greatly appreciated and highly praised
throughout our city
Our readers and subscribers are growing daily. Enclosed
please find remittance for papers sold. Please send me a good sup-
ply each week.
Here is the reaction of a West India girl to the Negro
World of New York (September u, 1920):
KEY WEST, FLA., Sept. 2. When Mrs. Williams, a white
woman of this city, imported Rebecca Hall, a 1 6-year-old Jamaica
girl, from Panama, she had no idea that she was bringing to the
Negroes of Key West such an able orator and splendid fighter for
the right of self-determination among Negroes. But she leaint
what she was up against last Friday when she ordered her domestic
to throw away a copy of the Negro World, which she happened to be
reading. ''Throw away the darned paper, and never let me see
you reading it again!" "Throw away this paper? You make
me laugh, ma'am," replied the young lady from Jamaica. "This
paper is worth more to me than all the jobs you can give me. If
I am to go I shall go with this paper, and if I am to stay I '11 stay
with it."
More often, of course, the letters received are of a
commonplace nature, but they all bespeak a peculiar
interest and pride in the press. This is from Kentucky
(New York Age, February 5, 1921):
Find enclosed postofnce money order for $2. Please enter my
subscription for one year. I feel that this is the only source from
which we can learn of what good Negroes are doing. The white
press just will not publish anything good of us. All we can see
from their papers is the bad side.
10 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Another testimonial and one that seems to represent
a different type of reader comes from Florida.
A lady whom I have known since childhood and lives at the
Chicago Beach Hotel told me that she and her husband, who is a
prominent man here, had a houseboat in Florida upon which they
had a colored woman as cook a woman who, as she said, had a
wonderful fund of common sense. This woman had been a sub-
scriber to the Defender almost since its beginning, and this
white lady said she used to go out and talk to this woman and she
found she too was a reader of the Defender. The white woman
said, "To you what is the worst thing in your life?" And this
woman answered, "To us the worst thing in our lives is that all
hope for advancement seems cut out; that is, our general environ-
ment and atmosphere is such that there is no hope for advancement
in the future." And this lady said to the cook, "What is the best
thing that comes into your life ? " The woman told her that the
best thing that came into her life was the Chicago Defender*
It is doubtless on general indications of this sort that
the statement above is based, that every Negro who can
read does read a race paper. It is a statement, indeed,
that is made freely by leading Negroes. Charles S.
Johnson, 2 who conducted investigations in Mississippi,
Alabama, and Louisiana in connection with the Carnegie
Endowment study of Negro migration during the war, 3
asserts most emphatically that this is true. Colored
people of the South, when interviewed as individuals, say
that the race papers are known in their communities,
that local sheets sometimes have a very limited range,
1 Unpublished notes, Chicago Commission on Race Relations.
3 Now Director of Research and Investigation, National Urban
League, New York.
3 See Emmett J. Scott, Negro Migration During the War, Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, Division of Economics and History,
New York, 1920.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE n
but certain northern papers are very widely read. The
quickest replies to inquiries come from those who know
the cities. One man 1 instanced the advertisement of a
labor organization inserted in a northern paper which
brought a large number of replies from very small towns
and villages in the South. True, many of the papers
cover a small area, as is evidenced by the figures for circu-
lation reported to the writer, which in some cases do not
exceed 3,500 and are sometimes quoted as low as 1,000.
There is even heard a note like this, the complaint of an
editor whose paper has only a few hundred subscribers:
"Some of my own race don't read any newspapers I am
very sorry to say, and are not interested in any uplift/'
The Houston Informer also, May 28, 1921, says: "And yet
we have some individuals within our race who boast that
they do not read colored newspapers, but in the same
breath tell you that they subscribe and pay for white
newspapers. Let us hope that these racial impedimenta
will stop fattening frogs for snakes! " It is probable that
race members who do not read their own papers would not
be so excoriated if their cases were not regarded as
exceptional.
Curiously enough, it seems that the two assertions
often made by colored newspaper men are consistent with
each other: (i) that the entire literate portion of the race
reads newspapers; and (2) that each paper sold has an
average of five readers. The figures given out by the
Census Bureau show that, in 1920, there were 6,211,062
Negroes over ten years of age who could read and write.
At the rate of one copy to five readers a total circulation
1 Robert L. Mays, president, Railway Men's International Benevo-
lent Industrial Association.
12 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
of a million and a quarter would be enough for all. A
speculation suggests itself as to how far the drop in the
percentage of illiteracy from 30.4 in 1910 to 22.9 in 1920
is due to the spread of newspaper circulation.
The amount of response in the cities of the North-
including Baltimore and Washington can be estimated
by the degree of competition existing among the papers
that bid for the support of these populations. 1 Balti-
more, with 106,390 Negroes, has the Afro-American, a
paper with thirty years of history behind it and a
sworn circulation approaching 20,000. There are six
other publications in the city, including one weekly.
The presence of papers from other large centers must of
course be taken into consideration throughout the East.
Washington, with 109,976 Negroes, has three weeklies
and one daily. The keenness of the competition there
is well set off by a bit of editorial writing, evidently from
the pen of W. Calvin Chase, in the Bee (November 20,
1920).
The Bee does not have to write up minutes and desecrate the
Sabbath by selling them in the churches. The Bee does not
attempt to make statesmen out of scavengers, bankers out of crap-
shooters, or editors out of fish-mongers.
The Bee has always stood on its merits and has braved storms
and lightning The Bee will deposit $50 in the hands of
any reputable citizen, if any of its competitors can show a bona
fide subscription list of 1,000 Odd Fellows Journal not included
in this offer. That journal has a bona fide circulation
This offer holds good for thirty days. The Bee wants a bona
fide subscription list, and not a list of persons who are reading the
paper without pay.
1 Special bulletins and press announcements issued in 1920 and 1921
by the Census Bureau, Washington, are the basis for the statistics given
here.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 13
Philadelphia, with a Negro population of 134,000,
supports fifteen periodicals, eight of these being weekly.
New York, where there are now 153,088 colored people,
has seventeen, among which are the well-known New
York Age, the Amsterdam News, the New York News,
Marcus Garvey's Negro World, the Crisis, the Mes-
senger, and the Crusader. In Indianapolis five weeklies
compete among 34,690 people. The Bystander, Des
Moines, counts its local population as 10,000 and has
3,000 or more on its subscription list, according to the
statement of its editor. Chicago, with almost 110,000
Negroes, buys from its news-stands such papers as come
from New York and Indianapolis, besides the white
dailies. The Messenger, of New York, is sold by local
agent. In addition there are fifteen publications printed
in Chicago itself, five of these being news weeklies.
According to the best estimate the writer can make, the
Defender, the Whip, and the Enterprise together sell more
than 25,000 copies in the city each week.
Each of these thriving urban districts reflects its
image week by week in its local press. The very exist-
ence of newspapers in such numbers is significant of
what is going on in the whole social background. The
development is rather uneven. Localities that in the
past have had a strong nucleus of free Negroes are likely
to be the strong centers of the press today. In the North
and along the border, conditions have been most favor-
able. New Orleans, on the other hand, has over 100,000
of the race, and yet peculiar conditions there apparently
do not allow the city to develop strong secular weeklies.
But generally speaking the newspaper is an adjunct of
city life, furnishing the requisite number of secondary
14 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
social contacts. In the city one must be able to read
constantly. And of late years the growth of Negro
journalism has been only a normal element in the city-
ward migration of the people. Even in the efforts made
by city papers to increase their circulation there is a
rather significant reflection of Negro life. The Louis-
ville News, offering $3,000 in prizes for subscriptions,
included an automobile. 1 The New York News 2 and
the Chicago Enterprise have had beautiful-girl contests.
The Progressive Citizen of Texarkana 3 offered "a Tailor-
Made Suit! a pair of Edwin Clapp Shoes! a J. B. Stet-
son Hat! a Liberal Purse of Money!" as inducements
these to be presented to the men chosen as the most
"popular ministers 5,ooo subscribers in ninety
days is our slogan."
Negro editors have noticed that the last decade has
shown three tendencies: (i) a drift to the cities, acceler-
ated, of course, by the industrial activity of war time;
(2) the general tendency to go north, culminating in
1916 and 1917; and (3) some movement from the North
and West to the South, whether this be dated earlier or
later than 1916. The second of these movements is well
known. Of the first the Chicago Broad Ax (February 5,
1921) says: " Figures so far available show a movement
of the Negroes to the large industrial towns in every
state and away from the smaller cities and agricultural
districts." The Washington Colored American (Decem-
ber 19, 1921) reports, on the basis of a recent census
bulletin, that 780,794 Negroes who were born in the
South were found living in the North and West in 1920,
and 47,223, born in the latter regions, were found living
1 Issue of February 19, 1921. Several others are using the plan.
3 February, 10, 1921. * February 19, 1921.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 15
in the South in the same year. Surely the outstanding
fact here is movement or migration, indicating less and
less attachment to the soil, more economic freedom, more
restlessness, more adventure. The spread of newspaper
circulation is a part of this whole trend.
It is not surprising, then, to find that many an active
northern paper has of late been making a stir in the
South. The New York Age, the Crisis, and the Chicago
Defender have gained largely there during this period,
although some particularly outspoken southern papers
have been noted also. The Defender sells over two-
thirds of its issue outside of Chicago. 1 The Chicago
Whip, a more recent arrival, has been competing for the
southern reader. Its sworn statement to the local post-
office counts 8,000 copies as going into the fifth "zone,"
most of these being destined for the far South. Referring
to the former paper, R. H. Lea veil writes: 2
The northern Negro press has also had access through the
mails or the express companies to the towns of Mississippi.
Notably a weekly published in Chicago This paper has
a large southern circulation. Within a fortnight after some
"booster" articles on northern conditions appearing in this sheet
last spring, a Negro welfare agency received from its readers 940
letters from Negroes desiring to leave the South. Of these, 520
were analyzed and the distribution by states noted. The record
follows:
Louisiana.. 85
Mississippi. . 87
Alabama . . . . 64
Georgia. . . . . 102
Florida . 79
Scattering. .103
520
1 Statement made before Chicago Commission on Race Relations.
* Negro Migration in 1916-17, U.S. Department of Labor, Division
of Negro Economics, 1919, Washington, pp. 29, 30.
16 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Lea veil also speaks of seeing, in Mississippi, Negro papers
published in New York, Washington, and Indianapolis.
The geographical distance covered by a Negro period-
ical is often referred to with satisfaction by the publisher.
Editor King, of the Southwestern Christian Advocate, New
Orleans, says: "This paper serves the entire Negro con-
stituency of the 350,000 members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church." The Crusader writes:
The Crusader serves .... the colored people of the world.
It circulates in nearly every big town of the U.S., and in many rural
communities. It has circulation in the West Indies and Panama,
in South America, and in the coastal districts of West, East and
South Africa, penetrating as far as Kano on the Nigerian railway,
as far as Coquithatville on the Congo river, and in South Africa
as far as Pretoria.
Indeed a reader in Sierra Leone writes to the Negro
World (March 26, 1921): "We have been reading the
Negro World for about two years. We have been reading
other Negro papers, such as the New York Age, the
Washington Bee, the Crisis, the Colored American, the
Liberian West Africa, the Liberian Register" The New
York Age (February 5, 1921) also prints a letter from a
reader in Nicaragua. And the Star of Zion speaks of
reaching Central and South America, Africa, and Europe. 1
Evidently this means a network of influences tending to
bind together the Negroes of a much larger world than
the United States alone.
The papers that remain within the country are
largely distributed in the mails. What can easily be
noted is the amount of space the newspaper gives to out-
1 The writer has letters from this and other papers substantiating
these statements.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 17
of-town items. The presence of this news means readers
in the places from which it comes. By simply counting
the number of localities thus represented, in a few papers
taken almost at random, the following number of out-of-
town destinations may be noted:
Pike County (Ala.) News 5
Royal Messenger (Helena) 6
Savannah Tribune 8
Guardian (Boston) 12
Norfolk Journal and Guide 13
St. Louis Argus 13
Black Dispatch (Okla. City) 14
New York Age 15
Philadelphia Tribune 26
Baltimore Afro-American 27
Dallas Express 28
Chicago Defender 71
In order to extend out-of-town business, periodicals
sometimes have traveling agents, or "field editors."
The Tulsa Star (May 14, 1921) has this note:
Robert D. Durr, Secretary of the Des Moines Negro Business
League and Traveling Editor and Advertising Manager of the
Bystander will leave Des Moines, Iowa, May 6, for a speaking tour
through eastern Iowa and Illinois, and then south into Mississippi,
Tennessee and other southern cities.
Dublin 's Weekly Bulletin of Memphis, a new journal,
apparently still building its circulation, has a report
(June 25, 1921) by its "field editor from points in Missis-
sippi and Tennessee." Thus, many papers which depend
first of all on some local clientele attempt to push out
farther and farther from home and cover as wide a field
as possible. 1 It is impossible to measure the amount of
'The Indianapolis Recorder asserts (June 18, 1921) that it reaches
more than 100 cities and towns in Indiana alone.
i8 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
overlapping as each tries to serve the whole far-scattered
group.
To the degree in which the facts above stated will
seem typical and cogent, one can decide to follow Robert
T. Kerlin in his assertion:
The colored people of America are going to. their own papers
in these days for the news and for their guidance in thinking
Wherever in all the land there is a considerable Negro population
there is a Negro newspaper
As for the prosperity of these periodicals, there is abundant
evidence. As for their influence the evidence is no less. The
Negro seems to have newly discovered his fourth estate, to have
realized the extraordinary power of his press. Mighty as the pul-
pit has been with him, the press now seems to be foremost. It is
freer than the pulpit, and there is a peculiar authority in printer's
ink. His newspaper is the voice of the Negro. 1
^ j*
An indirect but valuable criterion of the influence the
Negro press is exerting is the attitude taken by members
of the white group. Sometimes this is one of startled
curiosity, as is shown by the Mountain Eagle of Birming-
ham, which prints a double column under the head:
"Chicago Defender a Negro Newspaper Widely Circulated"
Occasionally a white editor will essay an argument with a
colored editor. Sometimes a Negro editorial will be
quoted by a white man's paper, as in the case of "Who's
Afraid ? " a challenge flung out by the Chicago Whip and
printed entire by the Chicago Tribune under the caption,
"Editorial of the Day." Some publishers write that the
white press is friendly and notices favorably the occa-
sional matter it chooses for comment. The New York
Age gives space (November 20, 1920) to a letter of com-
mendation received by Editor Fred Moore from Chair-
1 The Voice of the Negro, 1919, New York, 1920, p. ix.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 19
man Will Hays, of the Republican National Committee,
for the former's successful publicity work in the presi-
dential campaign of 1920. Of course there were several
other colored newspapers so employed. In addition to
these stray indications of interest, the Annual of the
Associated Negro Press mentions the fact that many
white dailies have asked for news service, and prints
letters of commendation from the New York World, the
Cincinnati Times-Star, the New Orleans Times-Picayune,
and the Detroit Free Press. The Wilmington Advocate
writes:
We cover the state of Delaware like a blanket and there is not
a town in the state in which we do not circulate. Our paper is
subscribed to by all classes of our people and by a considerable
number of Caucasians. To indicate the interest Caucasians have
in the Advocate would say that General Coleman du Pont subscribes
to two copies each week To no publisher could the white
press in Wilmington be more kind than to us The Sun-
day Star quotes us editorially nearly every week.
But the attitude of direct hostility sometimes ex-
hibited toward the Negro newspaper speaks still more
impressively of the influence attributed to it by the
whites.
How important the Negro press has been in the process of the
Negro's becoming politically articulate can be measured by the
statements of white men. Magazines like the Crisis and Chal-
lenge, newspapers like the Defender, are cordially execrated among
white men in the South. An article in the Defender was held
responsible for the riot in Longview, Texas. Governor Charles
B rough of Arkansas said he believed the Crisis and Defender were
responsible for the Arkansas riots and announced his intention of
asking the Postmaster-General to exclude them from the mails. 1
1 1 1. J. Seligman The Negro Faces America, New York, 1920, p. 288.
20 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
There are several petty persecutions, some very vio-
lent attacks, and attempts to change the paper's expres-
sion by means of manipulating advertising. Certain
towns have proscribed the buying, selling, or circulat-
ing of these race papers. The Philadelphia American
(February 19, 1921) has this to exhibit as evidence of
the importance white people attach to the Negro news-
paper:
ATHENS, GA., Feb. 17. John Lee Eberhardt, your staff cor-
respondent here, was taken from the local jail and burned at the
stake. Eberhardt had been arrested early yesterday as a suspect
in the murder of a white woman by name of Lee.
It is believed by many here that advantage was taken of the
situation to "get" Eberhardt for circulating the Philadelphia
American. He had been warned on several occasions. More than
five thousand took part in the lynching.
The Richmond (Indiana) Blade, a paper whose policy
it is "to serve the people of the local community and to
look out for their interests first," one that lives quietly
enough in the " Quaker City" of Indiana was taken very
seriously by white people in Sylvester, Georgia. There
Macie Giddens was said to have been tried in a court
which he was not allowed to attend until sentence was
ready. Replying to the letter written from Georgia, the
Richmond Blade gave vent to this editorial (April 1,1912):
A brother writes to us from Sylvester, Ga., the home of Macie
Giddens, and tells us in plain words that he does not like the letter
that appeared hi last week 's Blade and warns us that if we do not
stop "lying" on the south, we are liable to "git" a sample of the
same thing Macie Giddens is going to "git" April 8th.
For the information of our "writin" friend in Sylvester, we
beg to say that we live in the state of Indiana, thank goodness, in
the city of Richmond (none better) on Boyer street, it 's easy to
find. Here we are.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE
Come and see us. We believe in the law, and expect the law
to protect us. But let us also say this. What little "raisin"
we got, we got in the state of Kentucky fourteen miles from the
railroad, and six miles from the big road. We used to be on very
friendly terms with the old Kentucky Winchester. We have
brought down many a "flyin" hawk and crow have shot many a
rabbit through the crack of rail fences, and, although sometimes
we wear glasses, a rifle stock feels good in our hand yet. We have
been our man since the age of twelve, and of course, have had to
"tect" ourselves quite often. Here we are
Naturally one expects this hostile attitude to be
shown toward the Chicago Defender. The following has
been transcribed from a facsimile of the original. It was
written from Arkansas, where in the fall of 1919 there
was a so-called riot of the blacks, but, according to the
Negro version, the whites attempted a general massacre
of the other race. The letter runs:
You are agitating a proposition through your paper which is
causing some of your good Bur heads to be killed and the end is not
in sight yet, but you have not got since enough to see it, go on.
You could be of assistance to your people if you would advise
them to be real niggers instead of fools. Our Governor and also
the mayor of Elaine has been receiving letters of threats and ect
Gov. Allen of Kansas has been paid the price for Hill and you
think you have won but the price is being paid still, and will con-
tinue as long as you Bur heads keep this up propaganda up. We
are still in the saddle and some of your good niggers are paying
the price of your ignorance go on nigger and keep this up.
This bitter hostility must mean that the white man fears/
the influence of the Negro press on the Negroes them-2>
selves. In 1919 the same fear seems to have existed in
the federal Department of Justice when the attorney-
general included the Negro magazines and newspapers
in his investigations. " Neither is the influence of the
22 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Negro press in general to be reckoned with lightly," says
the report to the Senate. 1
It is difficult to compare the press of the Negro group
in any quantitative way with the same institution among
other racial groups in the United States. There are
indeed impressive achievements of this sort to be credited
to our foreign-language press. These papers are read by
people who do not habitually talk English. On these
they really depend for their news and their advertising.
The great dailies printed in English scarcely compete in
this field. The Negro on the other hand is using the
culture and language of English-speaking people. He
reads his own paper and the white man's paper too. To
be sure the Italians in the United States seem to have a
newspaper circulation of approximately one-fifth their
population, the Poles about one-third. 2 In these cases
we have a healthier situation in that a large total circula-
tion is divided among fewer papers. The Polish papers
seem to reach a circulation in the neighborhood of a
million about the figure estimated for the Negroes but
print for this only about eighty papers as against the 492
of the latter. The contrast appears unfavorable to the
Negroes. But it is to be remembered that the foreign-
language groups are large, compact masses of city-
dwellers, while the colored people are distributed over a
wide geographical area, not to mention the millions who
live in poverty, rural isolation, and illiteracy. The
1 Investigation Activities of the Department of Justice, Sixty-sixth
Congress, First Session, Sen. Doc. 153, Washington, 1919, p. 162.
3 Figures taken from N. W. Ayer and Son's Newspaper Annual, etc.,
1921, and estimate of populations (including, of course, more than those
rated "foreign-bora" in the census) in R. E. Park and H. A. Miller, Old
World Traits Transplanted, New York, 1921, p. 225.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 23
Negroes themselves are not satisfied with the progress
their press has made to date.
With twelve millions of people within our race, it works out
that we have only one publication for every 25,000. Making a
fifty per cent reduction for illiteracy, we find that we have only
one publication for every 12,500 readers.
This appalling state of facts proves to every open thinker that
every colored newspaper should be a medium of high intelligence
with diffused information on all matters that concern the race. 1
When we compare the Negro newspaper with that of
some other minority groups, the result is more favorable.
Such groups often seize eagerly upon the press as a
weapon in their struggle for recognition. It is, however,
a commonplace that no minority group can maintain a
press unless it is subsidized. Of the deficits universally
expected one has an easy illustration to hand in Upton
Sinclair's account of the New York Call.
I know few more heroic stories than the twenty-year struggle
to establish and maintain the "New York Call." .... At last
they managed to raise funds to start a daily, and then for ten years
it was an endless struggle with debt and starvation. It was a
lucky week when the "New York Call" had money enough to pay
its printing force; the reporters and editors would sometimes have
to wait for months.
The same attempt was made in Chicago, and there bad
management and factional quarrels brought a disastrous fail-
ure 3
Another example can be found in the following editorial
utterance of Solidarity, the organ of the I.W.W., pub-
lished in Chicago (January n, 1921):
Members of the I.W.W., who have had access to the financial
report of the General Office, have known for some time that nearly
1 Chicago Whip, January 15, 1921.
The Brass Check, Pasadena, 1920, p. 411.
24 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
t+^S
all our publications have for several years been running on a
deficit basis
Up to the present, the General Office has been meeting this
deficit, and that of the other publications But conditions
just now make it imperative that we try to relieve the General
Office of this extra draft on its finances
If we claim the Negroes as a minority group in which
the press is succeeding without being subsidized, it may
be pointed out in reply that the Negro press is not all
propaganda: lit has a substantial basis in the everyday
sort of news and advertising business on which the
normal newspaper depends. Still there is enough of
'minority insurgency about it, along with the usual racial
handicaps, to render its degree of success surprising.
The Crww, beginning with an organization behind it, was
after five years self-supporting and out of debt. True
there has been a considerable mortality rate. Eighty-
four papers seem to have gone out of existence since their
listing in the Negro Year Book (1918-19). In addition
we may consult the enumeration of periodicals obtained
with some care in 1910 by the Atlanta University Negro
Conference. At that time there were found to be 288
Negro periodicals, 1 163 of which are absent from the list
in 1921. Some of these 163 may have merely passed
into new hands and been given new titles in cases that
cannot be traced. On the other hand the same set of
figures tells of 105 periodicals that have been in existence
since 1910 or earlier and are still doing business. More
striking still, fifty-nine of these papers have achieved
the success of a career reaching back to 1900 or farther.
1 W. E. B. Du Bois, ed., Efforts for Social Betterment among Negro
Americans, "Atlanta University Publications," No. 14, Atlanta, 1909,
pp. 114 ff. Correction is made for two papers repeated on this list.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 25
Eight of them date from some time earlier than 1880,
seven being religious papers. This may be taken as a
fair measure of economic success.
Glimpses of the struggle for existence show through
the columns occasionally. 1
We are appealing to your race pride, to your civic pride, and
to the pride that you have as individuals, to foster, maintain and
support this paper. You must do it. It is your organ A
dog that will not wag his own tail is a very sorry cur.
So many papers have failed here in the last twenty years that
we have permitted subscribers to owe us, in order to secure their con-
fidence in the stability of "The Union" which has ever been
Cincinnati's reliable race paper. Thousands have paid us, but
our list of "Dead Ones" will show quite a number who have
stung us severely We are compelled to adopt business
methods! ....
"The Union," 16 years old, is your own home town paper!
Your cooperation and influence will help it grow. Its success is
yours.
Our present circulation is two thousand. In our advertising
columns we have never sold one inch of space to a saloon for our
policy from the start was only to advertise with legitimate enter-
prises.
Many of wealthiest and most influential citizens readers.
Among them are capitalists, millionaires, Governors, United States
Ltors and Congressmen. Mini-ti-r>. doctors, and educators.
Fill out the blank below. Help us go over the top.
;is elected by the grand lodge of Good Samaritans and
Daughters of Samaria, with not a dollar to begin with My
former contemporaries did not care to sacrifice their earnings, hence
they failed each one of them. We began 1909 with one subscriber,
and now we have about 1,000 or more Yours for suc-
cess. . .
1 Some of the quotations which follow are from letters to this \\
26 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
The Informer has enjoyed pretty fair sailing upon the sea of
journalism, despite the efforts of several bodies of critics to destroy
the paper by insisting upon white merchants withdrawing their
ads This was done thrice but today the paper
boasts of more paying advertising than any similar journal in
America
Our present circulation, in less than two years' time, is in
excess of the 14,500 mark and it is still growing by leaps and
bounds.
The St. Louis Argus is published by the St. Louis Argus Pub.
Co. (a corporation). $20,000 capital stock. Publishes weekly in
own shop. Circulation 22,500
The Bulletin owns its own plant, giving employment to nine
men and women daily. Has a circulation of over six thousand.
Started from the ground with little encouragement and no capi-
tal '
As several references have been made to the Chicago
Defender, it is worth while to instance its economic suc-
cess. A pamphlet issued about the time the paper went
into its new building, which it owns entire with equip-
ment, describes the mechanical possessions.
Four linotype machines, each one equipped with two maga-
zines The stereotype department is equipped with the
most modern machinery The press is a 3 2 -page and color
machine, made by the celebrated Goss Printing Press Company
of Chicago, 111 It prints, folds and counts the papers all
in one operation at a speed of 3 5,000 copies per hour
Forty tons of print paper are used for each edition
Five hundred and twenty-eight mailing sacks are used weekly for
the transportation of the Chicago Defender to the post-office
Vying with the Defender now is the Florida Sentinel with
its new twenty-thousand dollar equipment at Jacksonville.
1 From the Tampa Bulletin, Tampa, Florida.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 27
i
To own and operate its plant is the great ambition of j
the Negro periodical. At least thirty-six papers are
doing this. The African Methodist Episcopal Church
publishes the Christian Recorder in its own plant at Phila-
delphia, putting out other publications at Nashville.
The Colored Methodist Church owns and publishes both
at Jackson, Tennessee, and at Nashville; the African
Methodist Zion Church owns a plant at Charlotte, North
Carolina; and the Baptists have a very imposing printing
and publishing concern that occupies half a business
block in Nashville. Of this last a favorite talking-point
is the fact that it is run and manned entirely by Negroes.
The National Baptist Publishing Board's literature is pro-
duced from printer's devil to editor, even on the printing presses,
by Negroes, and is therefore, head and shoulders above any other
literature from this particular denomination. 1
An attitude of "pardonable pride" like this is often in
evidence. The publisher of the Indianapolis Recorder
writes of his "cy Under press, .... linotype machine
and all necessary machinery for the work," and speaks
of giving employment to eight people, "all of the race."
An advertisement of "The Pushkin Printing and Pub-
lishing Company, Incorporated," a $25,000 corporation
organized in New York City to print colored newspapers,
is in keeping with the same widespread attitude. 2 The
sentiment involved is well indicated by the hero-worship
surrounding the name of the great Russian poet, Pushkin,
who had a Negro strain in his ancestry.
Where does the Negro newspaper get its news?
There are reports from local churches and lodges, personal
1 Kansas City Sun, April 2, 1921.
J Brooklyn and Long Island Informer, January 18, 1921.
28 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
items, letters from correspondents out of town, occasional
letters sent in by interested parties after some exciting
event, and contributions from occasional visitors. The
papers also receive the service of a clipping bureau, and
of course they clip from each other and from white news-
papers. Beside this there are some organized services
such as are referred to in this announcement from the
Western World Reporter, Memphis (June 4, 1921):
The Western World can now guarantee to its many thousands
of readers the best there is in news service from all sections of the
country. With our special system of news gathering, the Recip-
rocal News Service of the National Negro Press Association,
Nashville, the Associated Negro Press Service, Chicago, the
Capital News Service and the Negro Press Syndicate, Washington,
and our N.A.A.C.P. and Exchange News Service of New York and
Boston, enables us to>give to you, dear reader, all there is in general
race news and happenings throughout the entire country. Send
on your order now and keep posted
There is also a Tuskegee Institute Press Service and
one connected with Hampton Institute, this latter being
directed by a white man, William Anthony Aery.
The Associated Negro Press was formed in 1919, with
Nahum D. Brascher as editor-in-chief and Claude A.
Barnett as director.
The Associated Negro Press is an organization of affiliated news-
papers. It disseminates news to the papers comprising its mem-
bership, We gather, from the membership editors and through
correspondents located throughout the country, happenings of
every description of interest to the race which are national in scope.
We act as a clearing house for the hundred and more papers which
we serve.
Copy sent out by this Press contains both news and
editorial matter. For instance, during the opening of
the administration of President Harding, N. D. Brascher
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 29
spent several weeks at Washington and sent in not only
reports of what was going on but column-long articles
commenting on the general state of political affairs.
W. H. A. Moore contributes other editorial matter
under the caption "Current and Otherwise." President
Harding wrote under date of March 12, 1921:
In the last year I have had some opportunity to learn of the
work of the Associated Negro Press, and .... it has seemed to
me to be doing a useful work in the direction of establishing a
sound understanding and really enlightened attitude of mind
toward the race problem in this country
The National Negro Press Association is primarily a
means of getting colored newspaper men in touch with
one another. Henry A. Boyd, editor of the Nashville
Globe, is the corresponding secretary, and J. R. B.
Whitney, in New York City, the advertising manager.
According to Article 2 of the Constitution :
Its object shall be the moral, material and general betterment
of the Negro press of the United States and the world, to bring
the press and people into closer communion, and to increase the
influence of the Negro newspaper as an agency for the advancement
of the Negro millions on American soil. 1
The Association met in Washington in the first week of
March, 1921, a week felt to be significant for the nation-
wide body of Negro people, in that a Republican admin-
istration seemed to promise a new era for the oppressed.
As reported in the Negro World of April 2 :
While the membership of the organization numbers over one
hundred twenty, .... sixty-eight publications answered present
to the roll-call. Among the items of interest taken up by the
association were:
i. The perfection of their National Negro Press Service news,
which is an improvement over tin- reciprocal news service and
which will augment the inner circle telegraph service.
1 Copy of this in Proceedings, Sessions of 1917-19, NashvilK .
30 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
2. The enlargement of the advertising office located at 489
Fifth Avenue, and in charge of J. R. B. Whitney.
3. The appointment of standing committees
There are also such bodies as the Manhattan Newspaper
Men 's Association and a National Capital Press Associa-
tion, local gatherings of the newspaper men of a city. 1
These indications of a growing group sense among the
writers and publishers of Negro periodicals probably point
also to a real esprit de corps. All this reacts again to
enhance the importance of the press as an institution in
the view of editors on the one hand and the readers on
the other. There is a mixture of self-consciousness, self-
criticism, and professional idealism in the way the news-
paper talks about itself.
The value of our newspapers in the course of our race progress
can hardly be estimated. They don 't always come out on time,
they are not always brim full of news, and they don 't always wield
the best of influence in times of heated excitement. But in spite
of that they are generally there with the goods and usually furnish
the whistle for the race to keep up its courage. They contend for
that which is right for the race and their voice is usually heard
whether everybody says so or not. The influence of the Negro
newspaper is saying something and doing something for the most
ignorant Negro in the fartherest [sic] off backwoods. But the
tragedy of Negro journalism lies in the fact that it is more often
found casting pearls before swine The Negro race ought
to wake up and give the most liberal sort of support to the Negro
press. 2
So much for a statement of the volume and influence
of the Negro press in America. Many questions remain.
'See New York Amsterdam News, May 4, 1921. The New Era
(Charleston, S.C.), in issue of December 3, 1921, urges a Palmetto Press
Association for its state.
3 Baptist Vanguard, Little Rock, Arkansas, April 28, 1921.
VOLUME AND INFLUENCE 31
What lies back of the press of today ? What is its his-
tory ? Further, what are the newspapers like what is
in them ? What is their contribution to the whole prob-
lem of racial aspiration and struggle? What is the
Negro thinking? Such a study ought to shed light on
Negro life. For, as Arthur Brisbane has written:
The newspaper is not, as Schopenhauer says, "a shadow on the
wall," although many a newspaper is a mere shadow of what a
newspaper should be. A newspaper is a mirror reflecting the pub-
lic, a mirror more or less defective, but still a mirror. And the
paper that the individual holds in his hand reflects that individual
more or less accurately. 1
1 Quoted by James Melvin Lee, History of American Journalism,
Boston and New York, 1916, p. 429.
CHAPTER II
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS
Almost as far back as records go there were efforts
toward self-expression on the part of the Negro people.
Indeed, if we are willing to admit the folk-song and
spiritual, these were more than efforts. Isolated from so
much of social privilege and subjected to the place of
cogs in the economic scheme, these people yet produced
for themselves compensations that the most advanced
Negro of today still claims as distinct racial contributions.
In behalf of the spiritual, James Weldon Johnson sings:
O black and unknown bards of long ago,
How came your lips to touch the sacred fire ?
How in your darkness did you come to know
The power and beauty of the minstrel 's lyre ?
Who first from midst his bonds lifted his eyes ?
Who first from out the still watch, lone and long,
Feeling the ancient faith of prophets rise
Within his dark-kept soul burst into song ?
There is a wide, wide wonder in it all,
That from degraded rest and servile toil
The fiery spirit of the seer should call
These simple children of the sun and soil.
black slave singers, gone, forgot, unfamed,
You you alone, of all the long, long line
Of those who've sung untaught, unknown, unnamed,
Have stretched out, upward, seeking the divine. 1
1 Poem, "O Black and Unknown Bards," reprinted from Century
Magazine in the Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer, Naperville, Illinois,
1920, p. 167.
32
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 33
When and how this art form, which the Negro has so
definitely made his own, took shape, is not known,
although it is certain that as early as 1782 melodies as-
cribed to the American blacks were being printed in
Britain. 1
The eloquence of the orator, too, has long been charac-
teristic of Negroes in America. "The greatest orator I
ever heard/' said John Randolph, "was a woman. She
was a slave. She was a mother and her platform was
the auction block." With that Randolph himself imi-
tated the thrilling tones of this slave woman and said,
"There was eloquence. I have heard no man speak like
that." 2 The expressiveness of Negro preachers during
slavery has often been commented upon. Negro news-
papers today record the winning of prizes in oratory by
colored men over white contestants. How interested
these people could be during the twenties in this form
of expression is hinted in the following:
The colored boys of the town had a custom of assembling
every Sunday afternoon at a certain mineral spring in the suburbs
of the place, and discussing, in imitation of the whites, the issues of
the day. Some of them, especially the slaves of prominent men,
could repeat with exactness speeches that they had heard during
the week. The whites were often present at these meetings, and
the master of a bright slave boy would feel a pride in the prowess
of his negro and encourage him to improve. At last, however, they
1C to see that the effect of this was to turn the minds of the
slaves toward freedom and they forbade the meetings.*
1 Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (J. A. F. Maitland),
UI (New York, 1907), 361.
Booker T. Washington, The Story of the Negro, I (New York, 1909),
279.
* John S. Baasett, Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina, Baltimore,
1898, p. 67.
34 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
No doubt this expressional activity with its feeling of
self -expansion would encourage the slave to "improve
his condition" in earnest.
There must eventually have been sporadic cases of
educated Negroes who wanted to write. Only a few
instances are accessible for the period before 1827. The
real herald of 'the dawn for the colored race in America
was Phillis Wheatley, whose first publication came out
in 1 770? TEree~eHitions of her poems were sold after her
death. The fact that Jefferson spoke slightingly of her
work, while Washington admired it, is not perhaps
important. She can scarcely be taken as racially
representative, having assimilated the Boston culture
to the point of imitation, and revealing more of Pope
than the American Negro. Still it is the example set by
these occasional successes that has inspired the race in
the same field of endeavor. 1
Meanwhile there was a growing number of free
Negroes in the North. The Revolutionary War resulted
in a large number of manumissions. A few free Negroes
were becoming economically successful and some man-
aged to get education. From this class the impulse was
to arise which would provide political discussion and the
organization of effort, the very thing for which the press
functions. It is significant that we have the names of
leading colored men signed to several public petitions. 2
Alice Dana Adams, in a study entitled The Neglected
Period of Anti-Slavery in America (1808-1821)* says:
1 See Benjamin Brawley, The Negro in Literature and Art, New York,
1918, chap. ii.
a G. W. Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, New York,
1885, 1, 404, 462; II, 125, 126.
* Radcliffe College Monographs, No. 14, Boston, 1908, pp. 91 f .
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 35
Nominally the Negro at the North was free to express his
opinions and to labor in behalf of his race, so far as it was allowed
to any class of person. Yet their participation was small, consider-
ing their number; how small we can only understand when we
remember how low was the position actually held by the blacks,
even at the North. Few were educated sufficiently to write or
speak publicly in behalf of their people; fewer still had the money
or social position to put their sayings or writings into a form pre-
served to our day. Under the circumstances the fact that we have
any record of such Negroes is wonderful There were a few,
however, who were educated and prosperous, and whose reputation
has descended to our day. One of the best known was James
Forten, of Philadelphia. He was spoken of in 1823 as a sail maker
of good education and as prosperous in his business; he owned a
country residence and kept a carriage In 1813 he made
an appeal to the Senate of Pennsylvania against slavery, claimed
equality with the whites, and spoke of the "inalienable rights"
of the blacks.
This James Forten was chairman of the first conven-
tion of free Negroes held in Philadelphia. To William
Lloyd Garrison he was "the greatly esteemed and
venerated sailmaker of Philadelphia," who helped him
more than once to weather the financial difficulties of the
Liberator. Another man of the class just mentioned,
whose name will be found in 1827 attached to the first
Negro newspaper, was Samuel Cornish, who seems to
have lived in New York. Cornish sought to show, in an
article printed in a New York newspaper, that the blacks
were not any worse, but better, than the lower-class
whites, since many of them had education, refinement,
and wealth. What evils there were, were the results not
of emancipation, but of slavery.
In 1827, then, Samuel Cornish and John B. Russ-
wurrn put their names to the first Negro periodical,
:
36 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
called Freedom's Journal. Carter G. Woodson 1 thinks
that the general situation throughout the country at that
time was more favorable to literacy and education among
colored people than it was at the end of the period, or
about 1 86 1, following the policy of widespread repression.
There cannot be a paper without some money and some
education, and so all these early efforts were confined to
the North and the free Negro there.
Irving Garland Penn writes:
The inception of the Journal was the result of a meeting of
Messrs. Russwurm, Cornish and others at the house of M. Bostin
Crummell .... in New York, called to consider the attacks
of the local paper mentioned .... a local paper published in New
York city .... by an Afro-American-hating Jew, which made
the vilest attacks on the Afro-Americans. 3
The Negroes able to support such a paper and the white
abolitionists together were too few for its continued
success. Its name was changed to the Rights of All; in
1830 it died. Russwurm was of the educated group par
excellence, since, according to Woodson, 3 he was the first
college graduate among Negroes when he took his degree
from Bowdoin in 1828. After his journalistic experiment
he taught school in Liberia, where he published the Liberia
Herald and later became governor of Maryland at Cape
Palmas. David Walker, author of the famous "Appeal,"
also contributed to Freedom's Journal, and so did Stephen
Smith, a successful lumber merchant and agent of the
Underground Railroad. 4
1 The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, New York, 1915, p. 228.
3 The Afro-American Press and Its Editors, Springfield, Massachu-
setts, 1891, pp. 27 f.
3 Op. cit., p. 265.
* Washington, op. tit., I, 292 f.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 37
The issue of Freedom's Journal dated March 30, 1827,
has on the first page three articles. One continues the
"Memoirs of Cap. Paul Cuffee"; the second is an essay,
also "to be continued," on "People of Colour"; the third
a bit of news about a cure for drunkenness. As a sample
of the phraseology, one may quote the second article:
The law of God requires that all the provision should be made
by law which the public welfare will admit, for the protection and
improvement of colored subjects, as well as white subjects. And
this has not been done We must show that their rights are
acknowledged, their protection secured, their welfare promoted,
and that, in every particular, excepting that of involuntary servi-
tude and its necessary attendants, they stand upon the same
ground with their masters. When this is done we shall feel no
guilt upon the subject.
A temperate plea certainly. Immediate emancipation
is not mentioned here. "Righteousness exalteth a na-
tion" the motto seems to be also the keynote. But
the fight for freedom is there, too, although apparently
subdued. The Negro press, taking its start from a situa-
tion of conflict, carries through its entire history this
motive, the fight for liberation.
No Negro publication in all these ante-bellum days,
however, so stirred the public as Walker's famous
"Appeal," not a periodical but a pamphlet that appeared
in several editions. 1 In 1827 David Walker, a free Negro
from North Carolina, opened a second-hand clothing
store in Boston and began holding meetings at which he
addressed Negroes and attempted to lay plans for an
1 Alice Dana Adams, op. cit., pp. 93 f.; Williams, op. cit., II, 553;
Samuel J. May, Some Recollections of Our Antisknery Conflict, Boston,
1869, PP- *33 f-l Benjamin Brawley, A Social History of the American
Negro, New York, 1921, pp. 155 f.
38 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
insurrection of slaves. He had received some education
and had already traveled widely among the states. While
still a boy in the South he said; "If I remain in
this bloody land, I will not live long. As true as God
reigns, I will be avenged for the sorrow which my people
have suffered. This is not the place for me no, no
Go, I must!" His pamphlet was called: "Appeal, in
four articles; together with a Preamble to the Coloured
Citizens of the World, but in particular and very ex-
pressly, to those of the United States of America." The
excitement caused by Walker's exceedingly able writing
is proved by the fact that as far south as Louisiana men
were imprisoned for being in possession of the pamphlet.
The mayor of Savannah demanded that the mayor of Bos-
ton punish the author, and the latter replied expressing his
disapproval of the work. The Virginia legislature almost
passed a measure prohibiting not only seditious litera-
ture but the education of free Negroes.
Occasionally other sporadic writings by free or
escaped Negroes were issued. William Wells Brown,
who worked as a boy in Lovejoy's printing office, wrote
several books, one of them called The Black Man. Mrs.
Frances Harper, school teacher, Underground Railroad
worker, lecturer, produced both prose and poetry.
H. H. Garnett, W. C. Nell, and M. R. Delaney made
the colored race their principal theme. Most interesting of
all, perhaps, were the many personal narratives of es-
caped slaves, among the best known of which are those
of Lunsford Lane, Bishop Loguen, Solomon Northrup,
Samuel R. Ward, Sojourner Truth, Henry Box Brown,
Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, and Josiah
Henson.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 39
Including Freedom 's Journal there are twenty-four
periodicals whose names have been preserved as repre-
sentatives of the journalism engaged in by Negroes before
the Civil War. 1 Many of these appeared so seldom or
irregularly that they can scarcely be differentiated from
pamphlet literature. Perm's comment on many of them
is simply, "It enjoyed but a brief existence," or as in one
case, "It did not survive a long life." The titles are
sometimes expressive. Freedom y s Journal itself was soon
changed to the Rights of All. Others were the Mirror
of Liberty, the Elevator, the Clarion, the Genius of Freedom,
the Alienated American, the Ram's Horn, the Colored
American. The last mentioned, which existed between
1837 and 1842 in New York City, declares, "Its objects
are, .... the moral, social and political elevation and
improvement of the free colored people; and the peaceful
emancipation of the enslaved." Most of these papers
were published in New York City and state, but others
came from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and San
Francisco. Apparently the proportion of news, as com-
pared with editorial argument, must have been very
slight. It was only the anti-slavery agitation that made
the press possible to Negroes in this period.
"Of the influence of the Anti-slavery Society upon
the colored man, Maria Weston once said, it is 'church
and university, high school and common school, to all
who need real instruction and true religion. Of it what
a throng of authors, editors, lawyers, orators and accom-
plished gentlemen of color have taken their degree.'" 2
1 Excepting three titles mentioned by Washington in his Frederick
Douglass, these names are to be found in Penn's work.
'Williams, op. cit. t II, 79.
40 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
A few examples of this intelligentsia have been described
to us. Garnett, born a slave in Maryland, escaped, took
refuge with a Quaker in Pennsylvania, was put to school
in New York, ridiculed when trying to study Greek and
Latin at the age of seventeen, and mobbed in a New
Hampshire seminary. He also traveled in Great Britain
and Germany; was a missionary to Jamaica; chaplain
of colored troops during the war; and finally pastor in
New York City. Dr. James McCune Smith received his
medical training in Scotland; and on returning to
America contributed widely to newspapers and maga-
zines. James W. C. Pennington, a slave in Maryland,
learned there the trade of blacksmith. Later a Presby-
terian minister, he studied in Germany and was made
Doctor of Divinity by the University of Heidelberg.
Dr. Delaney, chairman of John Brown's famous "Chat-
ham Convention, " a physician, traveler, soldier whence
his later title, Major went with an exploring expedition
to the Niger Valley and afterward lectured in England.
The career of Frederick Douglass is well known.
Douglass has given us an insight into his motives in
establishing the North Star. He had been discouraged
from the attempt by his anti-slavery acquaintances, and
himself admitted both the failure of previous Negro
periodicals and his own lack of training for the enter-
prise. 1 But friends in England presented him with funds
for the equipment of a paper, and he began. Perhaps
this "determination to have his own way was his first
declaration of independence." 2 At any rate:
1 Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written
by Himself, etc., Hartford, Connecticut, 1882, chap, vii, and pp. 261, 262.
3 Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Philadelphia, 1907,
p. 126.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 41
I told them that perhaps the greatest hindrance to the adoption
of abolition principles by the people of the United States was the
low estimate .... placed upon the negro as a man, that because
of his assumed natural inferiority, people reconciled themselves to
his enslavement and oppression, as being inevitable if not desirable.
The grand thing to be done, therefore, was to change this estima-
tion, by disproving his inferiority and demonstrating his capacity
for a more exalted civilization than slavery and prejudice had
assigned him. In my judgment a tolerably well conducted press
in the hands of persons of the despised race, would, by calling out
and making them acquainted with their own latent powers, by /
enkindling their hope of a future, and developing their moral force,
prove a most powerful means of removing prejudice and awakening
an interest in them.
"The North Star was a large sheet, published weekly,
at a cost of $80 per week, and an average circulation of
3,000 subscribers." The change of name to Frederick
Douglass' Paper was made, he says, in order to "dis-
tinguish it from the many papers with 'Stars' in their
titles." It is difficult not to think that the change reflects
also the increasing selling value of the name of the suc-
cessful orator.
Among the losses Douglass incurred was the burning
of his house and the consequent destruction of twelve
volumes of the paper. There were obstacles to be met
in the antagonism of the citizens of Rochester. They
read in the New York Herald the suggestion that the
editor should be exiled to Canada and his presses thrown
into the lake a sentiment they eagerly absorbed for a
while. But gradually this attitude was overcome. The
greatest obstacle was the constant shortage of funds.
The "non- voting abolitionists" among whom are men-
tioned Gerrit Smith, Chief Justice Chase, Horace Mann,
Joshua Giddings, Charles Sumner, and W. H. Seward
42 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
supported Douglass until he became a "voting abolition-
ist." They then gave up their practice of holding festi-
vals and fairs to raise money. He kept his " anti-slavery
banner steadily flying/' however, until the emancipation
of the slaves and the union of the states was assured.
His especial gratitude was aroused by Mrs. Julia Griffiths
Crofts.
She came to my relief when my paper had nearly absorbed all
my means, and was heavily in debt, and when I had mortgaged my
house .... to meet current expenses; and by her energetic and
effective management, in a single year enabled me to extend the
circulation of my paper from 2,000 to 4,000 copies, pay off the debts
and lift the mortgage from my house.
In the motives leading to its establishment, in its
fight for freedom, and in its chronic financial difficulties,
Frederick Douglass 1 Paper is typical of the Negro press
as a whole. He had assistance at times from W. C. Nell
and Martin Delaney, but the success he achieved was
due to his own unusual personal powers. Samuel J.
May 1 spoke of the paper with respect, Garrison praised
it, and Edmund Quincy said its "literary and mechanical
execution would do honor to any paper, new or old,
anti-slavery or pro-slavery, in the country." 2
The one periodical to persist from this period until
our own day is the Christian Recorder. It made its
success not as propaganda but as a carrier of news and
discussion in the group that subsidized it. No paper
existed at that tune among Negroes that could succeed
as a paying proposition merely between publisher and
individual reader. Both educational and economic
advance had to come first; and when they did come the
1 Op. cit. * Washington, Frederick Douglass, pp. 125 f.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 43
denominational organs, like the Christian Recorder, were
lifted first on the wave. The African Methodist Church,
founded in 1816 by Richard Allen, in two years had
started a publishing department. But the most of the
members were in slave states where they would not be
allowed to go to school or to read books and papers.
There was consequently little published besides a hymnal.
In 1841 the New York Conference voted to start a
monthly magazine and for lack of funds this had to be-
come a quarterly. Negroes wanted to read papers even
before they could afford them, and the quarterly lived
somehow. For seven years or more it kept bringing the
conference news to the church member. Then it changed
to a weekly and in 1848 it became the Christian Herald,
Major Delaney's Mystery having been purchased for the
purpose. Finally in 1852 the present name was adopted.
This paper was looked upon by the slave holders of the South
and proslavery people of the North as a very dangerous document
or sheet, and was watched with a critical eye. It could not be
circulated in the slave-holding states. ..... Through the aid of
the Christian Commission it did valuable service to the freedmen
throughout the South. It followed the army, went into the hovels
of the freedmen and also the hospitals, placed in the hands of sol-
diers, speaking cheer and comfort *
Although suffering occasional intermissions and irregular-
ities in time of publication, besides changes in editorship,
the Recorder still lives and thrives. In 1912 its circula-
tion was 6,5oo. a
1 Economic Co-operation among Negroes, ed. W. E. B. Du Bob, "At-
lanta University Publications/' No. 12, Atlanta, 1907, p. 60, quoting
Arnttl's Budget, 1900, p. 138.
Centennial Encyclopedia of the A.M.E. Church, Philadelphia, 19' 16,
p. 458.
44 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
In the absence of any press whatever among
southern Negroes during this period, there are intima-
tions that the slaves did get some reading matter of an
abolitionist sort. Samuel J. May tells us that it was
against the principles of the anti-slavery whites in the
North to put any of their publications in the hands of
slaves. Yet it was the reading of Walker 's pamphlet by
slaves that aroused the South to sterner repressive
measures. In spite of this the southern Negro group
presents the spectacle of a widely scattered body of
people among whom were many who were endeavoring
to get some idea of what the rest of the group was doing
and some light on possible action.
When Nat Turner appeared, the education of the Negro had
made the way somewhat easier for him than it was for his predeces-
sors. Negroes who could read and write had before them the
revolutionary ideas of the French, the daring deeds of Toussaint
L'Ouverture, the bold attempt of General Gabriel, and the far-
reaching plans of Denmark Vesey. These were sometimes written
up in the abolition literature, the circulation of which was so exten-
sive among the slaves that it became a national question.
Trying to account for this insurrection the Governor of the
State 1 lays it to the charge of the Negro preachers who were in posi-
tion to foment much disorder on account of having acquired " great
ascendency over the minds" of discontented slaves. He believed
that these ministers were in direct contact with the agents of
abolition, who were using colored leaders as a means to destroy
the institutions of the South. The Governor was cognizant of the
fact that not only was the sentiment of the incendiary pamphlets
read but often the words. To prevent the "enemies" in other
States from communicating with the slaves of that section he
requested that the laws regulating the assembly of Negroes be
more rigidly enforced and the colored preachers be silenced. The
General Assembly complied with this request.
1 Of Virginia.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 45
The aim of the subsequent reactionary legislation of the South
was to complete the work of preventing the dissemination of
information among Negroes and their reading of abolition litera-
ture. 1
The close of the war brought with it problems of
political orientation for the black man, complicated by
poverty, illiteracy, and general social disorganization.
Washington says:
Until freedom came the life of the Negro was so intimately
interwoven with that of the white man that it is almost true to say
that he had no separate history It was after freedom came
that the masses of the Negro people began to think of themselves
as having a past or a future in any way separate and distinct from
the white race. 2
The first paper that started in the South, the Colored
American, October, 1865, had, after six months, gone into
the hands of its creditors. 3 It was followed by others
that died as swiftly. The Colored American was pub-
lished, while it lasted, in Augusta, Georgia. The Anglo-
African 4 published a prospectus of this paper, including
the characterization: "Vehicle for the diffusion of Reli-
gious, political, and General Intelligence .... to keep
before the minds of our race the duties and responsibilities
of freedom ; and to call attention to the wants and griev-
ances of the colored people." Another venture that
ended in failure, although it was not quite so short-lived,
was the New National Era begun by Frederick Douglass
in Washington after the war. The associate editor of
this journal, Williams tells us, 5 was Richard T. Greener^
1 C. G. Woodson, op. cit., p. 163.
The Story of the Negro, I (New York, 1909), 7, 8.
* Penn, op. cit., pp. 101 ff.
4 Quotation made by Penn, op. cif., p. 101. * Op. til., II, 438, 440.
46 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
first colored entrant of Harvard, who took the Bolyston
prize there for oratory, afterward well known as a teacher
and especially as dean of law in Howard University.
Douglass speaks briefly of the paper, concluding thus:
A misadventure though it was, which cost me from nine to ten
thousand dollars, over it I have no tears to shed. The journal was
valuable while it lasted, and the experiment was full of instruction
to me, which has to some extent been heeded, for I have kept well
out of newspaper undertakings since. 1
One paper that formed an exception to this rule of
jquick failure was the Elevator, of San Francisco, edited
and published by Philip A. Bell and W. J. Powell, which
Perm calls (p. 95) the " Napoleon of the Colored Press."
This was still alive in 1890. A little later, in 1871, a
k paper was published that made a record of unusual
longevity. The Progressive American, in New York City,
continued its career until 1887. But in general there
was a uniformity in the situation thus described by
Perm.
From the year 1866 on, Afro-American newspapers were being
founded in almost every state, some of which died an early death,
while others survived many years These papers were started
by some of trie ablest men They labored at a time when
the Afro- American, just out of slavery, did not engage to any great
extent hi literary efforts, and consequently a support of their
journals was obtained by the hardest efforts only. 2
With regard to the character of the secular press after
the war, Perm 3 agrees entirely with the statement of
Hershaw :
When slavery was abolished .... the race began a new life,
and the necessity for creating and organizing public opinion and for
looking after the particular interests of the race became at once
1 Op. tit., p. 408. 2 Op. cit., p. 107. 3 Ibid., p. 112.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 47
apparent. As this necessity arose in the midst of political change
and revolution, the newspapers started under its spur were nar-
rowly political and partisan. Most of them were the "organs"
of county, district, and state committees. Their editors were
politicians and office-seekers, rather than broad-minded men seek-
ing to enforce eternal principles and to accomplish permanent
results. 1
i
These beginnings of race journalism after the war
were accompanied by a flood of pamphlet literature. ,
This is true to historical precedent. The strugglings of
seventeenth-century England were marked not only with
the growth of the press but of a great number of pam-
phlets as well. Other epochs of change show the same
features, as for instance the French Revolution. Tlu\
difficulties of sustaining a regular press immediately or '
soon after Emancipation can, of course, be readily
granted. The " voice of the people," lacking other
utterance, fook some compensation in this occasional,
fugitive form. Mr. T. T. Fortune says:
For many years before and after 1880, until our newspapers,
became established as vehicles of race news, hopes and aspirations,
the thinkers of the race found an outlet for "their pent-up Utica"
in pamphlets. I had a collection of some ten thousand or more of
these pamphlets when I disposed of my newspaper property in
1007. Unfortunately the entire lot was destroyed, and I have
always deeply regretted the loss, inasmuch as it had been my inten-
tion to present the bulk of them to the library of my favorite
college.*
But more than political interests claimed a voice in
the press. These were years also of church-building and
denominational expansion. It is scarcely necessary to
emphasize here what has been so often noted, the central
1 " The Negro Press in America," Charities, Vol. XV ( 1905) , No. i , p. 67.
1 Favorite Magazine, Autumn, 1920.
48 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
importance in Negro society of the church. The third
Atlanta Conference approved these words with reference
to it:
Under the leadership of priest or medicine man, afterward of
the Christian pastor, the Church preserved in itself the remnants
of African tribal life and became after emancipation the center of
Negro social life. So that today the Negro population of the
United States is virtually divided into church congregations which
are the real units of race life. 1
It will be remembered that the Christian Recorder dates
from 1852. In the seventies came the Southwestern
Christian Advocate (Methodist Episcopal), the Christian
Index (Colored Methodist Episcopal), the Star of Zion
(African Methodist Episcopal Zion), the Afro American
Presbyterian, the American Baptist, and the Georgia Bap-
tist; in the early eighties, the Western Star (Baptist), the
Baptist Vanguard, the A.M.E. Church Review. 2 There
are about four and a half million church-members
representing these various denominations and supporting
their publications. 3
The story of the National Baptist Publishing Board,
although this institution was not launched until 1896,
should be told here. 4 Richard Henry Boyd was sold on
an auction block in 1859 for $700. During the war he
remained true to his Texas master and after his death
took care of the details on the plantation. Later a cow-
puncher, he finally became a minister. In 1896 the
1 The Negro Church, ed. W. E. B. DuBois, "Atlanta University
Publications," No. 8, Atlanta, 1903. Foregoing report, 1898, p. n.
2 Efforts for Social Betterment among Negro Americans, "Atlanta
University Publications," No. 14, Atlanta, 1909, pp. 114 ff.
3 Negro Year Book, etc., p. 240.
< Washington, The Negro in Business, Boston, Chicago, 1907, pp. i86ff.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 49
National Baptists in convention at St. Louis authorized
him and a committee to undertake the printing of Negro
literature for Negro Baptists. This involved breaking
away from the leading-strings of the white American
Baptist Publication Society, and after some difficulty was
accomplished by securing reprints from the Southern
Baptists of their Sunday-school literature, until Negroes
could get to the point of writing their own copy. Begin-
nings of the National Baptist Publishing Board were
made in a room on Cedar Street, Nashville. " This small
room, 8 by 10 feet, one small second-hand table, two
small second-hand split-bottom chairs, and one oil lamp,
a small bottle of ink, two plain pen holders, five cents '
worth of pen points, and fifty cents' worth of plain writing
paper and envelopes, constituted the initial fixtures and
furniture." The printed material used was put in
special covers which were admired by the Baptists and
the series was called the " Negro Backs." Secretary
Boyd had acquired copies of all associational and Sunday-
school proceedings and publications and otherwise se-
cured names and addresses of all church workers who
might be customers.
Then he prepared price lists, order blanks, self-addressed
envelopes, and a circular letter which he had his printer set up in
imitation of typewriting, on letterheads that he had already pre-
pared. While the letter was in preparation, he secured the services
of three young women and set them to work directing envelopes
to addresses taken from these associational and Sunday School
minutes. He mailed in one day 5,000 of these letters, addressed to
superintendents, clerks, and pastors in every state in the Union
V.IHTC he knew there was a Negro Baptist church.
In thirty-two days the record revealed cash receipts of
$12,000 from 750 Sunday schools that had been sent sup-
50 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
plies. The first year's report to the National Baptist
Convention showed that 700,000 copies of Sunday-school
papers had been sent out, and cash receipts were over
$5,000. Growth was rapid. The Baptists made the
"hoard a general publishing concern; books, hymnals, man-
uals, literature of all" sorts, began to be printed. Many
of the songs printed were those composed by Negroes.
There came to be seven brick buildings, the latest machin-
ery of all sorts, the additional business of general church
supplies, including furniture, a chapel room where serv-
ices were held each day in the forenoon and attended by
the entire personnel, a pay-roll of $200,000 a year, and a
mail business bringing in as high as 2,000 letters a day. 1
A fight over the control of this concern caused a split in
the ranks of the Baptists that has not yet been closed.
As a result of a court decision the National Baptist Con-
vention, Incorporated, finding itself left without the plant
which is still controlled by the Boyds, has resolved to
build a large and complete publishing concern of its own. 2
During the years since the Civil War there was a
normal growth of papers representing the fraternal orders.
These orders have been multiplying, as is well known,
and have entwined their roots more or less among those
of the church life, banking operations, social activity,
/ and the undertaking businesses which have been carried
V^ on by Negroes for themselves. The Masons and the
Odd Fellows had organizations in ante-bellum days. Of
1 Clement Richardson, National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race,
Montgomery, 1919, pp. 414-16; W. N. Hartshorn, An Era of Progress
and Promise, Boston, 1910, pp. 517-27; Negro Year Book, p. 361.
a Dr. R. H. Boyd died in the fall of 1921, while attending a meeting
of the National Baptist Convention (Unincorporated) at New Orleans;
he was struck by a bullet fired at another man.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN SLAVERY DAYS 51
those organizations that are mentioned in the Negro Year
Book, six were founded in the sixties, one in the seventies,
three in the eighties, six in the nineties or thereafter, and
some are undated. Forty-five or more newspapers now
exist representing the needs of these institutions. Some
of these papers indeed most of them are common car-
riers of the news, opinion, and advertising that belongs
to a general newspaper. Some, too, like the Atlanta
I fide pendent, which was started in 1903, have built up a
considerable circulation and wide influence.
It is impossible not to picture the activity of the Negro
press, while it was making such determined efforts to get
a foothold after the Emancipation, as playing an impor-
tant part in the process of educating a race. Booker T.
Washington is never more eloquent than in his descrip-
tion of the reading-hunger that possessed his people after
the war. He says:
I shall never forget the strange, pathetic scenes and incidents
of that time. I can recall vividly the picture not only of children,
but of men and women, some of whom had reached the age of sixty
or seventy, tramping along the country roads with a spelling-book
or a Bible in their hands. It did not seem to occur to anyone that
age was any obstacle to learning in books. With weak and unac-
customed eyes, old men and old women would struggle along month
after month in their effort to master the primer in order to get, if
possible, a little knowledge of the Bible. Some of them succeeded;
many of them failed
places for holding school were anywhere and everywhere;
the Freedmen could not wait for schoolhouses to be built or for
teachers to be provided More than once, I have seen a fire
in the woods at night with a dozen or more people of both sexes and
of all ages sitting about with book in hands studying their lessons.
Sometimes they would fasten their primers between the plough-
shares, so that they could read as they ploughed. I have seen
52 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Negro coal miners trying to spell out the words of a little reading-
book by the dim light of a miner's lamp, hundreds of feet below the
earth. 1
It was inevitable that as literacy increased there were
still large numbers who depended on oral transmission of
the news of the day. A great deal of this has been going
on in the South in more recent times as well, and those
who read a paper or hear it read have straightway carried
the news to someone else. During the migration of
1916-17 this was quite common. What illiteracy really
means in a group that has begun to get a glimpse of
higher standards of life has been well told in the case of
the Russian peasants by 0. M. Sayler, of Indianapolis,
who spent some time in Russia in recent years.
The illiteracy of the Russian peasant is a deceptive and mis-
leading thing. It is no proof of ignorance. On the contrary, the
withholding of the normal means of intelligence has only sharpened
the native mental eagerness to acquire knowledge, and the Rus-
sian peasant mind, unhampered with conventional modes of
thought, has in its simplicity reached out with avidity to the
dreams and promise of the socialized state. If the peasant cannot
read, he can listen. Many times I have seen an intense group of
them gathered round the only one of their number who could read,
eagerly drinking in the information and the ideas which they were
incapable of gaining through the symbol of printed language.
By this means news travels in Russia to the farthest village as
rapidly as it does with us. 2
1 The Story of the Negro, II, 136 ff .
2 Oliver M. Sayler, Russia White or Red, Boston, 1919, pp. 282, 283.
CHAPTER III
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM
It is natural that throughout the eighties and later the
papers that began to function normally in the growing
social life of Negroes appeared first in the cities, where
some substantial cultural and economic organization was
possible. As early as 1879 we find the first issues of the
Washington Bee, the oldest secular paper now surviving.
About this time began the Indianapolis World. In 1883
came the Cleveland Gazette, in 1884 the Philadelphia
Tribune, in 1885 the Savannah Tribune, and about the same
time the Richmond Planet. The New York A ge appeared in
1887, followed before the nineties by the Freeman of Indi-
anapolis. Something of the character of these journals is
evident from the personal careers of representative editors.
William Calvin Chase of the Washington Bee, who died
in 1921, was born in Washington where he went to a
school in the basement of the Fifteenth Street Presby-
terian Church. He also attended public school and later
the law department of Howard University, selling papers
for a living. Admitted to the Virginia bar, and also to
the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, he
became active as a lawyer, then went into politics, and
won the reputation of a fighter. His fearless personality
has done a great deal to sell his paper. 1
Typical, like Chase, of the generation just passing,
the editor of the Philadelphia Tribune died, too, in 1921.
1 Hartshorn, An Era of Progress and Promise, p. 460.
53
54 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Chris J. Perry was born in Baltimore, but at the age of
eighteen went to Philadelphia to attend its schools. He
supported himself by serving in private families and cafes.
His first encouragement toward journalism was the result
of his success in getting news items accepted by daily
papers and in editing a colored people's column for a
local Sunday newspaper. Mr. Perry was faithful to his
church (the Lombard Street Presbyterian), where he was
trustee, Sunday-school superintendent, and teacher. The
Tribune was launched in November, 1884. It prints its
own paper and runs a job plant. Editor Perry was
also successful with investments in securities and real
estate. 1
William H. Steward, of the American Baptist, founded
1879, was born of slave parents in Kentucky, who " hired
their time" and removed to Louisville, where by 1865,
when he was eighteen years old, young Steward had
managed to get considerable education in private schools.
He has been a school teacher, the first colored letter-car-
rier in Louisville, an active layman in his church, chair-
man of the trustees of the State University in Louisville,
and vice-president of the National Negro Business
League. 2 He has also served as chairman of the Board of
Directors of the Louisville Colored Public School and
Grand Master Mason. He "lives in his own home, a
brick residence." 3
John H. Murphy, who established the Baltimore Afro-
American in 1892, was interested in religious work. He
was known to travel a great deal holding Sunday-school
1 Hartshorn, op. a/., p. 471.
/*., p. 463-
> National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race, p. 175.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 55
institutes and conventions, and his first journalistic
venture was the Sunday-School Helper. 1 " Baltimore was
then known as the graveyard of colored newspapers," 2
but the Afro- American has become a substantial success.
There are several conspicuous names connected with
the New York Age. In 1907, Booker T. Washington
told 3 how T. T. Fortune was born of slave parents,
worked as a lad at odd jobs in a southern newspaper
office, and there picked up a great deal of information
that served as a sort of practical education. Since that
time he has studied and traveled. When a young man
he was appointed mail agent between Jacksonville and
Chattahoochee, and in 1875 became Special Inspector
of Customs for a district in Delaware. In 1879 at New
York, after again working in a composing room, he
essayed a journal of his own, the Rumor. This became
the Globe, which was followed first by the Freeman and
later by the New York Age. Fortune says of these years:
When I entered upon the active work of journalism, in New
York City, in 1879, my partner and I were the first to set the type
of the Globe. At night we prepared the forms for the press, and
in the day we worked as compositors. Mr. William Walter Samp-
son and I had worked together as compositors on a daily newspaper,
now the Daily Times-Union, at Jacksonville, Fla. Through him
I secured a position on the Daily Witness in New York. Here I
found my previous experience of great value, for it had been my
good fortune to have met and collaborated with such men as John
W. Cromwell, Charles N. Otey and Robert Peel Brooks, among
the most brilliant men that the race has ever produced. My
acquaintance also included the great Frederick Douglass, the lion
of them all. . .
1 An Era of Progress and Promise, p. 418.
Philadelphia Tribune, January i, 1921.
' The Negro in Business, pp. 178 ff.
56 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
1
As I remember, when I entered journalism, there were only
four other newspapers of the race in publication the New York
Progressive American, the Christian Recorder, the Pacific Appeal,
and the San Francisco Elevator. The latter was edited by Philip
A. Bell, one of the old-timers, who had fought the anti-slavery
fight all his days, a grand old warrior, giving no quarter nor asking
any of the enemy. 1
T. T. Fortune has published poems and a book of essays
called White and Black. He still contributes to Negro
periodicals.
Fred R. Moore, the present editor of the New York Age,
has identified himself with several professional and busi-
ness projects, including movements for the general ad-
vancement of the race. At the age of eighteen, he was
made a messenger in the United States Treasury Depart-
ment, and later was given work in a New York bank.
Finally he held a position in the New York National Bank
of Commerce. In 1893 he organized the Afro-American
Building and Loan Company, and in 1903 was elected
national organizer by the National Negro Business
League. 2 Since 1907, Fred Moore has been identified
with the Age. Among his political activities may be
mentioned his acceptance of the post of Minister to
Liberia, his nomination for New York legislature, and
his position on the Advisory Committee of the National
Republican Committee in 1912 and 191 6. 3 In 1920 he
conducted publicity work for the Republican party in the
East.
Those who, as editors and publishers, have become
famous among Negroes are too numerous to be detailed.
1 Favorite Magazine, Autumn, 1920.
2 The Negro in Business, pp. 181 ff.
3 National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race, p. 226.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 57
Only a few others may be mentioned. Harry C. Smith,
of the Cleveland Gazette, has been thrice elected to the
Ohio legislature, and while there managed the passage
of two laws that have meant much to his people: the
Ohio Civil Rights Law, and the Ohio Anti-lynching
Law. 1
George L. Knox, since 1897 the editor of the Freeman,
escaped from his master while in the southern army
and came into the Union ranks. In the North he was
a successful barber, and at twenty-six began getting an
education under a private tutor. He has managed two
barber-shops and owns considerable property in Indian-
apolis. He is prominent in his church, and has been
a member of Republican political organizations, once
running for Congress. 2 The Freeman is conspicuous
today for its theatrical news and advertisements. For-
merly this paper was distributed by Pullman porters.
Nick Chiles of the Topeka Plaindealer came to Topeka
with only fifteen dollars in his pocket, but he now owns a
$7,000 plant, his own building, a fine residence, and a
large amount of other property. 3
John Mitchell, Jr., is not only editor and owner of the
Richmond Planet, but also president of the Mechanic's
Savings Bank. Once, after denouncing a lynching, he
received an unsigned letter with drawing of skull and
cross-bones and a piece of hemp inclosed. Thereupon
he went directly to visit the place whence this threat had
come. 4
"Ben Davis," as he is familiarly known, is thus spoken
of: "When you think of Benjamin Jefferson Davis,
1 An Era of Progress and Promise, p. 444.
Ibid., p. 430. ' Ibid., p. 475. 4 IKd; P. 437-
58 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
you think of three things the Atlanta Independent, the
growth of the Odd Fellows and the Odd Fellows' Block
in Atlanta, Ga." 1 By his efforts this organization in
about ten years grew from a membership of 10,000 to
50,000. The building mentioned is seven stories high
and contains six stores, fifty-six offices, three lodgerooms
and the roof garden. Davis is generally appointed
one of the "Big Four" delegates-at-large from Georgia
to the Republican National Convention. In his own
paper 2 he likes to depict as in a recent cartoon his
humble beginnings as a "friend of the common people,"
and his later success, still as "a friend of the common
people."
From these brief accounts of newspaper men it will
be evident that there has been an alliance between the
press as a profession and the various occupations which
have helped to support it. Instead of viewing this as a
simple lack of differentiation of function in a society not
yet ready for it, Richard W. Thompson wrote rather
sadly in 1902:
It is a stinging indictment of our much-lauded "race-pride"
that the greater proportion of our Negro journalists are compelled
to depend for a living upon teaching, preaching, law, medicine,
office-holding, or upon some outside business investment. 3
The close relation of the newspaper to the actual life and
struggles of the people makes it a fair index of the com-
mon impulses and ambitions moving within the group.
The desire to get up and get on in the world, a desire
characteristic of this as of so many groups in modern
1 National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race, pp. 115 f.
3 Atlanta Independent, December 30, 1920.
3 Twentieth Century Literature, etc., Relating to the American Negro ,
ed. D. W. Culp, Naperville, Illinois, 1902, p. 333.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 59
America, would be reflected in just such history as the
Negro press has been making. One example of the
enterprising spirit may be cited:
The Hot Springs Echo came into existence 22 years ago, its
present Editor who was then a youth of 19, starting his journalistic
career with a second-hand press, a few cases of type and no experi-
ence in either business or printing. By hard work, study and grit,
he had a $5,000 plant bought and paid for 10 years later. Lost
plant and all worldly possessions in a disastrous fire which almost
destroyed the city. Kept hustling and still publishes the only
live Negro paper in the section. 1
The eighties saw the beginning of many attempts
to build up a Negro daily. Penn mentions the Cairo
Gazette, which began in 1882 and ran as a daily for six
months, that is, until it was destroyed by fire; and the
Columbus (Georgia) Messenger, beginning in 1887, which
was a weekly the first year, then a semi-weekly, and
finally a daily. Naively, Penn adds: "The Daily Mes-
senger would not have suspended publication, but the
editor having accepted a position in the Railway Mail
Service, he was necessarily compelled to close up his busi-
ness enterprise for a time." 2 There was recently the
Daily Herald in Baltimore, of which the Crisis for March,
1920. said:
We have had many attempts to start daily papers for Negro
readers, but none lasted longer than a few months and most of them
have died in weeks. We feared this same result for the Herald.
... But a colored daily paper that has passed its second birth-
day, that misses no issues, has strong editorials, and publishes news,
is an accomplishment which deserved unstinted praise. Our hats
off to William T. Andrews, of Baltimo:
1 Letter to writer, April 12, 1921, from Hot Springs Echo.
1 Penn, The Afro-American Press and Its Editors, p. 127.
G. W. Gore, Jr., Negro Journalism, Grcencastlc, Indiana, 1922,
p. 20, mentions the Indianapolis Daily Standard as beginning in April,
1922.
60 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
The existence of six magazines some time during these
years was mentioned by Washington in 1907. Two of
these were religious quarterlies, one, Alexander's Maga-
zine of Boston, new at that time; others were the Colored
American Magazine of New York, and the Voice of the
Negro at Chicago. 1 Mr. Alexander also speaks of having
edited an earlier venture, the Monthly Review, at Boston.
Penn ^finds that there were ten newspapers in 1870,
thirty-one in 1880, and, in 1890, i$4. 2 Williams names
fifty-six periodicals as existing in i882. 3 Seven of these
have continued to the present day: New York Globe,
perpetuated in the New York Age; Washington Bee;
Georgia Baptist (Augusta) ; American Baptist (Louisville) ;
Afro-American Presbyterian (Charlotte, North Carolina);
Christian Recorder (Philadelphia) ; Baptist Signal (Green-
ville, Mississippi), now the Sentinel-Signal at Lexington.
T. T. Fortune makes this characterization of the press
in the eighties and subsequently:
From 1880 to 1890 there was a rapid development of Afro-
American journalism, colored journalism becoming negated in
the latter designation which I employed and made popular with
white and colored journalists. The number of newspapers not
only increased rapidly, but the white papers of the country began
to take notice of their existence and to quote extensively upon their
news and opinions
Like all good things Negro journalism was a gradual growth, a
systematic development, from very small beginnings. The old
journalism had few readers and advertisers, and payday was
always a deathless agony to the editor. He, typically, was a man
of one idea, the Afro-American journalist, who cleaved close to the
line of race rights and loyalty, and could not be swerved from his
1 The Negro in Business, p. 176.
2 Op. cit., pp. 112, 114.
History of the Negro Race in America, II, 576 ff.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 6 1
purpose by bribes or intimidation. He supported the Republican
party because he despised the Democratic party, and those of his
school who are living today are of the same mind they were then.
The old journalism was a fighting machine which feared no man or
combination of men. It refused to print anything that would
damage the good name or morals of the race, and kept all scandal
and personalities, however sensational the news might be, in the
background. 1
The more aggressive note in Negro journalism comes
soon after the opening of the Great War. There had
been, as Fortune says, a fighting spirit all along, but
the newer race propaganda is very well marked by the
entrance of the Crisis into the field in 1910.
Various elements in the total situation had been creat-
ing increasing tension. The laws passed by southern
states for the restriction of the suffrage began in 1890.
As early as this the new generation born since the Civil
War was preparing the stage for new conflict. Illiteracy
among Negroes was already registering spectacular
decreases, from 70 per cent in 1880 to 57.1 per cent in
1890. The percentage dropped to 44.5 in 1900, and to
30.4 in 1910. There was increasing economic competence.
The amount of gain in wealth-accumulation came to
more than a billion in 19 19.* Meanwhile the lynching
record kept pace, reaching its highest record in 1892.*
In 1901 William Monroe Trotter began publishing the
Guardian at Boston, a paper that is now known as among
the most aggressive or (in a racial sense) "radical."
A riot in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908, stimulated the
1 Favorite Magazine, Autumn, 1920.
3 These facts are all brought together in the Negro Year Book
illiteracy on pp. 277 f; suffrage restriction, pp. 202 ff; wealth, p. i.
'/</., p. 373-
62 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
birth of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People in 1910. The Chicago Defender arose
in 1905, and began its headlining policy in 1910. Finally,
in 1914, the death of Booker T. Washington removed one
of the greatest influences that might make for milder
utterance.
W. M. Trotter, president of the New England Suf-
frage League and chief sponsor of the National Equal
Rights League, received his Harvard B.A., in 1895 and
M.A., in 1896, having been elected a member of Phi
Beta Kappa as an undergraduate. Those of his own
race have thus spoken of him :
Mr. Trotter. . . . selected a field after graduation in which
he could express the sentiments of the oppressed race. Having felt
keenly the vicious thrust of race prejudice he turned to journalism
as the most effective means to combat the evil Mr. Trot-
ter's ability could easily win for him an easy berth by compro-
mising the cause of the race. But he has steadfastly refused to
be bought either in cold cash or through appointment to a political
berth. 1
Every issue of the Guardian contains a cut of Mrs.
Trotter with an editorial caption as follows :
Geraldine Trotter, My Loyal Wife, who is no more. To honor-
ing her memory .... I shall devote my remaining days; and to
perpetuating the Guardian and the Equal Rights Cause and work
for which she made such noble and total sacrifice, I dedicate the
best that is in me till I die and ask the active aid of all Colored
Americans and of all believers in justice, equality and fraternity
and in the brotherhood of man. For the rights of her race she
gave her life. William Monroe Trotter, October 12, 1918.
Trotter has lived up to his reputation for bravery. He
led a delegation in a personal interview with President
1 J. L. Nichols and W. H. Grogman, The New Progress of a Race,
Naperville, Illinois, 1920, pp. 435 8.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 63
Wilson to protest against discrimination; and again,
when a passport was denied him, he made his way across
the Atlantic as a cook, at least to observe, if he could not
attend, the Peace Conference at Paris. The Guard-
ian is published not only for the group in and about
Boston, but for a nation-wide circle as well.
The Crisis is a magazine of forty-eight pages and
cover, furnishing the reader with what he would require
from a literary magazine as well as the propaganda of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, whose organ it is. Begun in 1910, it reached a
sale of ioo,coo copies by June of 1919.* W. E. Burg-
hardt Du Bois, its editor, tells in Darkwater 2 how he was
led into that work, tracing his path from the Massachu-
setts town where he was born, through his school days,
his college years at Fisk and Harvard, his student-experi-
ences in Europe, his teaching first at Wilberforce and then
at Atlanta, to what he calls the "great Decision."
At last, forbear and waver as I would, I faced the great Deci-
sion. My life 's last and greatest door stood ajar. What with all
my dreaming, studying, and teaching was I going to do in this
fierce fight ?....! found myself suddenly the leader of a great
wing of people 3 fighting against another and greater wing
Away back in the little years of my boyhood I had sold the
Springfield Republican and written for Mr. Fortune's Globe. I
dreamed of being an editor myself some day. I am an editor. In
the great, slashing days of college life I dreamed of a strong organi-
zation to fight the battles of the Negro race. The National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People is such a body,
and it grows daily. In the dark days at Wilberforce I planned a
1 Crisis, September, 1919, p. 235.
New York, 1920.
The Niagara Movement seems to be meant.
64 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
time when I could speak freely to my people and of them inter-
preting between two worlds. I am speaking now
.... My salary even for a year was not assured, but it was
the "Voice without reply." The result has been the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Crisis
and this book, which I am finishing on my Fiftieth Birthday.
In March, 1917, the Crisis told the story of its growing
circulation, adding that in 1916 the magazine was out of
debt and entirely self-supporting. The present circula-
tion is over 60,000*
The story of the Chicago Defender symbolizes the
aspiration and enterprise of the race. Robert S. Abbott,
the proprietor and editor, was born in Savannah and edu-
cated in Hampton Institute. He has the degree of
Bachelor of Laws. His first acquaintance with Chicago
came in the nineties, where his experience in seeking work
from white employers was dispiriting. He knew what it
was to stand in the bread line of a prominent white
church and be told to step out and make way for a white
man; and again, to make way for a white man looking
for work, even though the latter were an immigrant who
could not speak English. The first copies of the Defender,
which Abbott started in 1905, were handbill size. These
he distributed himself.
His entire bankroll was a 25 cent piece, and the manner in
which he secured money enough to bring out the initial publication
will always remain a hazy page in his book of memories. He had a
vision, however, he recognized in .... Chicago a field much in
need of an up-to-date, progressive newspaper .... week after
week he found it a desperate struggle to raise sufficient money to
bring out the current issue.
1 Eleventh Annual Report, N.A.A.C.P., New York, January, 1921.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 65
In 1910 Abbott hired J. Hockley Smiley, whose ideas
included the use of headlines, for which the Defender has
since been remarkable. At first other papers of the race
ridiculed this new departure, but later several followed
the lead.
After the death of Smiley, Alfred Anderson was added
to the staff as editorial writer, and more recently L. C.
Harper has become managing editor. In course of time,
the various departments of a metropolitan newspaper
were introduced: drama, sports, and special features.
The paper seeks to live up to its title of Defender.
Colored people from all over the country turn to it when
in trouble; the staff interests itself in securing legal aid
and justice for individual Negroes. Over 100,000 copies
a week are sold the war and the migration from the
South having greatly accelerated circulation. It was
the mechanical equipment that visitors came to see on
the grand opening day. Scores passed in under the sign,
"The World's Greatest Weekly," to be shown through
the new building. Said the issue of May 14, 1921:
The Chicago Defender entertained approximately 5,000 people
at its formal opening in the new plant Friday, May 6 As
one entered, two murals by W. E. Scott attracted the attention.
One, on the left, showed a daughter of Ethiopia holding in one hand
the Defender, or Light, and in the other the balance scales ....
before the oppressed of all lands and climes Under one
painting the complete office equipment of the first Defender was
exhibited, a small folding table, and a single chair Guides
met the incoming guests and escorted them through the plant.
. At 10 o'clock, when the doors were closed, the crowd was
still coming in
In its r61e of champion of the common people and in
its aggressive advocacy of Negro rights the press has
66 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
found in recent years a pronounced welcome from its
people. This is evident from the volume and kind of
letters written by its readers. When Negroes have
trouble of any sort they write to the paper, sometimes,
merely to utter their cry for justice. The Indianapolis
Ledger (March 14, 1921), prints a letter from Louisiana
where a company of colored actors was set upon, whipped,
stripped, and driven from town. The letter closes: "No
name given, for I fear the South. Yours in Christ for the
Negro race." Another, from an Ohio town 1 recites the
refusal of a physician to give treatment to colored pa-
tients: "I ask for this publication in your valuable
paper. May other Colored papers also copy." The
following reached the Chicago Defender from Arkansas:
Nov. 2ist to the Chicago Defender
Please allow me to tell how mr. E was treated here [he came]
from Helena ar. to haul timber he made $65.45 so monday after
Payday He goes to the P.O. to Buy an money order and the Post
master says to him how much you want to send mr. E says
$50.00 P.O. master say who to mr. E says to Mary E at
leland miss. Then he say give me the money mr. E give him
five ten dollars Bills at first and 50 cents in Silver after the Post-
master had Receive the money he Reply ed to mr E you must
going to send your family north to Vote ant you mr E Said
I dont know then the P.O.m. said Well Buy God you will know
Before she get this $50.00 mr. E said you dont mean to take
$50.00 do you he said yes what in hell you going to do about it
mr. E said the thing I want to know What are you going to do
and that time he struck mr. E and mr E knock him down
and that time 5. more white Join in and mr E. fought them
they sprain mr E Right leg and he Broke 2 of them legs and knock
one eye out then the mob Begain so Mr. E was takeing away
1 Letter dated, Canton, Ohio, March 14, 1921, probably written to
the Cleveland Call.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 67
By sone of the Better Class of white and members of our Race and
kept untell he got well and we sister of the A.M.E. Church Paid
his doctor Bill and sent him out of the state north and his whare-
about now I dont know i seen him the loth of this month and told
me write his wife and mrs. - at Leland miss it was such
shame tell none of the white papers said nothing about it
The fighting spirit of the press was naturally stimu-
lated by all the conditions that went along with the
Great War. There was a great stimulus given to the
growth of newspapers that have arisen in or since that
period. Possibly 100 periodicals have begun publication
in this time. Some, of course, have been born and buried
since 1914.
The combined result of Negro activities during the
war was an increase in racial consciousness and desire for
self-assertion. The white Americans have not been free
from suspicions as to the attitude of Negroes in this
emergency. If the patriotism of their press be taken
into account, such suspicions would certainly be relieved.
Robert Russa Moton says:
The Negro press was also found by the Government to be a
very helpful factor in the prosecution of the war. It stood almost
solidly back of such men as were appointed by the Government in
all of their efforts for the country 's good. And whatever happened
they were most loyal to the Government, even when, as was some-
times true, they might have criticized with justification many of
the things which took place. The attitude of these publications,
numbering some three hundred or more newspapers and magazines,
was a very important factor in determining the attitude of Negroes
on many questions ..... '
Emmett J. Scott also testifies on this point. He was
special assistant to the Secretary of War in the matter of
welfare and morale of colored people.
a Way Out, an Autobiography, Garden City, New York,
1920, pp. 248 f.
68 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
An outstanding force that helped to win the war was the Negro
press of the country. Aside from the efficient work done by this
element of power through the conference of Editors at Washing-
ton, .... the press was an asset of incalculable value in pushing
the war work among colored people by the regular publication of
the bulletins of information the Special Assistant caused to be
sent out from the War Department week after week, beginning
shortly after the assumption of his duties. His mailing list
embraced more than two hundred Negro journals and magazines
having a large circulation in practically every State in the Union,
. . . . besides the Speakers' "Committee of One Hundred" and
many newspaper correspondents, special writers, heads of schools
and colleges and men of influence and standing in the strategic
centers of the nation Our editors were conservative on all
current questions, at no sacrifice of courage and absolute frank-
ness in the upholding of principles I
The newspapers did insist on the training of Negro
officers, proper provision for the needs of the troops, and
absence of discrimination. They had the "absolute
frankness" Scott speaks of. The Washington Bee said:
But the Negro is willing today to take up arms and defend
the American flag; he stands ready to uphold the hands of the
President; he stands ready to defend the country and his President
against this cruel and unjust oppression. His mother, sister,
brother and children are being burned at the stake and yet the
American flag is his emblem and which he stands ready to defend.
In all the battles the Negro soldier has proved his loyalty and today
he is the only true American at whom the finger of scorn cannot be
pointed. 2
In June, 1918, E. J. Scott, on behalf of the War De-
partment and the Committee on Public Information,
called together a group of Negro leaders, including thirty-
1 Scott 's Official History of the American Negro in the World War,
Washington (?), 1919, pp. 361 f., 116, etc.
3 Quoted in the Crisis, May, 1917, p. 23.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 69
one newspaper men. 1 For three days they discussed
the relation of the Negro to the conduct of affairs, men-
tioning his special grievances and needs. Their recom-
mendations, embodied in a "Bill of Particulars/' follow. 2
The special war correspondent appointed was Ralph W.
Tyler who had been more than thirty years a writer for
the white papers in Columbus, Ohio. 3
(a) A message from the President in denunciation of ....
mob violence.
(6) The enrolment of colored Red Cross nurses for service
in the camps and cantonments of the army.
(c) The continuance of the training camps for colored officers
and the increase in their number and enlargement of their
scope
(d) Betterment of the general conditions in the camps ....
and positive steps taken to reduce race friction
(e) The extension to young colored men of opportunity for
special training in technical, mechanical and military science in
the various schools and colleges of the country.
(/) An increase in the number of colored Chaplains for army
service.
(g) The establishment of a woman 's branch under the Council
of National Defense, with a colored field agent
(A) Steps taken to recall Colonel Charles Young to active
service in the United States Army.
(*) The appointment of the first colored, regularly-commis-
sioned war correspondent, to report military operations on the
western front in France.
0') The granting of a loan of $5,000,000 for the relief of the
Republic of Liberia.
In the first year of the war, indeed, the terrible events
at Houston, ending in the summary execution of "thir-
1 Among them were W. E. B. Du Bois, R. E. Jones, Fred R. Moore,
B. J. Davis, John Mitchell, Jr., W. T. Andrews. Crisis, September, 1918.
1 National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race, pp. 613 f.
J Died in 1921.
70 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
teen black soldiers" 1 and the imprisonment of many
others, had provoked a bitter response. Yet even in its
bitterness the press maintained restraint. Three illus-
trative comments may be given:
They "gave their lives a ransom for many." While techni-
cally and legally they erred, still in the light of Ages and the eyes
of the All-Seeing, they were more sinned against than sinning[ ?].
It is written: "They went to their death with heroic stoicism.
There was neither bravado nor fear." Savannah Tribune.
The Negroes of the entire country will regard the thirteen
Negro soldiers of the Twenty-Fourth Infantry executed as martyrs.
Baltimore Daily Herald.
Strict justice has been done, but full justice has not been
done And so sure as there is a God in heaven, at some time
and in some way full justice will be done. New York Age. 2
Typical of the sort of loyalty and self-restraint under
which the press was doing its work in these days is an
editorial that appeared in the Crisis (July, 1918), which,
two months later, the editor felt called upon to explain.
"Our Special Grievances" is his new caption. There
were many such, the constant burden of which was dis-
crimination. There was a limited number of higher
officers, there was difficulty in accepting Negro nurses for
service in France, and in many details there was room for
irritation. In spite of this Du Bois holds:
The leading editorial in the July Crisis, called "Close Ranks,"
has been the subject of much comment. To a few it has seemed
to indicate some change of position on the part of the National
1 Messenger for October, 1919, has Archibald Grimke's poem by this
name.
* Quotations taken from Negro Year Book, p. 53.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 71
Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Crisis.
It is needless to say that it indicates nothing of the sort
What the Crisis said is precisely what in practice the Negroes
of America have already done during the war and have been
advised to do by every responsible editor and leader.
The editorial was in exact accord and almost in the very words
of a resolution written by the same hand and passed unanimously
by the thirty-one editors of all the leading publications in America.
Did Negroes refuse to serve in the draft until they got the
right to vote ? No, they stormed the gates of the army for the
right to fight. Did they refuse commissions because their army
school was segregated ? No, they were eager and diligent to learn.
Have we black men for one moment hesitated to do our full duty
in this war because we thought the country was not doing its full
duty to us ? Is there a single Negro leader who advised by word,
written or spoken, rebellion and disloyalty ? Certainly not. The
somebody " forgot his special grievance" and fought for the country,
and to him and for him the Crisis speaks. The Crisis says, first
your country, then your Rights!
The feeling that the Negro press was not entirely loyal
during the war is the result of a few sporadic utterances
such as those of the Messenger, the Crusader, and others
of New York. The former is frankly interested in social-
ism, the latter in similar ideas, including a free Negro
state somewhere in the world. In August, 1918, the
editors of the Messenger were jailed for two and a half
days, and second-class mailing privileges were denied the
result of an article entitled "Pro-Germanism among
Negroes," which the editors insist was ironic. 1 The
associate editor, however, responded to the draft and
served loyally in his place. The other charges of dis-
loyalty center upon periodicals gathered up by the
Department of Justice, apparently rather hastily, in 1919,
1 Letter to present writer, March 19, 1921.
72 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
the war having been over a year and a half. The general
tone of these papers is not different from that which
now obtains. The Negro World, Garvey's organ, came
into prominence only since the armistice, but has
thrived largely because of conditions created during the
war period.
The New York News, as recently as May 26, 1921,
recounts the troubles that Negro newspapers underwent
during this time of suspicion, and the difficulty in getting
rid of that suspicion even now.
The migration to the North in which perhaps half a
million colored people from the South had part, begin-
ning in 1915 and continuing three years, 1 figures as both
result and cause of increased activity on the part of the
press. 2 The Negro newspapers were divided in their
counsels, some being opposed to the migration, others in
favor of it. The Star of Zion said, on July 19, 1917:
While I concede the black man's right to go where he likes,
for he has the right of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, yet I
doubt the wisdom of such wholesale exodus from the South. There
are some things which the Negro needs far more than his wages, or
some of the rights for which he contends. He needs conservation
of his moral life.
The Christian Recorder, in Philadelphia, wrote on Febru-
ary i, 1917:
If a million Negroes move north and west in the next twelve-
month, it will be one of the greatest things for the Negro since the
Emancipation Proclamation.
The New York News (September 17, 1916) gives this
advice:
1 Negro Year Book, 1918-1919, p. 8.
a Emmett J. Scott, Negro Migration During the War, pp. 160-65.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 73
Yet a heavy responsibility rests upon every colored leader,
moral and civic, in these northern States to take an especial interest
in their newly arriving brethren Urge them to get steady
work and settle down. Urge them to become good citizens and
better parents. Urge them to go to church, to lead patient Chris-
tian lives, and all will come out well in the end.
The newspapers also were one of the causes of the
migration. This was true in the general sense mentioned
by the Dallas Express (August n, 1917):
Every Negro newspaper and publication in this broad land,
including pamphlets and books, and the intelligent Negro pastor
with backbone and courage are constantly protesting against the
injustice done the Negro. And possibly these agents have been
the greatest incentives to help create and crystallize this unrest
and migration.
More specifically, the New York Age, in almost every
mail ''received letters from the South in which the
writers make known their intentions of coming North in
search of employment." 1 A sample is the following,
from Florida, indicating the fact that advertisements in
the Age suggested migration.
When spring opens we want to come North. We see through
the columns of the Age very encouraging words for those who want
work. We are enthused over this intelligence. Have been reading
in the Age about employment offered at Holyoke, Mass., and in the
tobacco fields of Connecticut. Let us know how we can get our
tickets to come North, so we will be ready when the time arrives
for our departure.
North Carolina was also heard from, and the following is
from Alabama.
1 Notes of Charles S. Johnson taken in connection with his work as
special investigator of the migration for the publication of the work pre-
pared for the Carnegie Endowment and mentioned above.
74 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Please see to it that the Rev. Mr. Brown of Rochester, N.Y.,
gets this letter. I saw an article in the Age that he is securing posi-
tions for colored girls.
The New York Age article directly stimulating the first of
these letters was a lengthy one headed, " Opening of
Northern Tobacco Fields to Negro Proves a Boon to
Race." The same paper, according to its issue of August
16, IQI6, 1 received a letter from a body " representing the
influential colored citizens" of Florida asking for advice
on the whole situation. The letter says, in part:
Our has been asked by the white and colored people here
to speak in an advisory way, but we decided to remain silent until
we can hear from reliable sources in the North and East, and you
have been designated as one of the best Please give the
benefit of your findings and reasons for your conclusion.
As to the part played by other newspapers, R. H.
Lea veil writes: " Single copies I have seen of Negro
papers published in New York, Washington, and Indian-
apolis have been more self-contained" 2 thus indicating
the penetration of Mississippi by several northern sheets.
Lea veil does not mention the name of the Chicago De-
fender in the report cited but he means it certainly. He
speaks of "a weekly published in Chicago, whose editor
knows clearly what he wants for his people and why he
wants it."
[It] makes skillful use of a recent lynching in which the head
of the dead man was severed from his body, so it is alleged, and
thrown into a crowd of Negroes on the principal Negro street. A
photograph of what purports to be the head as it lies on the deserted
1 Negro Migration During the War, pp. 43, 44.
3 Negro Migration in 1916-17, U.S. Department of Labor, Division
of Negro Economics, Washington, 1919, pp. 29, 30.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 75
street is published under the telling caption, "Not Belgium
America.". . . . This publicity is all the more effective, because
there is a natural tendency on the part of this Negro press to
minimize such justification as may exist One little Negro
boy formerly had trouble in disposing of 10 copies a week, so that
he was often late at Sunday school. Now, since the exodus has
begun, he has had no trouble in selling his papers in time to get to
Sunday school, and many other small boys are doing a lively
business selling additional copies.
In July of this year a circulation of 80,000 in the United States
was claimed for this weekly, and I was told recently on what seems
unquestionable authority that the circulation is now 93,000. A
reputable Negro in Louisiana to whom I was directed by a promi-
nent white leader, said of this paper: "My people grab it like a
mule grabs a mouthful of fine fodder."
It was reported to this investigator that the Negroes
did not trust the loyalty of their southern press as much
as they did that of the North. It was asserted by a south-
ern business man that through advertising he was able
to influence the expression of one of these local papers.
The following are but two samples of the many letters
received during this time by the Defender:
TEXAS
I have read the Defender and I have put my mine on it and I
wood lik to know mor abot it and if yo pleas send me a letter abot
the noth. I will thenk uo becaus we have so miney members of the
Race wont to come and live up thear and all they is waitin on is a
chanch and that is all and they will say fair wel to this old world
and thay all will come, some is railroad some is shop and any thong
thay can gets to do. With hold the name.
I remain yors, ....
GEORGIA
Enclosed you will finde stamp to envelop. Please accomodate
me with a few good firms or the names howery and Low cations so
76 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
I can instruct some of my people as to where is the best place for
them to locate. I want to get every one away from this hell hold
that I can. If this is too much truble you can please put it in
next weeks ishue for I am a reader of your paper and also injoy
reading it. I am also going to write to some of those Farm coun-
tries in the west for this is no place for the colored.
No longer than last week two white men knocked and beet a
colored man and then the police walk up and put the colored man
under rest and let the white man go free, so your Hon. please favor
me with the knowledge as to where to go for the us to go.
Resp. yours.
As typical of recent adventures in the world of Negro
journalism I shall set down briefly, using extracts from
personal letters, the circumstances connected with three
of these.
C. F. Richarson, editor of the Houston Informer:
I saw that the pulpit and the teacher could not do all the work
of bettering, advancing, enlightening and solidifying our racial
group; I also saw the potent factor of the white press was . . . . in
the development, progress and expansion of their race I
finally dedicated and consecrated myself to the task, asking Divine
guidance and protection and thus today I have nothing to regret.
Many of my class and school mates have apparently made better
headway, financially, than I have, but when the poor and down-
trodden members of my race come to me and shake my hands and
compliment me on my position for righteousness and fair and
square deal in church and state, I feel that such encomiums and ex-
pressions of gratitude excel all monetary considerations.
In recent years, financially, I cannot complain, for the paper
has afforded several of us a nice and decent living; for our people
appreciate and liberally support all movements, ventures, and
undertakings that mean for their progress and uplift.
This is one case among many of the connection of
college-trained Negroes with the more radical type of the
present-day journalism.
THE NEGRO PRESS IN FREEDOM 77
The Murfreesboro (Tennessee) Union, a very recent
paper, has Mary Vaughn as business editor. Her ex-
perience may indicate the fact that all newspapers are
not radical, and perhaps would not be expected to be such
in the smaller cities of the South.
What caused me to be so deeply interested in the newspaper
world, I thought in this way I could help more of my people and
get them interested in reading more and reading good books and
good newspapers Some of the best people of my race got
together and thought it a fine movement, so I worked it up myself-
. . . . I put in $ i oo to start our paper and we have now 300 sub-
scribers, so you can see that there is nothing to be realized out of it
as yet I struggle from day to day canvassing the town
with my pad and pencil trying to meet the printer 's bill I
went straight to the white folks in this section and knocked at the
door of their conscience and they received me, and assured me of
their loyal support.
The Crusader is 0ne of the more radical magazines.
It is published in >few York.
The Crusader was started September, 1918, with the first
edition of one thousand copies. Apparently like the Garvey
movement only in lesser degree and necessarily divergent mani-
festations it struck the hidden chords of the Negro Heart with its
new ideas and bold ideals of aspirations Within three years,
its circulation had climbed to the average of 33,000 per month.
The Crusader came as a result of well laid plans following the dona-
tion of a sum of money by J. Anthony Crawford, president of the
Inter-Colonial Steamship Co., Inc., to Cyril V. Briggs, then edi-
torial writer of the A msterdam News. The purpose of the donation
being to give Mr. Briggs an organ of his own to carry on propaganda
which he had begun for a Free Africa, A Strong Negro State (in
Africa or elsewhere), etc v The publication had few early diffi-
culties, meeting as it did with almost instant approval
In 1920 the Associated Negro Press estimated that
the previous five years had seen a growth of circulation
78 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
from 100 to 300 per cent, and advertising patronage from
50 to 200 per cent. 1 With this substantial advance there
has been likewise a growing new spirit among Negroes ?
according to the Promoter (August, 1920) :
New Negro publications are not only expressive of the new
spirit that has seized the race, but they are exerting a tremendous
influence in inspiring the people with the highest racial ideals and
aspirations. They are inculcating into every Negro a sense of race
pride and determination which is without parallel in the history of
the race.
1 Kerlin, The Voice of the Negro, p. 4.
CHAPTER IV
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS
In its news of current events, expression of advice and
opinion, contributed articles of a more general character,
and advertising, the Negro press contains what one
expects to find in the press anywhere. Its small-town
and metropolitan papers somewhat resemble those of a
corresponding class published by white people. But
there is a difference. Through all the Negro press there
flows an undercurrent of feeling that the race considers
itself a part of America and yet has no voice in the Ameri-
can newspaper. Members of this group want to learn
about each other, they want the stories of their successes,
conflicts, and issues told, and they want to express them-
selves in public. Thus the Kansas City Call (April 16,
1921):
Oh, if you could see the story of your struggles honestly and
fairly related in the newspapers, if you could find your heart yearn-
ing after good will with all men, if your aspirations were met with
applause as are those of your neighbors, this would be a wonderful
world! But no! You are denied what other men are freely
granted and to get your wants you must plan and work.
The newspaper, printer's ink and white paper are the best
lever to win a fair deal from the world. The Race press needs
you and you need the press. The press ought to do your publicity
and you must keep it up.
Occasionally it is recognized that only the nature of
the case is responsible for the absence of Negro stories
from the white press. Thus the Portland (Oregon)
79
8o THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Advocate (May 7, 1921), quoting Method, of Richmond,
Virginia :
In order to get Negro news in full, you must read Negro news-
papers. There are many friendly white dailies and other periodi-
cals, but their columns are so crowded with the business of their
own people (and justly so) that they have little time and space to
devote to Negro activity as such. You owe it to yourself to know
what your race is doing. You can know it but one way the way
of the Negro press.
"We cannot hope," says N. D. Brascher, of the Asso-
ciated Negro Press, "to have the daily newspapers give
our viewpoint and the aspirations and struggles that
we are making." 1 R. R. Moton, principal of Tuskegee
Institute, is quoted by the Norfolk Journal and Guide
(December 18, 1920):
The Negro law breaker has easier access to newspaper columns
than the fifty-two Negro bank presidents in the South, one of
whom is a woman; than the fifty thousand Negroes who are con-
ducting business enterprises; than the thousands of physicians,
dentists, and other professional men, who in a quiet but effective
way are contributing to the educational, moral and material ad-
vancement not only of their own race, but also of the South and
of the nation.
A statistical study of Negro newspapers shows that
the amount of space devoted to news and opinion
seems to average 60 per cent. For the most part the
advertising represents local business, generally business
carried on by Negroes. To the white reader advertise-
ments of cosmetics appear rather prominent. Some
papers, generally those from smaller communities, have
a large amount of plate matter supplied by a syndicate
1 Report to the Chicago Commission on Race Relations, unpublished
form.
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS 81
and similar to plate matter everywhere. This consists
of miscellaneous and innocuous information, comic car-
toons, and advice for home and farm. The casual reader
of the Negro paper is impressed by the large proportion
of opinion as over against news, but this is due largely to
the tone of the news-writing. The editorials as such
take an average of 4 per cent of the space. About one-
seventh of all goes into out-of-town news. Events of
general interest having nothing to do with race matters
scarcely appear. As for special pages dealing with sports
or the theater, these belong only to the newspapers in
larger cities. Such are the results of an analysis of forty
typical periodicals. 1
1 Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Union
Red Bank (NJ.) Echo
Cadiz (Ky.) Informer
Palatka (Fla.) Advocate
Hopkins ville (Ky.) New Age
Danville (Ky.) Torch Light
Robbins (111.) Herald
American Star (Sheffield, Ala.)
Pike County (Ala.) News
Morrillton (Ark.) Voice
Shreveport (La.) Sun
People's Recorder (Columbia,
S.C.)
Star of Zion (Charlotte, N.C.)
Raleigh (N.C.) Independent
Watchman-Lantern (Muskogee,
Okla.)
Newport News (Va.) Star
Rome (Ga.) Enterprise
4 Sun (Pueblo, Colo.)
Progressive Citizen (Texarkana,
Ark.)
Phoenix (Ariz.) Tribune
Tunes-Plain Dealer (Birming-
ham, Ala.)
Baptist Leader (Birmingham,
Ala.)
Denver (Colo.) Star
Washington (D.C.) Bee
Savannah (Ga.) Tribune
Michigan State News (Grand
Rapids)
Louisville (Ky.) News
Dallas (Tex.) Express
St. Luke Herald (Richmond, Va.)
East Tennessee News (Knoxville)
Pittsburgh Courier
Philadelphia Tribune
Cleveland Advocate
New York News
Boston Chronicle
Buffalo American
St. Louis Argus
Afro-American (Baltimore)
ChicaKo Whip
Detroit Leader
The first ten of these papers come from towns of less than 10,000
population; the next ten from cities between 10.000 and 50,000; the
next group]from those between 50,000 and 500,000; the last from the
largest centers.
82 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
In addition to these forty papers examined, twenty-
four more were taken, and the entire sixty-four gone over
for an analysis of topics treated. Editorials were ana-
lyzed along with the news as indicating the attitude of
the paper toward the subjects handled. Sporting news,
theater writeups, local and social happenings, as well as
local reports of meetings these were taken for granted
and not counted. The remainder, eight hundred and
seventy-nine articles, were noted with the following result:
On the subject of racial wrongs or clashes, 151 news items, 71
editorials.
On race progress and pride, 1 24 news items and 1 2 editorials.
On welfare efforts, including education etc., 92 news items,
15 editorials.
On the work of movements (such as the N.A.A.C.P., etc.)
directed to the solution of racial problems, 59 news items, 4
editorials.
On negro crime (chiefly in city papers), 85 news items, 2
editorials.
On all other subjects, 194 news items, 70 editorials.
A large number of the articles, especially in the news,
have to do with local or national politics, and frequently
there are articles on Africa, Brazil, or other parts of the
world toward which Negroes are now looking. The out-
standing fact is, however, that when you add together
the figures in the first four groups, you have 528 articles,
or almost three-fifths of all devoted to the characteristic
racial struggles of the Negro group. Sample articles on
these subjects will be quoted.
Let the reader ask himself, as he glances over the fol-
lowing items, whether he finds this sort of news in his
daily paper, or whether news of this sort, when it does
appear, is so written and placed as to make more than a
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS 83
fleeting impression upon the white reader. In the most
cases it will be discovered that so far as the dailies are
concerned these matters are not mentioned.
I. RACE WRONGS AND RACE CLASHES
We have never been able to see anything but evil in any Jim
Crow Law. We have always been ready to lend a hand to any
measure that tends to elevate any people and instill in them a
higher degree of self respect and personal conduct and behavior.
A Jim Crow Law, instead of helping to improve any people, is
rather a strong aid to make degradation permanent. A Jim Crow
Law is an abomination, and at the same time let it be known that a
Jim Crow People are a scandal. Hardly a train, or other method
of public service passes but what one can see how poorly many
have the correct idea of their own conduct and appearance. This
condition will hardly be removed as long as there are laws providing
especially for such conditions. Florida Sentinel (Jacksonville),
December 4, 1920.
TUSKEGEE, ALA., March 18. Armed with revolvers, blud-
geons and ropes, and within sight of the famous institution founded
by the late Booker T. Washington, a mob of white farmers charged
the cabin occupied by Robert West, age 88, seized him and his son,
George West, and forced Mrs. Duckie West, age 50 and Agnew
West, 23 years old, to flee to the woods for safety. A search of
the woods was made by members of the mob, but the woman and
her son, after wading through creeks, escaped and hid in a barn
on the outskirts of the city. Shots were fired at them as they left
the rear door of the cabin.
Nine children adopted by George West, ranging in ages from
2 to 5, were left in the cabin at the mercy of the mob. It is not
known what has become of them. Robert West, with his son
George, was placed in jail, and while there W. E. Haust (white) is
said to have gone to the West farm and removed 15 bales of cotton,
8 mules, 2 wagons, 23 head of cattle, 5,000 bundles of fodder,
$75 worth of barbed wire, corn, sugar cane, cottonseed and a large
amount of peas. When questioned regarding the removal of this
84 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
property, Haust is said to have remarked that it was too much for
"a darkey to have, "and that West owed him a debt of $200
Chicago Defender, March 19, 1921.
JACKSON, Miss., April 13. Sandy Thompson, slave on the
peonage farm of E. B. Dodson (white) and his mother-in-law,
Mrs. Rachel Moore, were lynched by a mob of crackers here last
week.
Thompson's body was found Monday of last week swinging
from a limb of a tree. He had been stripped by a mob after being
shot in the leg his body quickly strung up and riddled with bullets.
Mrs. Moore had been missing from her home for the past ten
days but it was only on Sunday that her body was found hanging to
the limb of a tree in Rankin County, 15 miles from here.
A year ago Thompson bought a hog from Dodson with the
agreement that he was to make payment for it by working on
Dodson 's farm. According to Dodson 's system of bookkeeping,
Thompson had worked for a year without cancelling the debt.
Thursday afternoon Dodson went to the slave's home and
declared his work unsatisfactory and demanded his hog back. In
desperation Thompson drew a gun and shot his master dead, after
which he escaped to the woods where he was found and lynched.
Afro- American, April 15, 1921.
The prison system in this state [Texas] has long needed a
reform. The Harlem incident that occurred on one of the big
state farms, where prisoners were worked, was a blot on the pen
system of the state and on civilization. Several Negro convicts
were thrown into an air-tight dungeon and were left to smother to
death. They pleaded for air and water, but their pleadings were
ignored by the human(?) guards. Beaumont (Texas) Monitor,
February 19, 1921.
NEW YORK CITY, Feb. 19. Following the announcement a
few weeks ago that the Pace Phonograph Corporation of New York
had been organized to reproduce Negro Music, using exclusively
Negro voices, notice was served on the Pace & Handy Music Co.,
of which Mr. Harry H. Pace was president, by two large white
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS 85
phonograph record companies that it need not expect any more of
its published music to be reproduced by them Cleveland
Call, February 19, 1921.
HAITI, Mo. There are some conditions in this section which
ought to be corrected. The system of working Negroes is in some
instances, no doubt, borrowed from states farther south, in a num-
ber of cases never getting a just settlement for their labor, and it will
be remembered that it was in Cape Girardeau County a number of
years ago where a number of peonage cases were uncovered. It is
believed that now there are some such cases in this section.
Near here there is a farm known as Taylor farm, comprising
something like 300 acres of land. If reports hereabouts are to be
believed, and they come from good sources, on this particular farm,
the work bell is rung at 4 a.m. and the wage paid for a day 's work
is $1.00, but the workers never get a settlement. At n a.m. the
women are called from the field to work in the house, and at i p.m.
they return to the fields to finish the day with their husbands.
Workers are not permitted to have hogs, chickens, etc., and the
reason, presumably, is to force them to patronize the store; the
foreman gives as his reason for not allowing the help to have
chickens, cows and the like is that they will get mixed up with his.
Houston Informer, May 28, 1921.
[Editorial] Where we live, move, and have our being is
neglected, and as we must live in filth, move around in mud and
mire, and have our being in fevered mires and miasmic quarters, we
have a most holy and just right to complain, and until our prayers
are answered, they shall continue to be prayers of complaint.
Newport News Star, April 21, 1921.
The truth about the origin of the Tulsa riots is now definitely
known. Mr. Walter F. White, who went to Tulsa to investigate
the Tulsa riots, in a special dispatch to the New York Evening Post
says that the immediate cause of the riot was the claim of a white
girl, Sarah Page, that a colored young man, Dick Rowland, had
1 to assault her. The girl operated an elevator in the
Drexel Building in Tulsa. She stated that the colored boy had
86 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
seized her arm as she admitted him to the car. Rowland claims
that he stumbled and accidentally stepped on the girl 's foot. She
screamed. Rowland ran.
On the following day the Tulsa "Tribune" painted the whole
story in yellow. The Chief of Police, the sheriff, the Mayor of
Tulsa and a number of reputable citizens all stated that the girl
had not been molested and that there had been no attempt at
criminal assault.
Victor F. Barnett, managing editor of the "Tribune," stated
that his paper had since learned that the original story, that the
girl 's face was scratched and her clothing torn, was untrue. It was
a crime on the part of the Tulsa "Tribune" that it did not find out
that the story was untrue before publishing it. If it had done so
it is most likely that Tulsa never would have been the scene of
murder and arson that it was. Of course, the Tulsa "Tribune"
felt that the story of a colored man assaulting a white girl would
make good reading matter and sell a few more copies of the paper,
but there ought to be some way to bring home to the Tulsa "Trib-
une" and other papers like it the fact that they are criminally
responsible for publishing unauthenticated stories which are likely
to lead to lawlessness.
And yet just the sort of thing done by the Tulsa "Tribune"
is being done every day all over the country and especially by the
South [An example given from Florence (Alabama) Daily
News.]
The bald truth of the matter is, the life of any colored man
may now be put in jeopardy by any hysterical white woman. She
hasn't got to be violated; she hasn't even got to be touched.
All that is necessary is for her not to like the looks of some Negro
who is approaching and raise an outcry. This is sufficient to put
the man's life in danger. This is what democracy and law and
order come to in the United States. JAMES WELDON JOHNSON,
in the New York Age, June 18, 1921.
The final exhibit of this attitude in the Negro press is
an editorial from the Samaritan Herald (April 15, 1921),
a small fraternal paper in Sumter, South Carolina, with
scarcely more than 1,000 circulation.
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS 87
NOTHING Is SETTLED UNTIL SETTLED RIGHT
Failure, neglect, or refusal to comply with the unchangeable
dictum of this maxim is, in our humble opinion, the, or one of the
main causes for the delay in the settlement, and solution of our,
so-called, race problem.
The great need, as we see it, is the standardization, not of the
laws, but their administration. No intelligent man will, we take it,
deny that there is, as practiced, a double standard, one for white
and another for colored people. Naturally this causes dissatisfac-
tion, friction and complainings, mutterings deep, if not loud.
The Negro does not want, ask or desire that mythical bugaboo,
social equality upon which demagogues ride into prominence and
office. What he does want and asks for is, what the late Col.
Roosevelt called "a square deal." If our friends, the overwhelm-
ing majority, of whom we hear so much, would interest themselves,
and by their influence and numbers, make that possible, even they
would be surprised at the ease and dispatch with which the clouds
would roll away.
H. RACE PROGRESS AND INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT
In an address before the United States Senate last May,
Senator Spencer, of Missouri, brought together a large amount of
information concerning the Negroes
Since they obtained their freedom from slavery they have
acquired property worth more than $1,000,000,000.
They have acquired lands exceeding 21,000,000 acres an area
greater than the entire State of South Carolina and they cultivate
as much more. In fact, they either own or rent about two-thirds
of the cultivated land of the South.
The Russian serfs during the first fifty years of their freedom
accumulated about $36 apiece, an aggregate of about half a billion
dollars. During the first fifty years of their freedom the American
Negroes saved nearly double that sum, or $70 apiece, an aggregate
of $700,000,000.
A large part of the savings of the Negro is in lands and houses.
. . . . Doubtless, now at least 600,000 homes are owned by Negroes.
Negroes .... have established more than 50,000 prosperous busi-
ness enterprises. They own 100 insurance companies. They own
88 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
and conduct banks with a capitalization of nearly $2,000,000 and
an annual business of $20,000,000.
In 1910 there were 27,727 Negro teachers. Three hundred
counties are employing Negro industrial teachers. Today there
are more than 40,000 Negro teachers presiding over schools in
which 2,000,000 Negro children are enrolled.
As to church work, there are 34,962 Negro ministers, and out
of their poverty the Negroes have put $68,000,000 into church
buildings.
Negro physicians and surgeons numbered 3,400 in 1910; Negro
dentists, 478; and there were 7,056 in other professions.
The Negro is not lacking in inventive power, and more than a
thousand patents have been issued to him. He is not lacking in
literary power, but edits and publishes 500 newspapers and other
periodicals. He is patriotic. The Negroes gave $225,000,000 for
Liberty Bonds and for war work activities. Two Negroes were
the first soldiers of the American army to be decorated for bravery
during the World War, and four entire Negro regiments received
the Croix de Guerre for heroism in action. In addition, about
400 individual Negroes received medals of honor for bravery. It is
a most striking fact that 74.60 per cent of the Negroes examined
for the draft were accepted, and only 69.71 per cent of the whites.
.... Quoted from the Christian Endeavor World, by the
Washington Bee, November 20, 1920.
NEW ORLEANS, LA., Feb. 10. Eighty colored women were
given certificates last week to practice nursing. The certificates
were issued by the New Orleans Chapter, American Red Cross.
More than six hundred have received certificates to practice the
profession of nursing in this city. Shreveport (Louisiana) Sun (by
the Associated Negro Press).
WASHINGTON, D.C. Announcement has been already made of
the decision of a group of Colored men, representing Colored bank-
ing institutions and Negro business, to put under way a national
banking program looking to closer affiliation with metropolitan
banking interests. ... by the opening of the new year a new one
million ($1,000,000) dollar concern will have been launched by the
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS 89
strongest group of Negro financial interests ever joined to-
gether in an allied movement. Kansas City Sun, December n,
1920.
[Editorial] More than 100 varieties of products from peanuts,
ranging from the purest of milks for the sick room, mothers and
infants, to ink useful for writing and sketching have been discovered
by George W. Carver, Negro professor of Tuskegee Institute. He
showed them to the Ways and Means Committee and delivered a
discourse on them was greeted with applause from the members
and spectators the first demonstration of the sort that the tariff
hearings have known.
His discoveries exhibited ten kinds of milk, five kinds of
punches, cherry, lemon, orange, blackberry and plum; salted
peanuts; two grades of flour; two grades of meal; five breakfast
foods; new flavorings for ice-cream, cakes, gingerbread, cookies
and various confections; chocolate coated peanuts; peanut candy
bars; crystallized peanuts; three relishes; nine wood stains
ranging from malachite green to fumed oak; black ink; face pow-
der and face cream ; Worcester sauce; four different kinds of stock
foods made from the vine; ground hay with Chinaberry added as
a tonic, and various kinds of oils.
There can be no doubt but that such scientific discoveries will
place Prof. Carver among the leading scientists of America. The
fact that he is a member of our group is especially pleasant since
it may be truthfully said that he is without an equal in that particu-
lar line Dallas Express, February 12, 1921.
Orlo South Who Is Hailed as the Phenomenal Track Man of
Commercial High School Established New Record at Indoor
Inter-Class Meet at Municipal Auditorium and Is Awarded
Gold Medal as Individual Point Winner, Scoring 20$ for
Seniors.
The Colored Lads Certainly Scintillated as the Particular Stars of
the Inter-Class Track Meet. South Was Winner in Four
Events. Crawford Pulled the Sophomores Out of a Hole and
Put Them in Third Place. This Was Done in Spite of Lack
of Training Facilities. .
90 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
After the meet when the special reporter sent by the Monitor
to cover the event was congratulating South on his wonderful
work, South said, "You know, if I had the chance these white boys
have I'd call myself an athlete, but I haven't. Here after this
meet all the white fellows are going over to the 'Y' and take a
shower. I 've got to go home and take a bath. I surprised myself
by doing what I did because I didn 't do a bit of practising. You
know how bad the weather has been outside and I couldn 't practice
at the 'Y.' " Omaha Monitor, April 14, 1921.
TRENTON, March 30. For the first time in the history of New
Jersey a Negro today occupied the chair of Speaker of the House
of Assembly Speaker George S. Hobert .... was called
[away] and appointed him in his place
Dr. Alexander is the first of his race to be elected to the New
Jersey Legislature New Jersey Observer, April i, 1921.
NEW ORLEANS, LA., May 4. .... The State Supreme
Court handed down a decision in the suit by Lillie G. Taylor versus
the State of Louisiana, Angelina Allen and George West, decreeing
to the plaintiff, a vast tract of land in the southwest section of
Claiborne county, the land being rich in oil and gas deposits.
The case turned on Lillie Taylor's relation to her mother who
took the estate as daughter of Ison McGee
The estate is estimated to be worth no less than $20,000,000,
and it makes the litigant the richest colored woman in the world.
Washington Colored American, May 5, 1921.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., April. Miss Eva B. Dykes of Washing-
ton, recently passed her examination for the degree, Doctor of
Philosophy in English at Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass.
Miss Dykes is the first colored woman to be recommended for such
a degree East Tennessee News, May 12, 1921.
Frederick Ernest Morrison, who appears on the screen as
"Sunshine Sammy" in the Harold Lloyd and Snub Pollard come-
dies, is now about nine years old. It is reported that his salary is
$700 a week, regularly. He is the highest salaried colored person
in the world today. He started in working occasionally at $5 a
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO *>RESS 91
day. Now, no Harold Lloyd or Snub Pollard comedy released by
Pathe would be considered complete without him and he is beloved
by all the white players Sunshine isn't much impressed
with his own importance. He will forsake any press agent living
for a vanilla ice-cream cone. Richmond (Indiana) Blade, April 1 5 ,
1921.
Charles Gilpin, the actor, and Jack Johnson, the prize
fighter, are also favorite heroes of the Negro press.
It is characteristic of the Negro newspapers that a
great deal of space goes for various sorts of welfare and
uplift effort. It is a group that keeps on saying: "Tell
them we are rising."
DALLAS, TEX., Dec. i. The annual convention of the Texas
Congress of Mothers and Parent Teachers' Association for Negro
Women, which has been in session at the Munger Avenue Baptist
Church since Wednesday, was brought to a dose Friday with a
mass meeting in which final business for the coming year was
transacted
An interesting program was presented by the children of the
Home-makers' Industrial and Trade School, of which Mrs. Josie
Brigg Hall is president. This school has drawn the attention of
Dallas civic workers for the splendid work it has done for the
young Negro girls of the city Progressive Citizen (Tex-
arkana, Ark.), December 4, 1920.
.... According to the report from the secretary of the
Child's Welfare Association, out of 160 counties of the State there
are only 80 Juvenile Courts at present, notwithstanding the law
passed in 1916 requiring each county to have a Juvenile Court.
Very often the officers of the law, according to this report, have
been found to be over ignorant regarding this law or grossly indif-
ferent with reference to its administration. It is encouraging,
however, to note the disposition of the regular constituted authori-
ties to co-operate with the Welfare Board in establishing Juvenile
Courts when sufficient public sentiment has been crystallized to
substantiate the.need.
92 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
The colored people are asked to co-operate with this Welfare
Board, reporting to Mr. Burr Blackburn, Secretary State Depart-
ment, Public Welfare, Atlanta, Ga., wherever there are children
under the age of 16 on the chain gang or imprisoned with adult
criminals. We would also urge that wherever we can we secure the
co-operation of the local authorities in each community toward
throwing around your wayward boys corrective influences, as well
as an effort to get them out of contact with seasoned criminals.
.... Atlanta Independent, April 4, 1921.
We have a plenty to do for our Race, both here at home and
abroad. One thing we need badly and something we can get if
we try hard enough is a first class Community House, or Center,
exclusively for ourselves. We should have a building, like the
Y.M.C.A. has, but always open for the benefit of both sexes. In
this building be an auditorium for public and social gatherings, a
swimming pool, gymnasium, and dining rooms and rest rooms for
both sexes, and all should belong to us. Right now some steps
should be taken toward getting it. This is a job for the Colored
Citizens Civic League to tackle. Richmond (Indiana) Blade, Feb-
ruary 18, 1921.
The State Federation of Colored Women 's Clubs, whose presi-
dent is Mrs. M. M. Bethune, of Daytona, is making a strong appeal
for the sum of five hundred dollars to close a wonderful bargain for
a site for delinquent girls of the state. At the last session of the
federation, which was held in Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in this city,
this measure was given careful attention and specific steps were
taken to that end. The present appeal is made with all haste and
seriousness, and clubs and individuals are asked to make immediate
response. There can hardly be any doubts of the proper manage-
ment of such a home in the event of its establishment, and where-
ever this appeal may come it is worthy of favor -Florida
Sentinel (Jacksonville), February 12, 1921.
One may also note in connection with this general
subject, a front page such as the Savannah Tribune, for
February 12, 1921, which treats the following:
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS 93
Conference Held to Discuss Improvement Negro Rural Life
(Tuskegee)
Suit to Be Brought by Negro Farmers [Against White, for
Peonage]
Urban League Holds Meeting
Farmers' Meeting Here Next Week
Negroes Changing in the South [Sociological Item]
Health Organizations Hold Meeting
Douglas-Lincoln Day at the "Y"
Exercises Were Held at School Yesterday
Du Bois Lecture and Banquet
Here is an indication of a welfare movement that hints
at more than local uplif ting.
The i yth annual session of the South Carolina Race Conference
will convene in Columbia Feb. i6th and ryth. All agencies and
forces will be united to make the 1921 Race Conference a success.
Let every organization in South Carolina that hopes to become
Statewide, hold its annual meeting in Columbia at the time the
Conference meets. The Race Conference program will be broad
enough to cover every phase of racial development. The program
will be published later. Let every preacher, teacher, farmer and
leader in every part of the State use his or her influence toward
helping to carry the news of this great Conference to the people so
that we may assemble and give first hand information upon the sub-
ject that is so much needed at this particular time in our racial
development Standard (Columbia, South Carolina),
January 18, 1921.
Examples of press news of movements working toward
amelioration of race relations will include more news of
the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People than of other organizations, since this
body constantly forwards its matter to the press. Other
bodies heard from will be the National Equal Rights
League, the National Race Congress, and the Universal
94 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Negro Improvement Association ("the Garvey move-
ment").
III. RACE MOVEMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 14. For the first time in a number of
years, Congressmen from the South, who are holding their member-
ships because of the disfranchisement of Colored Americans, "had
their feelings hurt," and became noticeably peeved, in the hearing
before the Congressional Committee
Among those who have offered evidence before the committee
are James Weldon Johnson, William Pickens, Walter F. White,
.... all officials of the National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People
Secretary Johnson says: "The following information was laid
before the committee:
" i. That uniformly in the southern states it took fewer voters
to elect representatives to Congress than in northern and western
states, 11,000 votes electing a representative in Georgia against
61,000 required in New York.
" 2. We presented the names, addresses and registration cer-
tificate number of 941 persons who were denied the vote in the city
of Jacksonville, Florida, and informed the census committee that
3,000 other names accompanied by affidavits or sworn statements
would be forwarded.
"3. We presented photographs showing long lines of colored
people who stood all day without being permitted to vote.
"4. We presented evidence of the cold blooded murder of
upwards of 30 colored people in the election riots of Ocoee,
Florida." 'Shreveport Sun (by the Associated Negro Press), Janu-
ary 15, 1921.
Boston Authorities Thanked for Barring Southern Race Prejudice
and Propaganda from Boston Satisfaction Voiced over "Birth
of Nation" and Blair Case Rousing Welcome Home to Trotter
Rev. McClane Made Local Treasurer Defense Fund Big
Audience.
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS 95
The audience which assembled Monday night with the Equal
Rights League filled the big auditorium of the i2th Baptist church,
overflowed around the walls, out in the vestibule and down the
front stairs where some sat all the evening. This was the "Vic-
tory Meeting," one long to be remembered by the big crowds.
There was joy and there was enthusiasm galore.
The choir sang, Rev. Plaatje of So. Africa prayed, Mr. E. T.
Morris opened and explained the meeting was to signalize the vic-
tory in race protection by stopping the "Birth of a Nation" and
by convicting to a time sentence the Southerner at Harvard who
slashed a Colored policeman, Officer Blair, also to welcome home
from the West Wm. Monroe Trotter.
Rev. Shaw began with a tribute to the marvelous persistence
and consistency of Mr. Trotter. He approved the N.A.A.C.P. as
the whites had a duty to perform working for and with us, but that
to foster and execute nothing of ourselves, weakened race stamina
and lent credence to the criticism by the whites that we Colored
people are all right as imitators and followers but have no ability to
initiate or carry through. The Equal Rights League is starting to
raise a big national defense fund for and by the race for rights and
justice
After his appreciation of the most kind greeting and tributes,
Mr. Trotter spoke, telling in an even thrilling manner of his travels
to the Pacific. What he saw was represented by this "Birth of a
Nation," everywhere the South was pushing its prejudice into the
North and by surrender and indifference and staying out of
public places the Colored people were losing every public right of
service and accommodation. His remedy was to spend some time
mixing and mingling with the rest of the Americans to keep them
used to our presence and to insist upon service firmly when we
enter public places. Don 't let the South triumph over us, was his
appeal. Guardian (Boston), May 28, 1921.
President Harding received the Delegates of the Sixth Annual
Session of the National Race Congress of America, Inc., in the
Executive Office May 5, 1921, when the following Memorial was
filed with the I'roi.ii nt in behalf of the Colored Citizens of America.
96 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
To the President of the United States of America by the Na-
tional Race Congress of America, Inc., Sixth Annual Session,
May 4, 5, and 6, 1921, Washington, D.C.
Mr. President:
We come to you today, bearing the aspirations of 12,000,000
of God-fearing American citizens of unquestioned loyalty. Our
group, suffering from traditional civil, social, and industrial handi-
caps, as well as a striking difference in racial type, is compelled to
resort to the constitutional right of petition as long as unrighted
wrongs, unrequited toil, unmasked lawlessness, and uneven justice
stain the flag and dim the glory of democracy
The burden of our petition is: Equality of opportunity as well
as equality of responsibility Mr. President, we complain
of the following:
1. Lawlessness manifested in lynching, riots, peonage, and dis-
crimination in the administration of justice.
2. Unjust restriction of suffrage.
3. The direct violation of the Constitution in the transporta-
tion of interstate passengers.
4. The un-American practice of discrimination and segregation
on account of color in the Government Departments in Washing-
ton Dallas Express, May 21, 1921.
There seems to be some difference of policy with
regard to the treatment of crime. The New York Dis-
patch, a new publication, endeavored to initiate a crusade
against the prominence in the Negro press of such news.
In its issue for January 7, 1921, it says:
More than two months ago the New York Dispatch started a
campaign against the Screaming of Crime in Newspapers and made
a canvass among the master minds of the country. ... in order
to get an expression of public opinion with the result that each week
has brought letters from men and women in every walk in life sup-
porting the stand taken by the Dispatch .... such persons as
ex-President Taft, John Hope of Morehouse College, Dr. Gregg of
Hampton, Prof. Smith of the University of Pa., President Hadley
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS 97
of Yale University, Dr. J. Stanley Durkee of Howard University,
Dr. McDonald of Storer College and a host of others have all
registered their opposition against such methods
That this paper has adopted a new policy or has not
entirely succeeded in the old is apparent from its front
page of May 27, the same year. Fully three columns are
here given to the following subjects:
Mrs. Monta Clarke .... Killed by an Enraged Jealous
Husband
Colored Man to Hang for Love of White Girl
Mother Zion Sunday School Teacher Robbed
Alonzo Crowell Charged with Rape is Freed
Colored Dentist Unsexed by Mob Down in Texas
Meanwhile some papers like the Defender and Whip
of Chicago have deliberately made Negro crime promi-
nent. For including an item of the same nature as the
one last mentioned in connection with New York Dis-
patch, the Whip was excluded from a Texas town by
authorities there. The Defender often uses its red type
to add prominence to news of crime. But most of the
papers are not generally marked by a very large pro-
portion of criminal reports. The New York Age is as
free from this as any. Its front-page material is more
typically such as in the issue of December 18, 1920, where
the page- wide headlines read:
National Board, Y.W.C.A., Hostess to 19 Colored Women
Brooklyn Opens Campaign Supporting Anti-Lynching Bill
Of course, the presence of crime items in a Negro
newspaper would be expected, since this is a normal part
of the white man 's press. Crime has always been recog-
nized as valuable news. It is not the usual, but the
unusual thing in the life of a community, and the pub-
98 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
lication of it certainly makes it possible for that com-
munity to exercise criticism on its own life.
Among the articles otherwise unclassified were men-
tioned those dealing with politics and those on Africa.
A few illustrations may be indicated.
COLUMBIA, Mo., Feb. 12. What was called the Lincoln-
Douglass-Moore celebration was held in this city last night at
McKinney's hall on Broadway. This was the largest gathering
ever seen at the hall. Not only was every available space occupied
but many were turned away being unable to get to the doors.
The attraction of the occasion was the presence of the Hon.
Walthal M. Moore of St. Louis, representative in the Fifty-first
General Assembly of the Missouri Legislature 'St. Louis
Argus, February 18, 1921.
WASHINGTON, March 17. The unannounced entrance of a
representative of the Afro-American into the office of Senator
Weller, in the State Office Building, this Thursday morning threw
consternation into a coterie of colored men gathered there to tell
the white party chieftains what they regarded should be the pro-
gram for all the colored people of Maryland. Afro-American,
March 18, 1921.
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 25. Daily newspaper comments,
special writers, Congressmen, Senators and "every day citizens,"
besides the press of the Race, have filled the air on the subject
of the adopted report of the Republican National Committee
Attorney Nutter says: "In my opinion the Republican Na-
tional Committee made a tremendous tactical mistake in cutting
down Southern representation in the Republican National Conven-
tion. It smacks of 'Lily White' tendencies, and impresses me as
being an ungrateful attitude for the loyalty that we have given to
party welfare in the face of overwhelming odds. This move is
particularly distasteful in the face of Congress being painfully
silent on boasted disfranchisement in the South." .... Charles-
ton (S.C.) New Era, June 25, 1921 (by the Associated Negro Press).
FAVORITE THEMES OF THE NEGRO PRESS 99
Discrimination at Washington, the distribution of
political plums by the Republican administration, efforts
for political rights, local agitation, for political effort on
behalf of needed improvements, factional discussions,
criticism of leaders from President Harding down, the
relation of race advancement to larger issues such as the
League of Nations, the Japanese exclusion policy, immi-
gration and the Irish question all these matters are
touched upon. Here are two articles on Africa :
Harry Foster Dean, returned Adventurer and Explorer, gives
thrilling lecture on Africa which every Race person should see.
Churches open your doors and let the people have this informa-
tion concerning Africa, the country on which the eyes of the world
are centered.
There never was a Negro in Africa.
No cannibals make their abode in the "dark continent."
Every tribe in Africa is civilized, though not according to
standards of anthropologists.
The Africans are going to get rid of European domination by
any means necessary.
It is ridiculous to hunt the brontosaurus in Africa because that
is the youngest continent.
There is no proof that Africans are sons of Ham.
Africa has a population of between 600,000,000 and 700,000,-
ooo persons though statisticians give the number as only from
150,000,000 to 250,000,000.
These are assertions made in Denver Friday by Harry Dean,
who is said by some to be the most extensive explorer of ''Darkest
Africa" now living.
Thirty years ago Dean was reading law in this city. He
returns after 21 years of world explorations, including many years
spent in Liberia California Eagle (Los Angeles), Febru-
ary 26, 1921.
PHILADELPHIA, PA. An elaborate observation tour for
Colored Americans is being planned here for the early fall. The
ioo THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
goal of the cruise is Liberia, Africa, and will take forty-five days.
During the latter part of September and the early part of October
the Republic of Liberia will celebrate her One Hundredth Anni-
versary with an exposition and convocation of native chiefs. The
Liberian Plenary Commission now in this country with President
King as its chairman, indorses the cruise. The steamer chartered
is commodious and elegantly appointed and the reservations are
limked to three hundred. The tour will be under the personal
direction of Dr. W. H. Jernegan of Washington, Dr. Henry J.
Callas, Dr. L. G. Jordan, Dr. R. R. Wright, Major William H.
York, Miss Nannie Burroughs, Dr. Frank Bishop, Bishop W. H.
Heard, Miss Maggie Walker and Major R. R. Wright, Sr. Ar-
rangements are being carried on from 529 South igth street,
Philadelphia, Pa. Omaha Star, June n, 1921 (by the Associated
Negro Press).
CHAPTER V
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER
A great many Negro papers may be recognized as
such at a glance even by one who is unacquainted with
them. This is generally due to the prominence of
pictures of colored people, emphatic news headings, or
a special type of advertising. Sometimes one finds a
poor quality of printing or an apparent absence of
classification of material on the page. But as papers
attain economic success they are likely to show decided
improvement in these matters. And the leading news-
papers and magazines will stand favorable comparison
with those of white people in make-up and general
attractiveness. On the one hand, the reader may note
the front page of a paper as well established as the
Richmond Planet, containing, as in one instance, twenty-
two separate items, including letters, poetry, social items,
news of all sorts, no large headings and no apparent
principle of arrangement on the page. On the other hand
he will find the studied symmetry of the Philadelphia
Tribune or the Norfolk Journal and Guide.
When we turn more specifically to scan the pages for
local news, we come upon personal and society items
similar to those found in all papers. For instance, from
"Society News," Dayton Forum (February u, 1921):
Jaymes Pierce, Albert Hand and George DeMarr of Ohio
State University spent their mid-semester vacation with relatives
and friends of this city.
101
102 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Mrs. E. E. Lucas of Leroy St. was called to Louisville, Ky.,
on account of an accident sustained by her grandmother, Mrs.
Bettie Arnett.
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson of Chicago, 111., spent a few days in
the city as guests of Mr. and Mrs. L. J. Rice of E. Fifth St. Mrs.
Thompson was a former resident of this city and her many friends
were glad to welcome her and husband.
Out-of-town correspondence produces items of the
same type, such as this (Negro Star, Wichita, Kansas,
April 15, 1921):
Pine City, Ark., News
Special to the Negro Star:-
Please let me have space to say a few words through these
wonderful columns about our community, owned and controlled
by Negroes, with exception of a saw mill which belongs to whites.
We have a colored postmaster in person of Mr. J. E. Copeland of
whom we are very proud.
Mr. G. H. Watson is doing a respectable business here at
Pine City Junction, he is also ticket agent.
On the night of April the nth, Mrs. Susie Stewart, our teacher
and well prepared instructor of our race, gave a grand commence-
ment for her students and this community; the many different
kinds of work exhibited was great work.
Our Easter program was something rare, conducted by one
of our teachers in person of Mrs. C. Parker and our beloved
superintendent, Bro. W. M. Harris. Mrs. Parker is another one
of our wide-awake workers. She knows what to do with children.
I will tell you later of our district work hi June.
(Mrs.) MARY DARDEN, Box 47.
It may be remarked that the large number of letters
beginning "Please allow me space in your paper,"
indicate not only a ritual of dignity attaching to the
highly honored newspaper, but also an urgent desire to
get an audience for group achievements. Reports of
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 103
church meetings are often sent in according to this
formula. Organizations are naturally the most respon-
sive news sources. The Newport News Star (see issue of
January 20, 1921) is under necessity of inhibiting their
response:
Dear Agents:
Many of you have failed to read and obey the rules about
memoriams, programs, marriage write-ups, and announcements.
Some do. Every one that is sent they send extra pay for them.
There are others who send them in right along without a particle
of remittance Space in the Star is very valuable, material
is very expensive, and in order to pay our agents for their services
we must have some profit from some source
Without any further notice, when this matter is sent us, with
no money to cover cost of the same, it will be left out in the future.
A typical " announcement " is this one (Boston
Chronicle, May 14, 1921):
The Colored Smart Set of Providence, R.I., will hold a big
holiday dance Decoration day night, May 30th at Altair Hall,
Elmwood Ave. and West Friendship St The music will
be by Worthington's Jazz Orchestra, Rhode Island's society enter-
tainers, pep music "tell the world." Dancing 8-12. Admission
55C, tax paid. Much hospitality to one and all, strictly polite
in every particular
Lodge notes are also "copy," but churches are the
best source. The New Era of Detroit (February 26,
1921) says:
Those who read New Era two years ago know of its popularity
when it started printing the news of Detroit. When we failed to
print the news we lost popularity people like news we are
unable to keep up and had to fall back on our specialty opinion.
. U know that to get the news U must visit the churches.
Had we kept up it was inevitable that we must criticise the preach-
ers strongly and it is not a pleasant job.
104 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
There are frequent references in church news to
sermons preached. All is described most enthusiasti-
cally. Four clippings will indicate, on the one hand, the
comprehensive way in which the church among Negroes
represents their life, and, on the other, the readiness of
the press to speak for the church. The first clipping,
reports a lecture on " A Rooster with Two Dead Heads, "
and says:
Where in the world Dr. Somerville got hold of that matter
without being divinely inspired is a greater puzzle than his Greek
"Enigma." 1
The second is the Brooklyn and Long Island Informer's
item:
Rev. B. T. Harvey, Jr., of Trinity Baptist Church, Williams-
bridge, took as his sermon last Sunday night Prof. Albert Einstein's
"theory of relativity." This .... was hailed by those present
as a fine example of the expanding "breadth of vision" of Colored
ministers. 2
In the third the Chicago Enterprise reports the raising
of all indebtedness on the Pilgrim Baptist Temple of
Chicago and shows a cut of a substantial stone church.
The amount of money raised in one day was $157,780.
There is no fulsome praise of any of the principals. 3
The fourth, from the Washington Colored American,
reports the
National Race Congress of America, a movement which con-
ceived in the mind of Rev. Dr. William H. Jernagin, pastor of
Mount Carmel Baptist Church of Washington .... was held in
the Mount Zion Baptist Church.*
1 Vigil, Portsmouth, Virginia, March 31, 1921.
2 Issue of May 14, 1921.
3 Enterprise of May 14, 1921. Issue of May 6, 1921.
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 105
It is in the larger papers, of course, that we look for
special pages on sports and the theater. The New
York News has four pages for these subjects, the New
York Dispatch a page for each. The Public Journal of
Philadelphia has a page each, and a woman's page as
well something that is also found elsewhere. The
Norfolk Journal and Guide has separate pages for church
news, for society, and for the amusements and sports.
The New Age of Los Angeles has church, society, sports,
on separate pages. The Afro- American has featured
serial stories in their second section. The Negro World
gives extra space to contributed articles and poetry.
The Freeman of Indianapolis is noted as a theatrical
news medium and sometimes gives two pages to this
institution. Chicago papers also have separate pages
for these subjects, the Defender having two pages of
each with special staff writers. The New York Age,
beside its page on stage and athletics, has two columns
regularly set aside for music.
As for comprehensiveness in dealing with all news
matters that affect the group, no more striking exhibition
could be given than the Hephzibah Herald, a paper pub-
lished in Hearne, Texas, which might be described as
violently religious, and in its own words, "an uncom-
promising defender of the Negro race."
This paper will carry sport news every week. Basket ball,
lawn tennis, baseball, social items and state lodges, hay rides,
fishing parties, bicycle races, horse races, auto races for those who
love it will be able to see it. Old reliable Jack Johnson who has
made a record in the sporting secret is now spending a term in
prison which will end on the 4th of March, and will be free again.
He has made thousands of dollars on baseball and local prize
fights in prison.
io6 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Another item in the same issue:
The churches of Austin are calling for unsaved people. Last
Sunday we noticed hundreds of people, white and colored, going
to their different churches, morning and afternoon services. When
you read this paper thank the Lord for the good things that has
reached you through this paper.
While, as stated above, a few Negro publications
can be found that have no editorials, it is true that
editorial expression of opinion is for the most part
insisted upon. This is apparent from the mottoes
chosen.
'Tis More than a Mere Race Paper, 'Tis a Voice that Asks for
Justice. Cleveland Advocate.
Independent in All Things, Neutral in Nothing. Afro-
American and Raleigh Independent.
A Journal Published to Create Racial Interest and Inspire
Young People to Higher Ideals. Richmond Voice (Virginia).
Unbridled Servant of the People. Washington Eagle.
Ye Shall Know the Truth and the Truth Shall Make You
Free. East Tennessee News.
The Gary (Indiana) National Defender and Sun ("A
Journal of Education and Uplift") says, September 4,
3*920:
In reading the Defender and Sun, remember the editor writes
not to please anyone not even himself but to tell the truth about
men and affairs, to defend justice and right and to fight for liberty.
You may not agree with all that appears in the Defender; we do
not expect you to; but bear in mind that our fight is not for the
present but for generations yet unborn.
The Dallas Express carries this every week:
The Dallas Express has never hoisted the white feather,
neither has it been disgraced by the yellow streak. It is not
afflicted with the flannel mouth. It is a plain, every day, sensible,
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 107
conservative newspaper, which trims no sail to catch the passing
breeze; flies no doubtful flag; it professes a patriotism as broad
as our country. Its love of even handed justice covers all the
territory occupied by the human race. This is pretty high ground,
but we live on it and are prospering. Boys of the press come up
and stand with us. This ground is holy.
Among those papers whose editorial policy is that of
definite and regular statement may be mentioned the
Houston Informer:
THE INFORMER'S PLATFORM
1. Democracy, both domestic and foreign.
2. Playgrounds for colored children.
3. Better educational facilities, both teachers and physical
properties, for colored youths.
4. Educated, consecrated ministry.
5. Development of the Houston Ship Channel, thereby mak-
ing Houston the South's premier city.
6. Co-operation between the white and colored races on all
matters of vital importance and less racial animosity and
antagonism.
7. Good streets, better drainage and sanitary toilets for entire
urban population.
8. Federal investigation of, and Federal legislation to suppress
lynching.
9. Equality before the law for all men and equal railroad
accommodations for all passengers.
10. Racial co-operation, teamwork, advancement, betterment
and solidarity.
The Vigil, Portsmouth, Virginia, has a more succinct
statement, "Religion, Land Getting, Missions, Educa-
tion," being its watchwords. The Charlottesvilk (Vir-
ginia) Messenger , published recently a series of editorials
on " Vital Needs." "Vital Need II" was that of a
Young Men's Christian Association. " Vital Need IV, "
io8 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
a future burying-ground (issues of March 19, May 28,
1921).
That Negroes can write editorials as well as make
orations, is evident from the fluency of many of these,
for example (St. Luke's Herald, Richmond, Virginia,
May 21, 1921):
The thing that we need most is to get ourselves straight.
We have among us four kinds of Negroes .... Wishbone
Negroes, Jawbone Negroes, Funny-bone Negroes, and Backbone
Negroes.
The Wish-bone members of our Race are those who sit down
with sighs and wishes for things to go better with us. They feel
discouraged over the conditions and pray or prate about "the
downtrodden Race."
This [There] is the Jaw-bone division that sputterates, froths
and foams at the mouth and jaw-bone and when it comes to a
showdown that class of the Race is never present.
The Funny-bone Negroes are those who grin and cringe at
every insult or pun that the white man chooses to poke at him or
his Race.
THE BACK-BONE DIVISION are the Negroes who are
making naught all such piffle as Williams talks and who resent
silently or vocally every insult or affront that is perpetrated upon
them and their race.
The following is by William Pickens (Brooklyn and
Long Island Informer, April 23, 1921):
THE SUB-CONSCIOUS SLIGHT
An armed and murderous white bandit was in the act of hold-
ing up a place of business in Pittsburgh. A black policeman came
along and wounded and captured the bandit. The Director of
Public Safety presented a medal of honor to this brave black man,
and said many fine words of praise. Among these fine words were
the following, equally fine, so far as intentions go, but which display
unconsciously the subconscious attitude, not of the Director of
Public Safety, but of the group to which he belongs:
"Although you are black on the outside I want to announce
that you have no yellow streak in your makeup."
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 109
And then the Director breathed a chest-filling breath of
magnanimity and perhaps of generosity! As if to say: "I am
not too narrow to recognize something good in a black man, when
that exceptional thing does happen."
That is exactly what that "although" means. It means that,
in the subconsciousness of the man speaking, it is inconsistent to
be both black and brave. Is not this a strange thing in the face
of all the great and open records of Negro soldiers, Negro police-
men and Colored officers of every kind ? . . . .
It reminds me that long ago Solomon or some other wise
man said: "I am black and comely," and then all the white
scholars who have since translated his words have phrased it:
"I am black but comely." They have done with their "but" just
exactly what the Director did with his "although." ....
Other features in the press that are more or less allied
to the editorials are the cartoons, people's letters to the
editor, and welfare departments. The Atlanta Independ-
ent, the Afro-American, some New York papers, and those
in Chicago, along with occasional others, have cartoons.
Several weeklies have health talks, and occasionally there
is a column for legal advice. Many papers print letters
from readers, and in a few cases these letters thresh out
some quarrel before the public. The Dallas Express gives
advice to girls through the person of " Aunt Pat, " besides
having a Priscilla Art Club. Other papers give advice
on etiquette and hints for neighborhood improvement.
More pungent criticisms of the various aspects of
everyday life are offered in a column in the New York
Dispatch headed "The Meddler." Thus (November 26,
1920):
All that glitters is not gold,
Black sheep dwell in every fold,
Stocks turn out to be but logs,
And some editors only inflated frogs.
no THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
This feature is strongly similar to the Chicago Whip's
"Nosey Sees All Knows All." For instance (July 2, 1921) :
Every time the clock strikes in that bungalow "love nest" on
Eberhardt Avenue, someone leaves the front door Nosey
put his head up to one of the windows and discovered men stirring
things in big pots and others were putting things in little jars.
The men who left with those packages were taking off the products
of their labors In other words, the simple little residence
was not a love nest but was a manufacturing plant Some
day Nosey is going out and get a job in that beautiful little
bungalow it smells oh So Sweet.
Readers of the paper in Chicago's Second Ward are still
wondering who Nosey is. The Pueblo (Colorado) Rising
Sun has an " Uncle Eph" (January 21, 1921):
Yo unkle was down ter Denver, en Attorney S. E. Gary sed
dat out 18 months dat he was out 12 times widout his wife. Dis
am de stuff. As sho as Ise borned yo old unkle knows dat he es
some lawyer.
Dey tell me dat A. J. Seymore wus de nite man et de under-
taking parlor en de gals has never ceased to call over de phone.
Jes think of a young girl calling a feller at 1 2 : 30 A.M. because she
loved him so. Ise jes not gwine ter call yo names dis time.
De quil pushers is gwine ter meet in Denver Friday and
Saturday and look de law makers over. Many of de boys air
hiding from yo unkle kase dey don't want dey sins ter find
dem out.
The New York Amsterdam News (as January 12, 1921),
has a place for "Rubberneck Recollections." The Afro-
American's "Old Timer" is more serious.
Occasionally poetry finds a place. It ranges from
humble attempts on local subjects to more ambitious
verse. In the Texas Freeman (May 30, 1921), there is
a poem on "Some Professions of the Negro, " by Cora L.
Dawson:
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER in
The Negro is a working race,
And so with circumstances
Does try to reach some noted place;
In general he advances.
Then there are mentioned, in a stanza each, the preacher,
teacher, speaker, inventor, doctor, lawyer, editor, poet,
merchant.
The poet, with a share of verse,
Attracts the reader's eye;
In quality 'tis somewhat terse,
And cannot pass it by
Profoundly moving is "The Sad Appeal" a long
poem meant to be set to music, printed in the Public
Journal of Philadelphia, February 19, 1921. This is
a sample of the feelings and attitudes of Negroes and
of their desire for expression in verse. It was " composed
and given tune by Rev. G. W. Dickey, preacher, poet,
and divine healer." The men referred to were con-
demned for rioting near Elaine, Arkansas, and are
believed by the race to be innocent.
A song dedicated to the twelve men condemned to be elec-
trocuted at the State Penitentiary, Little Rock, Ark.: Coleman,
Knox, Jelus, Wildon, Hicks, Martin, Hicks, Hall, Fox, Moore.
We are the twelve poor Negro men,
Incarcerated in this awful pen,
We, like our Christ, His burden must share,
We can do nothing but sit in prayer.
Every stanza ends with "prayer, " "pray, " or " praying. "
Can you see any justice in our sad case ?
Nobody made to suffer but members of our race-
Will any one say that we are then treated fair ?
Oh, God will you fix it by answering our prayer?
112 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
CHORUS
Then for ourselves we do not care;
Fate and prejudice has brought us here;
Our families are wandering from door to door
Oh God be with them wherever they go.
The Negro World regularly gives considerable space
to poetry on such themes as Africa and its beauty.
The Chicago Enterprise (January 29, 1921) has a
poem by Maurice Mays, a young Negro of Knoxville
on trial for murder and held by his race to be innocent.
The poem asks for financial aid in his legal struggles.
Doomed to die without a crime
My hope is Public Aid
Who will volunteer, and help
To save me from the Grave ?
Oh, listen to my tender cry
I am dying in despair
Please won't you lend a helping hand
To save me from the chair.
There are, however, some acknowledged poets who
contribute to the newspapers. Lucian B. Watkins, who
died February i, 1921, as a result of war service, has
been very frequently noticed. The following was printed
in the Afro-American, February 4, 1921:
LOVED AND LOST
My fallen star has spent its light
And left but memory to me,
My day of dream has kissed the night
Farewell, its sun no more I see,
My summer bloomed for winter's frost,
Alas, I've lived and loved and lost!
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 113
What matters if today should earth
Lay on my head a gold-bright crown
Lit with the gems of royal worth
Befitting well a king's renown ?
My lonely soul is trouble-tossed,
For I have lived and loved and lost!
Great God! I dare not question Thee
Thy way eternally is just,
This seeming mystery to me
Will be revealed, if I but trust:
Ah, Thou alone dost know the cost
When one has lived and loved and lost!
The greater part of the advertising in these papers
is secured from local business people. F6r the most
part this is natural. But it ought to be emphasized in
view of some conspicuous exceptions which excite com-
ment. How much white patronage comes in this form
cannot be determined. Reference has already been
made to the change in editorial policy effected in a
paper by manipulation at the hands of white men of the
advertising of white merchants. Some papers resist this
influence, like the Houston Informer, which fights on.
Nevertheless there are certain sorts of advertising that
strike the reader as unusually prominent. First among
these come the cosmetics. The persons and firms who
do hairdressing or sell skin bleaches and hair straighteners
are legion. One paper 1 presents to us "the Hawaiian
system of hair growing, .... guaranteed to grow the
hair 3 inches in 6 months"; another 2 prints a testimonial
to the following effect: " I started using her treatment in
1 Indianapolis Ledger, March 26, 1921.
1 Brooklyn and Long Island Informer, April 23, 1921.
114 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
September, 1920. My hair was then five inches in length.
My hair is now nine inches .... and it has thickened
wonderfully." A religious paper 1 recommends "Climax
King" to make "hair straight to stay straight." While
these are examples of rather extreme statement, yet the
largest and most successful papers are not free from the
policy. A famous metropolitan weekly announces Mona
Marvel Compound as " the most wonderful bleach on the
market today." The most successful Chicago paper had
twenty-five advertisements of this character in a random
issue. A Memphis paper had twenty-two in one issue.
Another city paper gives 40 per cent of its advertising to
this business, two others in large southern cities give just
about half, and a religious paper more than half of all
its advertising.
It is of especial interest to note the career of Madam
C. J. Walker, who was, among colored people, a pioneer
in the profession of hairdressing. Evidently here was a
substantial and constant demand on the part of Negro
people not so much for copying the white woman's
complexion, as for making themselves neater, more
comfortable, and more attractive to each other. It has
been pointed out that kinky hair calls for a greater
amount of attention than the white person realizes. At
any rate Mrs. Walker set out to make a serious profession
of this art, not only manufacturing the necessary applica-
tions but giving courses of training to hairdressers. She
thus developed the Walker "system of hair-culture "-
there are now other systems and grew to be very
wealthy as well as highly esteemed. Her "villa" on the
Hudson is described as magnificent.
1 National Baptist Voice, December 4, 1920.
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 115
The volume of advertising business related to this
type of activity is, however, so great as to attract un-
favorable comment from Negroes themselves. There
are some newspaper men who deprecate the large amount
of space thus used, although themselves unable to stop
the practice. Certain undesirable features in the adver-
tising are passing away such as rude pictures of "before
and after using." The extravagant claims and sugges-
tions that a Negro can lighten his skin and straighten his
hair are less frequent. Present tendencies in the direc-
tion of race pride are also leading people away from any
suspected imitation of the white man's looks. The
emphasis will in the future no doubt be placed more
largely on the fact that all people use toilet preparations.
The white man, too, reads papers and magazines in
which preparations for softening and beautifying hair
and skin are well represented. One Negro magazine,
the Crusader, says: "We do not accept face and skin
bleaching advertisements, hair-straightening, etc/' But
another attitude is evident in a startling message dis-
played by several weeklies, among them the Washington
Eagle of December 4, 1920 "Hair- Vim is Growing Hair
Around the World." The Washington Colored Ameri-
can (May 3, 1921) writes thus:
WOMEN WHO MAKE OTHER WOMEN PRETTY
There has been a commendable increase in pride of appearance,
which will show its effects in the effort put forth to maintain the
income by which the appearance is made possible
The manicurist, hairdresser, or dressmaker is more than an
artisan, she is an artist and often a friend and adviser.
When you look for the cause of the rapid increase in self-
confidence among the women of today, you must look for the
women who make other women pretti-
n6 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Other things represented by the cheaper class of
white periodicals are advertised in the Negro press.
Among these are wonderful mail order bargains. For
instance,
Send No Money Genuine $12.00 imported Velour Hat, $6.89.
A Stunning, Stylish Hat, Full of Jazz and Pep Write
quickly for this amazing bargain A hat you can wear,
season after season, for years. Don't send a penny Pay only
$6.89 C.O.D.'
Patent medicines, too, are present. The Chicago De-
fender tells the reader (July 9, 1921):
IF You SUFFER FROM
Malaria, Chills and Fever, Loss of Nature, Catarrh, Dropsy,
Ulcers, Prickly Heat, Tired Sleepy Feeling, Headache, Pain in
Neck, Sides, Shoulders, Back or Hips; Sick Stomach, Kidney and
Bladder Trouble, Female Diseases and Women's Troubles, Bad
Colds, LaGrippe, Stomach Ulcers, Fever; Mean, Tired Feeling,
by all means take a bottle of Aztec Indian Kidney and Liver
Medicine. It has made hundreds well and strong again.
The New York Amsterdam News of May 4, 1921, has
thirteen advertisements of patent cures and so-called
specialists on page n, with two more on page 12 an
extreme case. It is difficult to estimate the proportion
of advertising space occupied by this class of business,
but it can be said that the larger proportion of what is
called " foreign advertising" is covered by the display of
cosmetics and medicines. Very few of the larger papers
are free from patent medicine advertisements.
One may find several announcements of clairvoy-
ants. There seems to be nothing distinctive about such
advertisements unless it is the suggestion of grounds for
belief in the superstition of Negroes. The Richmond
1 Christian Recorder, June 9, 1921.
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 117
(Indiana) Blade (April 22, 1921) introduces to us Rev.
Leo S. Osman, who says:
My incense and my parchment prayers are proclaimed most
wonderful. Charges only made for the incense. My work is
free to you. Parchment prayers also free. I have benefitted
many thousands Price of the Sacred Scripture Temple
Incense $i and 10 cents extra for tax and mailing.
The Washington Eagle of February 12, 1921, advertises
four fortune-tellers. "Madame Leona .... reads
your past, present and future life " "Madam
Mavis, the great Egyptian palmist," tells us that "her
clients are both white and colored." The same human
nature is appealed to in a long and quaint advertise-
ment carried in Vigil, Portsmouth, Virginia, March 31,
1921, and several other issues. Only portions of this
can be quoted:
Why suffer, or Use Poisonous Drugs, when nature in her
wisdom and beneficence has provided in her great vegetable
kingdom and laboratories the fields and forest a cure for most of
all ills of mankind. We have over i ,000 different varieties of herbs,
roots, barks, seeds, leaves and flowers in stock, and can supply
any herb grown in any part of the world
Lesser Periwinkle Dr. Culpeper, an old English herbalist,
writes of the herb as follows: "The leaves of Lesser Periwinkle,
if eaten by man and wife together will cause love between
them." ....
Buckeye Also called Kenker and Bongay Tree. The fruit
of this tree is a hard nut and is carried around in the pocket to
overcome and avoid rheumatism ; also to bring good luck. ....
Devil's Shoe String . ... An old colored mammy explained
to me that this root if placed around a baby's neck will drive
the evil spirits away and stop it from crying, especially during
teething
n8 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
After several statements of this nature, the advertiser
concludes as follows:
The writer wishes it understood that these articles are merely
described and sold for their medicinal values and as curiosities and
are not recommended for their evidently impossible magic proper-
ties. He is not of a superstitious nature himself and does not
believe in magic of this brand.
A startling example of the appeal to superstition is
spread on the pages of the Christian Recorder. This
highly honored religious periodical advertises patent
cures among its church supplies, invites business invest-
ments, handles many advertisements of cosmetics, and,
in the issue of June 9, 1921, tells us that:
Madame Jefferson .... can cure any disease that you were
not born with, in fact, she can locate any disease in your human
body, and tell your complaint by your writing to her when other
doctors have failed She has a supernatural gift. God has
given her power to heal and lead her people. Her advice on busi-
ness problems is worth more than you will ever be able to pay.
Madame Jefferson has discovered a wonderful hair restorative.
It grows hair on bald heads
One advertisement has been found calling on "ladies
and gentlemen interested in racing" to address someone
who evidently wishes to assist them in placing bets.
There is very little advertising of this nature. Adver-
tisements of dice, although rare, occur.
That the press is not oblivious to moral standards
in the whole conduct of the advertising is indicated
by occasional statements as to advertising policy. The
Competitor, a magazine in Pittsburgh, writes, "This
magazine has but one policy It will not carry any
fake or spurious advertising knowingly." The Cleveland
Advocate uses almost the same words. 1
1 Letters to this writer, 1921.
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 119
During election campaigns, and in some papers more
than others, political advertising appears, generally occu-
pying large display space, such as a half-page. This
is generally supplied by white candidates and is of the
usual sort. Large space is given to theater announce-
ments. The theater offers its attractions write-ups
appearing in due form as accompanying news matter-
movies are also represented, dance-halls and cabarets
display their events, companies that engage actors are
advertised, calls are put in for actors and musicians, and
stock in theater organizations is offered for sale. Lodges,
too, announce dances and cake-walks. Advertisements
of schools and colleges occur only sporadically in the
weeklies but the Crisis carries several of them. Often
there is a directory of churches, and " special services"
have display space. "Baptizing" is an attraction fre-
quently mentioned.
Some esoteric book may offer itself for sale, as, for
example (Richmond Planet, February 26, 1921):
The Book of Seven Seals by Lucinda Young, who in the year
1890 laid on her bed for twenty-four days and saw dreams and
visions, was commanded by God to write the wonders she saw
into a book The book is sold at 60 cents and is on sale
at Mrs. Davenport's, 710 N. First Street, also at Mr. O. R. Robin-
sons's Wonderful Hair Grower and Restorer, 1103 W. Leigh
Street, Richmond, Virginia. Address all communications to
Mrs. Lucinda Young, R.F.D. No. 4, Box 73-d, Richmond, Virginia.
Agents Wanted.
More compelling still are such prophetic demonstrations
as this:
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Looms Up All Over the World In a Day And All Nations Tremble!
the man: Spoken of in Isaiah 32, the Prophet of God, whom
120 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
God Almighty has chosen and qualified and commissioned. To
set up the Kingdom of God all around the whole earth in 1921: will
make a world-wide call for the True Elect of God, and the true
Righteous, of Every Race and Nation, Not later than June the
30th, 1921
Now everyone who wants to secure a copy of it, and a copy
of the Kingdom of God, they must apply for a copy of it now, with
a volunteer offering to the expense fund of $1.00 or more by
registered letter, and One Million and Four Hundred Thousand
(1,400,000) Righteous Agents will be given a life time Employment
in the work of Introducing and Training all People in the Ways
of its Everlasting Glory.
S. A. HICKS, Secretary. 1
A similar sort of advertisement in the Freeman of
Indianapolis, concludes by saying, "I the Writer, am
the Supreme Speaker for God the Almighty, and the
Founder of the Almighty Church," and asks all who
want to escape destruction to contribute "$i.oo and up"
to the $7,000,000 expense fund.
One will discover in the advertising other and more
substantial enterprises. There are many notices of
fraternal societies and insurance companies. In the
Richmond Voice, February 19, 1921, the Southern Aid
Society of Virginia, Incorporated, displayed its twenty-
seventh Annual Statement of assets and liabilities, show-
ing gross receipts for 1920 of $857,724.52. A Kansas
City, Missouri, paper announces the formation of a
new life insurance company by men of the race. The
Chicago Whip, June 25, 1921, advertises the Liberty
Life Insurance Company of Chicago, a new race
enterprise. Then there is the Interstate Benevolent
Association of Helena, Arkansas. The San Antonio
1 Richmond (Indiana) Blade, June 17, 1921.
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 121
Inquirer, February 19, 1921, gives space to the Supreme
Order of the Golden Rule of the World, and an advertise-
ment in the Newport News Star, February 10, 1921,
represents the Knights and Daughters of Tabor's Hall.
Significant of recent tendencies toward labor organ-
ization is a four-column advertisement, in the Chicago
Defender, of the Railway Men's International Benevolent
Industrial Association (issue of March 19, 1921). The
New York Age for September 18, 1920, advertises the
work of the Harlem Tenants' and Lodgers' League in
providing employment for Negroes. Another strong
tendency the interest of colored people in acquiring
real property is witnessed by appeals to invest money
in real estate subdivisions, lots for farms, land in Brazil,
or homes in the suburban areas about the large cities. 1
The Pittsburgh American of December 31, 1920, offers
for sale shares in a five-story apartment building. In
the same issue it implores its readers: "own a share in
your race bank, .... the Steel City Banking Com-
pany." Many investment opportunities are offered.
There is a Thermocomb Corporation of America, 2 a
Gate City Feature Film Company, of Kansas City to
make motion pictures of Negroes 3 the Douglass Square
Savings Bank of Boston, 4 various co-operative enter-
prises, such, for instance, as the Richmond (Indiana)
Grocery Company, 5 the Chicago Realty Association, 6 two
1 For instance as in one column, the Chicago Defender, March 19,
1921.
*New York News, April 14, 1921.
Kansas City Call, May 14, 1921.
Guardian, February 12, 1921.
* Richmond (Indiana) Blade, June 17, 1921.
Chicago Whip, June 25, 1921.
122 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
branch banks of the Tidewater Bank and Trust Com-
pany of Norfolk, of which Editor Young, of the Norfolk
Journal and Guide is president, 1 and the Harlem stock
Exchange, Incorporated. 2 There is even an occasional
"Oil and Gas Company" inviting stock subscription.
One of these asks: "How did Rockefeller make his
millions?" and exhorts: "Put a Bet on Yourself." 3
All these occur at random, some more significant than
others. And all give testimony to the economic advance
of the Negro people.
Occasionally a project comes to light that suggests
not only business enterprise but an attempt to link this
with newer racial schemes. The National Baptist Voice,
November 6, 1920^ has the following:
A SHIP DIRECT TO AFRICA OUR FATHERLAND
The African Steamship and Sawmill Co.
A Million Dollar ($1,000,000) Corporation Chartered March 16,
1919, Under the Laws of Delaware
The United States Government is anxious to have a great
big Merchant Marine Fleet, because it is a paying business. The
African Steamship and Sawmill Company is going after the Palm
Oil, .... Coffee, Mahogany, Ginger, Ivory and Gold trade in
Liberia.
The A. "SS." & S. M. Co., is no one man affair, but is owned
by the Stock-holders and managed by a Board of Directors.
The Company is in a Great Drive for $350,000 to Complete
Their Plans by July 26, 1020, Liberia's Natal Day for Launching
Our First Ship, etc.
1 Norfolk Journal and Guide, December 18, 1920.
2 Philadelphia Public Journal, February 19, 1921.
3 Western World Reporter (Memphis, Tennessee), June 4, 1921.
* Notice discrepancy between this date and the one mentioned in
the advertisement.
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 123
Advertisements such as this may, as in this case, present
no evidence of financial reliability. 1 This "Back to
Africa" notice is quoted because it occurs in some other
periodical than the Negro World, the organ of the Garvey
movement. This paper gives the greatest part of its
advertising space to the projects related to that organ-
ization.
Illustrations of a different sort of racial aspiration are
occasional bits of miscellaneous advertising such as the
following:
$100,000.00 Bargain in Soaps of all kinds, beautiful Negro
pictures, post cards, calendars and colored dolls. Large and small
sizes a
Six Remarkable Lectures on Negro race and culture ....
under the Auspices of the Frederick Douglass Literary Soci-
ety '
The Delaware Negro Civic League, ....
The object of the League is to unite the Negro population for
co-operative effort to advance the economic, educational and
moral interests of the race.*
The National Capital Code of Etiquette Learn how
to dress and conduct yourself on any and all occasions *
Evidences that the advertising function generally is
taken seriously appear in such indications as the " Adver-
ti-ing Chats," printed in the New York News 6 or the
1 The same company has a similar advertisement in the Washington
Eagle, December 4, 1920, and includes names of several persons as
officers and directors who are supposedly well-known Negroes.
1 Negro World, February 26, 1921.
>New York News, February 7 (?), 12 (?), 1921.
Wilmington Advocate, January 15, 1921.
* Washington Eagle, August 28, 1920.
* As, e.g., in February 10, 1921, issue.
124 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
exhortations to readers to support the colored advertisers,
which are fairly frequent. A constantly recurring theme
in the news columns is the progress of business enterprise
in the race, a theme treated with all the warmth of race
pride. The Washington Eagle, April 23, 1921, referring
to an event it was planning, offers its
Congratulations to the Business Men, Promoters and the
General Public on the Progress made and to be demonstrated in
the Washington Eagle's Auto Floral and Commercial Parade and
Masquerade Mardi Gras, held to Advertise the Progress of the
Colored Race Commercially, May 6, 1921.
Quite comprehensively the advertising of the Negro
newspaper covers the field of interests within its group.
As one instance, the Charleston (South Carolina) Mes-
senger, February 2, 1921, advertises the Lincoln Cafe,
the Lincoln Theater, Building Lots, Lecture announced
by the local branch of the N.A.A.C.P., the People's
Baptist Temple, a savings bank, an undertaker, a
hairdresser.
Among advertising agencies that represent colored
papers are J. R. B. Whitney of New York, acting for the
National Negro Press Association and the W. B. Ziff
Company of Chicago. It is generally recognized that
remunerative advertising of the best sort, representing
firms that do a nation-wide business, is hard for Negro
papers to secure, the feeling still existing that they are
class periodicals. The purchasing power of the Negro
group is significantly referred to in a booklet gotten out
by Albon L. Holsey.
"Who is Mr. Spaulding?" questioned the salesman for the
Multigraph Company.
"Why he is the General Manager of the North Carolina
Mutual Insurance Company, one of the oldest and most success-
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 125
ful business enterprises operated by the colored people. And you
never heard of him ? " I inquiringly replied.
"No," said the salesman.
"Well," I added, "you had better drop in to see him while
you are in town, for I am sure they could use one of your machines
in their office."
He saw Mr. Spaulding and after a very brief interview sold
him a Multigraph and equipment amounting to about $600.00.
The incident recited above occurred about two years ago in
the city of Durham, North Carolina, and since then I have been
thinking of other similar instances which have occurred. It
appears to me that it would be a profitable investment for sales
managers and salesmen to get acquainted with this undeveloped
field among the colored people Quite recently I was dis-
cussing this same question with a man identified with the adver-
tising department of one of the oldest and best known advertisers
in the country, and I asked him very frankly why it was that
national advertisers seemed not to be aware of the existence of
the 200 colored newspapers
He hesitated for a moment "I suppose most of the fellows
are just about like I am never thought of it."
The leaflet of the Associated Press on the same subject
argues:
Their home owners have increased in the period of freedom
by 588,000; their farm owners by 980,000; .... accumulated
wealth to $1,080,000,000
The W. B. Ziff Company advertisement in the Adver-
tisers' Directory of Leading Publications, 1 says:
A big advertiser who spends over $400,000 a year in advertis-
ing .... did a prodigious business in the Southern States. He
consistently threw out all orders, as many advertisers did and
do, which appeared to have been sent by a Negro.
Several months back they .... engaged a new credit
agency. The New Credit Agency, a bit more thorough than
Charles H. Fuller Company, Chicago, Vol. XXXI (1920-21), p. 432.
126 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
the Old, reported on the race of the customer in addition to other
things.
The astounding discovery was made that 40% of the customers
of this particular advertiser had been Negroes. In addition it
was found that these Negroes were more regular in their payments
than the whites!"
As to the response which these insertions bring from
colored readers, there is no doubt that they are worth
while. It is said that one firm bought from another the
letters sent in response to one advertisement and, in
paying $270.00 therefor, figured that each letter had cost
them only two cents, reckoning the number of responses
at over 13,000.
With regard to magazines a brief statement should
suffice. Some thirty-one publications may be so classed.
Perhaps the eighty-two school periodicals should be
included. These of course are meant not only for the
benefit of actual students but to serve as bulletins of
information and inspiration to the entire constituency.
The periodicals so issued by the larger schools, such as
Howard, Atlanta, Wilberforce, Hampton, Tuskegee,
Fisk, Talladega, are well printed and attractive, stressing
genuine culture. The Southern Workman of Hampton
Institute, on account of its organization and the publish-
ing personnel, can scarcely be adjudged a Negro publica-
tion. Besides the Tuskegee Student, the Tuskegee
Institute sends out a monthly called the Rural Mes-
senger, sixteen pages " devoted" as the title-page tells
"to every phase of rural life and its betterment." It
speaks of itself also as the "only Negro farm journal in
the wo'rld," and a_" source of helpful information for
the farm and garden." A copy of this for February,
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 127
1921, reports the thirtieth annual Negro Farmers' Con-
ference at Tuskegee, Professor Carver's address to the
Congressional committee, suggestions for child welfare,
accounts of agricultural extension as carried on by district
and county agents, of a local federal farm loan associa-
tion in North Carolina, and of special conferences held
for betterment of country life.
The fraternal magazines include two representing
college fraternities, Sphinx and Kappa Alpha Psi
Journal. The Fraternal Advocate of Chicago (twenty-
four pages and cover) gives news from various secret
and insurance orders or labor organizations, besides
general "race-news." The Pullman Porters 1 Review is
for the most part taken up with articles of general inter-
est, including poetry and stories. Church magazines
with religious articles, along with the ever-present
racial literature, are exemplified by the A.M.E. Zion
Quarterly Review. Business magazines include a house
organ of the Poro Institute, St. Louis, a Commercial
Journal and Business Men's Bulletin of Chicago, and
Method of Richmond, Virginia. These were all less than
two years old in 1921.
Of the five music magazines, 1 indicative as they are
of the present vogue of Negro musicians among whites
as well as blacks and the race's ever present love for
music, the Musician thus announces its objects in its
first issue:
I "ride in Achievement, Stimulus to Progress;
Molder of Taste; Organ of Fraternity.
American Musician and Master Musician, Philadelphia, Negro
Musician, Washington, D.C., Encore, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and
Music and Poetry, Chicago.
128 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
It has departments for piano, voice, organ, theory, com-
munity chorus, church chorus, orchestra, and violin.
The American Musician Magazine has twenty-eight pages
and cover, and is for " masters, artists, teachers, scholars
and music lovers." It includes a few pages of music
score. Music and Poetry also publishes Negro composi-
tion and betrays a particular interest in the adaptations
of the "Spiritual." In the last two publications we
come upon news of the National Association of Negro
Musicians. Music and Poetry (March, 1921) has the
following by Clement Wood :
AN OLD-TIME NEGRO MELODY
As I climbed the gentle hillside
In the earliest morning hour,
The April moon's waning crescent
Hung, rounded, keel to the east, uncertainly balanced,
Below the morning star.
There I heard an old-time Negro Melody,
Crooned by the wind in the leaves above me,
Or by the waning moon and the morning star,
Or by some mysterious singer I could not tell from where.
The Brownies' Book is a magazine for children
which attempts to bring to them:
1. The best in pictures and stories of Negro life.
2. The life and deeds of famous men and women of the Negro
race.
3. The current events of the worlds told in beautiful language
which children can understand. 1
Other literary publications include Fenton Johnson's
Favorite Magazine, a fifteen-cent periodical not greatly
different in character from such a one published by
whites: stories, poetry, articles of home interest, attract-
1 From advertisement in the Crisis, June, 1921.
WHAT IS IN A NEGRO PAPER 129
ive cuts, design on the colored cover. The Half-Century
Magazine is one whose object is similar. The name is
in celebration of the half -century of freedom. The Up-
Reach Magazine, meant to be a "journal of education and
social work," also published in Chicago, is edited by
\\illis N. Huggins, a teacher in the Wendell Phillips High
School. It is specially "devoted to the interest of Negro
teachers and social workers," as well as to "the promo-
tion of the study and teaching of Negro history." In
Memphis the Negro Outlook, edited by M. V. Link,
began with the new year 1921. A distinctly preten-
tious effort is the Competitor, a general literary mag-
azine published by Robert L. Vann, editor of the
Pittsburgh Courier. It has eighty-four pages with
illustrated cover. Of The Black Man, a monthly pub-
lished in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the editor writes:
It's widely read and recognized by all classes and races.
Highly literary in make up, carrying only clean "ads." Repub-
lican politically speaking, Methodist in belief but liberal to all
sexes and Christian denominations.
The Journal of Negro History, edited by C. G. Wood-
son, for the Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History, is a recognized contribution to learning.
There are other magazines, which represent not only
general literary culture but also race propaganda of a
distinctive type. Of these one naturally mentions the
Crisis, "a record of the darker races," and the following
four in New York City: Promoter, Challenge, Crusader,
Messenger. What Negro radicalism is and just what
papers like this stand for will be our inquiry in a sub-
sequent chapter.
CHAPTER VI
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS
PRAYER OF THE RACE THAT GOD MADE BLACK
Lucian B. Watkins 1
We would be peaceful, Father, but when we must,
Help us to thunder hard the blow that's just!
We would be prayerful: Lord, when we have prayed
Let us arise courageous, unafraid!
We would be manly proving well our worth,
Then would not cringe to any god on earth!
We would be loving and forgiving, thus
To love our neighbor as thou lovest us!
We would be faithful, loyal to the Right,
Ne'er doubting that the Day will follow Night!
We would be all that Thou hast meant for man,
Up through the ages, since the world began!
God! save us in Thy Heaven, where all is well!
We come slow-struggling up the Hills of Hell!
AMEN! AMEN!
The keynote of Negro militancy is struck in these
lines. They suggest, too, what Negroes mean by "the
race problem." With them it is not so much problem as
struggle, a struggle that breaks out in open clashes at
various points along an extended front.
1 Quoted by Kerlin, op. cit., p. 183, from the Guardian, Boston,
August 30, 1919.
130
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 131
It is to be expected that the Negro 's press will re-echo
this conflict. In fact it is in the atmosphere of conflict
that the white man 's press took its start and went on to
grow and thrive. This is true of the history of the news-
paper in England, France, and America. It may almost
be said that the revolutionary agitation of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries breathed into the pamphlets,
broadsheets, corantos, and mercuries, the breath of life
and they became our modern press. 1 Not only in revolu-
tionary times has conflict been important. Not only
Mazzini, working at night to smuggle literature into
Italy in packing-cases, but reformers, like Garrison with
his Liberator, the Socialist Liebknecht happy, as Bebel
says, in his new editorship because now he could write
whatever he wished to write even "old Greeley" with
his Tribune and many a partisan editor, have been set
going and kept going because they were fighting for some-
thing. 2 So, too, with the Negro's newspaper. We have
seen that Freedom's Journal arose in 1827 out of con-
flict, that the colored man's press since the Civil War
1 For England: J. B. Williams, A History of English Journalism, ctc. f
London, 1908, and the best treatment of this period Roger P. McCut-
cheon, Book Reviewing in English Periodicals, 1640-1712, Harvard
Doctor's Thesis, 1918. For France: E. J. Lowell, The Eve of the French
Revolution, Boston, 1892, p. 333; F. C. Montague, Cambridge Modern
History, New York, 1898, VIII, 168, etc. The contemporary journals
themselves. For America: Frederic Hudson, Journalism in the United
States, New York, 1873; G. H. Payne, History of Journalism in the
United States, New York, 1920.
' For Mazzini, see for instance Bolton King, Mazzini, London, 1902,
chap. iii. For Bebel, My Life, Chicago, 1912 ( ?), p. 93. For Garrison,
Liberator (especially January i, 1831), as quoted in William JJoyd Gar-
rison, 1805-1879, the Story of His Life Told by His Children, New York,
1885. These are only a few illustrative hints out of a great many that
are accessible.
132 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
has thrived on it, and that the fighting spirit is more
vigorous than ever at the present day.
It is not surprising, then, that we have such titles as
Advocate, Protest, Challenge, Contender, Defender, Pro-
tector, Crusader, Whip, Hornet, Blade. "We propose,"
says the Rising Sun of Pueblo, Colorado, "to wage a
relentless warfare against everything that prevents us
from being recognized as full fledged citizens of America."
This emphasis on citizenship with the political and civil
rights attaching to it is common to the great majority of
the papers. The Rising Sun presents details, on which
the press is generally agreed:
We propose to contend for our complete rights, before the law,
just representation in politics; meritorious consideration in labor,
no discrimination in education or public accommodation, no domi-
ciliary restrictions, and a repeal or prevention of the enact-
ment of any statute or ordinance by either state, municipality or
nation in contravention to the constitution of the United States
of America.
The aggressive tone is likely to be more marked in
the North than in the South. Besides this there are dif-
ferences among the papers as to immediate policies for
the race to adopt. There is some difference of opinion,
for example, as to the movement for organization of inter-
racial committees now spreading in the South. There is
some difference of opinion as to the amount of recognition
that ought to be given to the nationalist movement
headed by Marcus Garvey, and occasionally there is a
slight interest in the possibilities for Negroes of the radical
and labor movements. But economic radicalism is
represented almost entirely by a certain clearly marked
group of magazines and papers not a large proportion of
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 133
all. And the Garvey movement is represented actively
by very few advocates outside the pages of the Negro
World.
In treating of these various policies one may classify
them thus:
The policy of securing civil rights in the existing American
regime.
The policy of economic radicalism.
The policy of nationalism and colonization.
The policy of lessening the struggle the ignoring of it,
advocacy of interracial co-operation, or " reconciliation."
The first of these, as already suggested, is that of the
newspapers generally. Yet it is not a clearly defined line
of constructive action. It is, rather, a practice of pro-
testing against individual injustices when they occur.
Says the Fraternal Monitor (Cincinnati, May i, 1921):
Never let go unnoticed an expression in favor of the race.
Write a letter of thanks to the President, the Senator, the Con-
gressman or to any citizen for any kind of expression in our behalf
Whenever an unfriendly expression is made, write the offender
your protest. Let it be known that we are not asleep when our
rights are protected nor when assailed.
The various race-conscious members of the group live
always on the qui vive. They read the white newspapers
carefully and note points of possible protest. The Crisis
(March, 1920) mentions the launching of a " Correspond-
ents' Club":
Holding ourselves bound together by a common impulse to
resent and resist all efforts in public or private, by speech or writ-
ings, to misrepresent, defame, or discredit our race, we have organ-
ized "The Correspondents' Club." ....
We propose to accomplish our object through letters ad-
dressed to individuals, organizations, and publications, protesting
134 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
with firmness against wrongs, and appreciating with gratitude
what appears in our favor.
The press itself is just this sort of organization. Several
papers quote the words of Ella Wheeler Wilcox:
To submit in silence when we should protest makes cowards
out of men. The human race has climbed on protest. Had no
voice been raised against injustice, ignorance and lust, the inquisi-
tion yet would serve the law, and guillotines decide our least dis-
putes. The few who dare must speak and speak again to right the
wrongs of many.
What specifically is the editor's complaint? The
answer is difficult only because of the extreme abundance
of the material. Lynchings are first likely to attract our
attention. In one paper we are told: "Colored boy
lynched for no special cause trying to get ride, taken
from jail by mob, at McGhee. Arkansas list of horrors
is growing." 1 Another tells an " unspeakable brutality-
how the Arthur boys were lynched and three sisters out-
raged," and exclaims, "Southern Chivalry!" This is
the transcript of a letter giving all the gruesome details:
"There was a regular parade of 17 cars and a truck with
white men crying aloud 'Here are the barbecued nig-
gers; all you niggers come out and see them and take
warning. ' ' The letter ends with these words : " You are
at liberty to publish what you see fit of this, only keep
secret my name." 2 The Tuskegee Institute Press Service
sends out at intervals of a year and less a record of lynch-
ings for the whole country, and this is always given wide
publicity in the newspapers.
1 Richmond (Indiana) Blade, June n, 1921.
9 Cleveland Gazette, September 18, 1920.
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 135
Besides lynchings, cases of unusual cruelty or injustice
are reported in full and commented upon. A clipping
from a white paper in Georgia tells the story of a black
preacher who was stripped, laid over a log and lashed with
a wagon trace, because he had set the other Negroes "a
bad example" by going about "dressed-up" and wearing
a white collar. The white men took off the collar and cut
it into souvenirs. 1 Of the same sort is this editorial in
the New York Amsterdam News (June 15, 1921):
Justice appears to have gone crazy in North Carolina
Jerome Hunter has just been sentenced to eight years in the
penitentiary, and six others for shorter terms, by Justice Kramer,
at Warrenton, for participation in a riot
A white merchant sold a basket of bad apples to an Afro-
American, and, in the protest that followed, whites and blacks got
badly mixed up in a riot. After it was over, the blacks who were
in the mix-up were rounded up and placed in the Henderson jail.
Soon after two of their number were taken out and lynched. His
companions were then taken to Raleigh for safe keeping, and have
just now been sentenced.
Not a white man connected with the rioting over the bad
apples, or the lynching of the two blacks, has been arrested or
prosecuted. That sort of justice in North Carolina, or anywhere
else, is surely crazy. . 1A white men expect that black men are going
to stand for it always without fighting to the last man unto death,
he must be a fool whose eyes have been blinded by their Lord.
There is a God in this Republic, and he, too, is flesh and blood.
The Negro press is especially on the alert for cases of
assault by white men upon colored women. These are
always played up. The Cleveland Gazette already quoted
carries such an instance. These headings occur: " Burly
White Brute Assaults Pretty Colored Girl,"' "Big Burly
1 Dallas Express, December 25, 1920.
'Philadelphia American, February 12, 1921.
136 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Brute Attempts a Criminal Outrage upon Colored Girl
in California"; 1 "An uncivilized white skinned curr
[sic] on Monday afternoon .... the coward struck the
woman down Race leaders will demand that the
culprit be punished." 2 These three are all from various
journals, but of the same date.
Cases of discrimination in public places or common
carriers are also played up. The Washington Bee (April
2, 1921) under caption, " Victory Still Ours," makes com-
mon cause note the "ours" with all the race in a
court decision to the effect that "State jim-crow cars are
unconstitutional as applied to interstate colored passen-
gers, even though they are riding on a local train moving
between two points entirely within a jim-crow-law State."
The Crisis for March, 1920, says, "Here is a good story
from the Oklahoma City, Okla., Black Dispatch," and
quotes that journal's account of a street-car incident.
This is made to close with the words, " The Law, the Law
of Fair Play, of the Square Deal and Justice."
This policy includes a reinterpretation of any racial
clash already reported by the white man 's press. After
each riot the "real truth" finally comes out, on the basis
of the reports finally gathered from the terror-stricken
Negro survivors. One who scanned the issues of the
Springfield (Ohio) Daily News for the ten days covering
the disturbances that took place there in March, 1921,
would find nothing but the orthodox reports, the usual
story of assault, of the police officers' disarming of the
colored men, the city's being placed under martial law,
and final quiet restored. On March 26, however, the
1 Houston Informer, February 12, 1921.
2 Hephzibah Herald, same date.
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 137
Cleveland Gazette printed an entirely different version of
the matter under the head, " Springfield Riot Truth, the
First Time Given to the Public by Any Publication.
Veterans of the World War Were on the Job and Our
People Were Ready Chicago and Washington Their
Precedent."
It will be noted here that there is no disposition to
deny the armed resistance on the part of Negroes, rather
to justify it. With regard to the Tulsa riot the same is
true. A reinterpretation of this affair has been quoted
above 1 from the New York Age. But the Afro- American
of June 10, 1921, has the following significant item:
NEW YORK, June 4. Negroes in New York were urged to arm
by Hubert H. Harrison, president of the Liberal League of Negro
Americans, at a meeting yesterday at 13 5th street and Lenox
avenue to ask for contributions to a fund to relieve the suffering
caused to the Negroes of Tulsa. He denied that the Negroes of
Tulsa were in any way responsible for the rioting, and charged
that the police and troops took sides with the whites until restrained
by the authorities.
"It is not only these negroes, but those everywhere in the
country, of whom we are thinking," Mr. Harrison said in asking
for funds. "I am not making any predictions, but I should not be
surprised if we saw three splendid race riots by next September.
There may not be any in New York, but I advise you to be ready
to defend yourselves. I notice that the State Government has
removed some of its restrictions upon owning firearms, and one
form of life insurance for your wives and children might be the
possession of some of these handy implements. And it is abso-
lutely necessary for your protection to join the Liberal League,
which is carrying on a wide campaign for the interests of our ra
The attitude of Negroes in view of clashes such as
these has been carefully indicated by Robert T. Kerlin
1 Chap. iv.
138 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
in his work on The Voice of the Negro. Here he has
quoted newspapers as published during four months
following the Washington riot of 1919. In chapter v
Kerlin gives extracts on the whole situation that are still
typical of the Negro's reaction. Significant points are
the insistence that the charge of assault on some white
woman is generally unfounded and due to the white press,
that the riots are begun by the whites, that the Negroes
are compelled to resist with firearms, that the police and
militia aid the rioters against the Negroes, and that
the judicial investigations following the riots condemn
Negroes almost wholesale while letting the whites off
easily. The new attitude is armed resistance^' All this
is in striking contrast to the older doctrine, of which
Booker T. Washington was the spokesman. At the time
of the Atlanta riot Washington wrote in the New York
Age (September 27, 1906):
I would especially urge the colored people in Atlanta and else-
where to exercise self-control and not make the fatal mistake of
attempting to retaliate, but to rely upon the efforts of the proper
authorities to bring order and security out of confusion. If they
do this they will have the sympathy of good people the world over.
Colored people near the scene of one of these affairs
make strenuous efforts to get their side of the case into
the hands of the Negro editor so that "the truth" may
be known. Mr. Walter F. White, so light-complexioned
as to pass easily for white, an officer of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
reported the Tulsa riot after having been sworn in on
the spot as deputy sheriff. The result was not merely
material for the Negro papers but an article in the Nation
of New York (June 29, 1921) as well. The extreme cau-
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 139
tion with which others find it necessary to work is exem-
plified in such a letter as that quoted in the Cleveland
Gazette: 1 "only keep secret my name." After the Elaine
riots in Arkansas 2 not only was a detailed account of them
sent out by the National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People under Mr. White's signature, 3
but this report came to the office of the Chicago Defender:
SPECIAL TO THE CHICAGO DEFENDER
Your special correspondent, detailed to investigate the recent
wholesale killings of Negroes in Phillips County, Arkansas, quietly
dropped into Helena and visited the scenes of the recent troubles,
talked with scores of Negroes, overheard the conversation of many
whites, read the leading Arkansas newspapers, asked and got
information and opinions and left the state without disclosing his
identity and even being suspected of being a news writer.
The reason for this is obvious. We did not know whom to
trust. We wanted to get the news the whole truth, not to be
lynched. For in the present state of mind of the white people of
Phillips County, any Negro is as good as dead if he be even sus-
pected of writing for a Northern Negro publication
Here is the real truth about the whole matter
After a fairly lengthy report, the communication ends as
follows:
Dear Editor:
Please publish the above. You will understand that I do not
dare to disclose my name. I have to give you the facts as I have
obtained them, and that from the best and most reliable sources.
Publish this just as if it came from your own special correspondent,
so as to prevent any attempt to investigate the source of your
news. I know you and wish you well. God bless our Race and
1 See above, p. 134.
Kerlin, The Voice of the Negro, pp. 87 ff., describes the situation.
J Printed for instance in the Chicago Whip, December 27, 1912.
140 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
our Negro Newspapers of the North. You are doing a splendid
work. Tell the truth, cry aloud and spare not. 1
That such caution is not entirely misplaced is evident
by what William Pickens tells in the New York Age
(September 25, 1920). A Negro in a southern town
wrote an article about the wrongs of his people and sent
it to the Philadelphia Press (white), which published it.
When a white woman in the man's home town read the
article, she turned it over to the "authorities." The
chief of police with other officials and citizens summoned
the Negro and on threat of lynching him compelled him
to write another article contradicting the first one. He
wrote the second article and it was published.
, It is his own newspaper that offers a welcome to the
Negro 's cries and protests. Protest is the constant inspi-
ration of the editorials. Peculiarly bitter are those
editorials directed against other colored people who do
not protest. The Chicago Defender (June 25, 1921) tells
of a Negro who blamed his own people at Tulsa for resist-
ing the whites and includes him in the following charac-
terization :
/Never was there another group that had in its ranks such
spineless, ignorant, disloyal semi-human beings as these^ . . . .
We do not expect modern Judases to follow the example of the
Biblical betrayer and hang themselves, but we do expect that,
when they see the error of their ways, they will at least hang their
heads in shame.
To be sure this policy of "crying out" is not always very
definite. Peculiarly pathetic, for instance, is an outcry
like this, from the Mobile Weekly Press (February 19,
1921) : 2
1 Transcript from original.
2 Possibly a service shared by other papers.
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 141
March 4th, less than a month away.
It won 't bring Heaven, but it may bring a change.
Anything, anything, Lord! but what we've got, anything!
But there are times when the policy can be stated as
definitely as in the following extract. 1 Note that here
the hope of a solution within the Constitution still abides-
This accomplishment is easy, if the people will meet the prob-
lem in the spirit of representative government. Just protect the
Negro in the south from Ku Kluxism, mob violence, peonage,
Jimcrow laws, disfranchisement and hurtful discriminations.
Encourage him to buy homes and farms. Guarantee him political
equality, protect his churches, schoolhouses and lodge rooms from
the torch of the midnight marauder, and make him happy and
contented where he is. Let him feel that the strong arm of the law
state and federal is stronger than any mob, Ku Klux Klan or
any disorderly band of citizens, and that when they approach him,
he must lean on the law for perfect security for protection of life,
property and happiness. Give him better wages ; help him become
a tax payer; teach him to register and vote for the best men and
measures; let the white pulpit thunder against mob violence as it
does against whiskey and the Negro pulpit preach the saving of
men as well as the saving of the soul, and that an abundance of
grace in the heart, grit in the craw and greenback in the pocket is
the only equipment a man needs to succeed on earth in the enjoy-
ment of the privileges of a man or to enter heaven and enjoy the
glories prepared for the righteous.
And we reassert that the government is all right, but the people
are wrong, and cause the world oft times to denounce our form of
government for its failure to protect its citizens at home
Our government is all right, but the people are wrong, and we
speak of the people and not of the government.
It will be observed that words like "no discrimina-
tion" and " equality" are ambiguous. At least they go
beyond the line of what could be called civil rights and
1 Atlanta Independent, December a, 1920.
142 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
ask for the absence of prejudice, the acceptance of a
friendly attitude on the part of whites, and the allowance
of some recognition or status. This is a sphere that
cannot of course be controlled by law and cannot be
called a constitutional right. Strictly speaking there are
only a few papers that seem to demand any more than
the civil rights that are supposed to be guaranteed by the
Constitution. They do not consider it possible to expect
abolition of prejudice as between man and man, at least
not by any political action. For this they wait upon the
slow processes of education, religion, and general progress.
But somewhere in the discussion of the Negro 's program
seems to lurk the ill-defined shape of " social equality."
On this delicate subject Kerh'n sums up the evidence as
follows :
This is the crux. Almost the first question raised regarding
the colored press is, "Does it preach social equality ?" An unquali-
fied monosyllable cannot be given in answer. First, because the
colored press, while generally united in its purposes and efforts,
does not hold to one manner of speech on all subjects. Secondly,
because the question requires interpretation. It is capable of dif-
ferent meanings and implications. Thirdly, the question is so
dangerous in the South that the colored papers there either keep
away from it or pooh-pooh the idea. A very few papers without
being specific on this question, demand "absolute equality." 1
The quotation from the New York Age which Kerlin adds
represents at least the conservative utterances on this
subject:
The St. Luke Herald [Richmond, Va.] of which Mrs. Maggie
L. Walker is the managing editor, rises to remark: "All the talk
about the colored press encouraging social equality is a Southern
made lie, invented and copyrighted that the South might have an
1 Op. cit., pp. 65 f .
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 143
excuse to justify it in the maltreatment of our race." Mrs.
Walker hit the nail on the head. Social equality is a "homemade
bugaboo," invented by Southern demagogues for domestic con-
sumption chiefly.
Doubtless, if one could banish all the misleading con-
notations of the term, the words, "social equality," in the
sense of justice and equity, or access to the same privi-
leges others have, seems like a good phrase for the goal
toward which, unconsciously or consciously, the Negro
self-expression is moving. The black man does not so
he says desire amalgamation with the white race. But
he will not be satisfied with any social order that makes
him feel inferiority. The caution commanded by their
condition makes it imperative for southern papers to
abjure so dangerous a term, and they avoid it. Another
method of handling this enfant terrible is to give it an
innocuous interpretation, as is done by the Houston
Informer.
What the colored man demands is "social equity," "social
sameness." He wants the same rights of society that other men
and races enjoy; but he does not ask the association and com-
panionship of men and women of other races. Social companion-
ship can not be regulated by laws. If Bill Smith wants to associate
with John Jones all the laws in the genius of mankind cannot keep
them apart.
On the other hand if they do not desire each other's com-
panionship .... no law can be enacted that will have sufficient
force to compel these two men to be pals or social associates '
But behind " social equality" crouches the still more ter-
rible suggestion of miscegenation. And the Informer's
editorial proceeds to disabuse the southern mind of its
fears on this matter. The contention is that miscegena-
/<*.
144 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
tion has in the past and present been desired by white
men more than by Negroes.
What the Negro really wants and what sort of content
can be put into his conception of " social equality" appear
still more definitely in the Guardian and the Crisis. The
Crisis is evidently made up with a view to an impres-
sion upon whites as well as blacks, an impression not
only of a group crying for rights but also of people
who are interested in culture. It provides an artistic
cover, often a sample of Negro feminine beauty; attract-
ive cuts and drawings; items about race achievement
and men and women of note; stories, drama, poetry;
advertisements that include a large number of announce-
ments of educational institutions; news notes and mis-
cellany; editorials on the race problem; and articles.
It said of itself in the first issue:
It will first and foremost be a newspaper: it will record impor-
tant happenings .... which bear on the great problem
Its editorial page will stand for the rights of men, irrespective
of color or race; for the highest ideals of American democracy; and
for reasonable and persistent attempt to gain these rights and
realize these ideals I
Political and civil rights are meant here. For such
are the terms used in the article which, exactly ten years
later, elucidates the troublesome issue of " social equal-
ity." Df . Du Bois, the editor, is the writer of the article.
It agrees substantially with the utterance of the Houston
Informer.
We were continually being "accused" of advocating "social
equality" and back of the accusations were implied the most
astonishing assumptions; our secretary was assaulted in Texas for
1 November, 1920.
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 145
"advocating social equality" when in fact he was present to prove
that we were a legal organization under Texas law. Attempts
were made in North Carolina to forbid a state school from adver-
tising in our organ, the Crow, on the ground that "now and then it
injects a note of social equality." ....
We believe that social equality .... means moral, mental
and physical fitness to associate with one's fellowmen. In this
sense the Crisis believes absolutely in the Social Equality of the
Black and White and Yellow races and it believes too that any
attempt to deny this equality by law or custom is a blow at Human-
ity, Religion and Democracy.
No sooner is this incontestable statement made, however, than
many minds immediately adduce further implications: they say
that such a statement and belief implies the right of black folk to
force themselves into the private social life of whites and to inter-
marry with them.
This is a forced and illogical definition of social equality.
Social equals, even in the narrowest sense of the term, do not have
the right to be invited to, or attend private receptions, or to marry
persons who do not wish to marry them. Such a right would imply
not mere quality it would mean superiority
On the other hand, every self-respecting person does claim the
right to mingle with his fellows if he is invited and to be free from
insult or hindrance because of his presence The late
Booker T. Washington could hardly be called an advocate of
"social equality" in any sense and yet he repeatedly accepted
invitations to private and public functions and certainly had the
right to
The Crisis .... most emphatically advises against race
intermarriage in America but it does so while maintaining the moral
and legal right of individuals who may think otherwise and it most
emphatically refuses to base its opposition on other than social
grounds The Crisis advises strongly against interracial
marriage in the United States today because of social conditions
and prejudice and not for physical reasons
The ( 'risis does not for a moment believe that any man has a
right to force his company on others in their private lives but it
maintains just as strongly that the right of any man to associate
146 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
privately with those who wish to associate with him and publicly
with anybody so long as he conducts himself gently, is the most
fundamental right of a Human Being.
An open letter to the president of the United States
in the issue for March, 1921, makes plain that the policy
of the Crisis follows that of the Negro press in general:
it stands for political and civil rights. To President
Harding the appeal is made:
WE WANT THE RIGHT TO VOTE.
WE WANT TO TRAVEL WITHOUT INSULT.
WE WANT LYNCHING AND MOB-LAW QUELLED FOREVER.
WE WANT FREEDOM FOR OUR BROTHERS IN HAITI.
The magazine is outspoken as a champion of these things
because they seem to be the first necessities. It has been
known as a fighting paper. In the issue for June, 1921,
the editor rejoices over the exposure of mob law and
peonage in Georgia made by the retiring Governor Dorsey
inasmuch as his statement substantiates the charges
the Crisis has been making all along.
One of the criticisms .... which has been hardest to bear
has been that of deliberately exaggerating the mistreatment of
Negroes .... far from exaggerating we were more often con-
sciously suppressing and concealing the horrors of southern oppres-
sion. Month after month we go through the sordid and horrifying
details the letters, the newspapers, the personal visits and appeals
and say in despair: if we publish all this if we unveil the whole
truth, we will defeat our own cause because the public will not
believe it, and our own dark readers will shrink from our pages.
And so we have fed the world the atrocities we knew of in carefully
regulated doses, often incurring the censure of members of our own
race, who knew of particular incidents, for our failure to mention
them.
While the Crisis is uncompromising, it does not want
us to think it is opposed to racial co-operation. It bids
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 147
Godspeed to the Amity Convention of May, 1921,' and
it approves the Inter-Racial Committee organizations in
the South. 2 It is not so enthusiastic about the inter-
racial movement, however, that it can refrain from point-
ing out what seem to it possible pitfalls and warning the
colored members to keep out "'white-folks' niggers' like
Isaac Fisher " and "'pussy-footers' like Robert Moton."
Robert Russa Moton, Washington 's successor at Tuske-
gee, has succeeded also, in the opinion of the colored
people, to Washington 's policy of gentle dealing with the
white people. Du Bois, who only recently headed the
Niagara Movement and, along with Du Bois, the aggres-
sive newspaper men of the North have turned their backs
decisively on "pussy-footing." 3
The Guardian^ representing the National Equal
Rights League of which the editor, William Monroe
Trotter, is the secretary, will go out of its way to cast a
slur on Moton and all his works, just as Trotter did
to Washington in the latter 's lifetime. 4 The Guardian,
like the Crisis, is racially aggressive. While it accepts
virtually the same program, yet it lays emphasis on those
ends that are characteristic of a northern, or shall we say
a Bostonian Negro, who is galled by the petty inequali-
ties of social life among his white fellow-citizens. The
1 July, 1921.
May, 1921.
' The St. Paul Appeal (March 26, 1921): "It is nauseating to read
the rot given out by R. R. Moton .... and every time he opens his
mouth the colored people of the entire country sink lower in the minds of
thos.- who read."
< His active opposition was shown in attempts to break up meetings
addressed by Washington by such devices as throwing pepper about.
See, in regard to Moton, the Guardian for December 18, 1920.
148 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
attitude of the movement as of the paper is well seen in
the following bit of an article (July 3, 1920) sent in by
a woman:
I am a Bostonian. Boston is the city of my birth. Here
have I lived and breathed on the air of liberty and enjoyment of
privileges freely offered alike to white and colored. In all my
varied experiences in Boston I have yet to recognize the need of
separate educational institutions for white and colored in this city.
Above all there is absolutely no need of a colored Y.M.C.A. There
is absolutely no call for one
I would howl like a wolf and growl and show my fangs, even as
a wolf, if I saw that enemy beast Segregation daring to make her
lair in our fair city, and I should expect the howl to be taken up in
every comer of the city of Boston, by every self-respecting colored
citizen, until the thing was run under cover.
There are many items in the Guardian detailing the
experiences of Trotter and others in contending for
equal service in barber-shops or at soda fountains. There
is an item (July 3, 1920) telling of an old man in the South
who died of a broken heart because he was always hoping
against hope to be allowed to vote. The Boston branch
of the Equal Rights League appointed a special commit-
tee to see that an objectionable calendar was removed
from sale in a department store, the calendar showing
the picture of a Negro baby drinking ink instead of milk
(January i, 1921, issue of the Guardian). In an editorial
headed " Japs and Jews out for Status," Editor Trotter
thus brings in his characteristic message:
Peonage, disfranchisement, lynching are the grosser evils.
Any grade of people would object to them. Our race shows its
quality in so far as it resents civil displacements, disabilities
and discriminations. These things are badges of inferiority of
status and chiefest of these is every form of civic segregation
Refuse to be a party to segregation in the free North and you raise
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 149
your grade among the races of the world. Stand fast for equality
of status. 1
Included in the policy of general and continual protest
is the attitude of consistent suspicion toward the white
man's press. There is a conviction that scarcely any
white dailies can be trusted to tell the truth about the
Negro and that many deliberately place him in an unfa-
vorable light. The Associated Press particularly comes
in for bitter reproach. Thus :
Every newspaper editor of our group in the country knows that
the Associated Press, the leading news distributing service of the
country, has carried on a policy of discrimination in favor of the
whites and against the blacks, and is doing it daily now. The
Associated Negro Press is in receipt of correspondence from
editors in various sections of the country decrying the way in
which the Associated Press writes its stories of happenings where
Colored people are affected. 2
Certain obvious replies to this out-and-out condemna-
tion may occur even to the uninitiated. It is of course
true that the most of the news will have to be given to
the Associated Press by people who belong to the com-
munity where the news originates, and it is natural that
this should reflect the facts as seen by the dominant group
in that community. Leading Negroes, who see how
unlikely it would be for a minority group to have its case
really stated by a majority press, take this as a matter of
course. The Associated Press does not lack voices
uttered in vindication of its essential fairness. To this
effect James Melvin Lee, in his History of American
Journalism* quotes Oswald Garrison Villard and Mel-
1 December 18, 1920; printed also in the Denver Star, January i, 1921.
chita Protest, October 31, 1919, quoted by Kerlin, op. a/., p. 4.
' Boston and New York, 1917, p. 416.
150 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
ville P. Stone. In the present discussion we are not so
much interested in the truth or untruth of these charges;
it is sufficient to point out the feeling of the Negro people
that the organized press of the nation is against them.
But apart from the Associated Press, there are specific
charges against individual newspapers. The charges are
in substance this: When anything evil is reported to
have been done, the race of the culprit is not mentioned
if the individual is an Irishman, Greek, Russian, or mem-
ber of some other " white" race; but when he is a Negro
the fact of his race is played up. Then when any Negro
does something praiseworthy the world never hears of it
through the press. William Pickens says :
Booker Washington used to tell with great amusement how he
entered a little town and spoke to a large gathering, making as good
a speech as he was capable of. The next morning he picked up
the town paper, expecting to see himself and the meeting given
considerable and prominent space, but found only an inch or so of
recognition on the last page. He had made a successful speech,
but the whole front page was given to a Negro who had made an
unsuccessful attempt to snatch a woman 's purse. 1
The Negro papers are continually referring to this
practice. Sometimes, as in the Omaha Monitor (April
21, 1921) it is pointed out that the same white paper will
give four times the space to a crime alleged to have been
committed by a black man that will be given to a
similar crime by a white. The principle operates in
such pronounced form that when some racial clash, such
as a riot, arises, the Negro papers are kept busy giving
their views of the events, that is, "the real truth." On
the part played by the white press in " fomenting city
1 The New Negro, New York, 1916, p. 230.
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 151
riots," there is unanimity of opinion among Negro editors.
Kerlin 1 quotes the strictures of the Crisis, the Omaha
Monitor, and the Southwestern Christian Advocate. With
regard to the riots near Elaine, Arkansas, in October,
1919, the accusations of unfairness are loud and emphatic.
It is true that the white papers gave out news indicating
that the blacks were planning an insurrection. The
New York Times is a conspicuous instance. 2 It reported
a threatened massacre of whites by the blacks. The
New York Tribune allowed itself to say, " Negro Plot to
Massacre All Whites Found," and so " throughout the
United States the impression was created .... that
Negroes had organized against white men and had
planned to murder and rob." 3 This report was in due
time contradicted by the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, and in self-defense
measures were suggested by the whites in Arkansas look-
ing toward better publicity in their favor. " The re
should be organized and systematic effort to answer each
and every publication that fails to give a true account of
the recent troubles," said the Arkansas Gazette (white) of
Little Rock (October 19, 1919). Negroes, being told that
the original story was false, 4 looked more and more to
their own press to fight their news battles. 5
1 Op. cit., pp. 5, 7, 79-
3 Reference has been made to the files.
J. Seligman, The Negro Paces America, pp. 224, 225.
As may well be the case, judging from testimony presented at the
trials of alleged offenders (see brief in the Crisis, December, 1921, and
following month).
A pamphlet entitled "An American Lynching" issued by the
N.A.A.C.P., gives facsimiles of two Memphis newspapers announcing
lynchings that had been definitely planned.
152 THE NEGRO PRESS IN 1HE UNITED STATES
There are exceptions to this in the South, where there
are Negro papers that report a friendly attitude on the
part of the white press, naturally enough in cases where
the black man dare not speak out. There are also occa-
sional gleams of appreciation when some large city paper
will print articles on Negro race progress. To this effect
the Indianapolis Ledger quotes the Detroit Free Press, the
Chicago Defender mentions the San Francisco Call and
Post, the New Orleans Searchlight quotes the Philadelphia
Public Ledger. 1 The Chicago Daily News also is recog-
nized as true and friendly, and its articles on the Chicago
riots written by Carl Sandburg are still remembered. 2
Another characteristic of the conflict over race rights
is the active antagonism of the whites, particularly in the
South. The Houston Informer has already been referred
to. Three times white merchants withdrew their adver-
tising. The printing office was raided, " the entire edition
of the paper, which was ready for the mails, together with
the subscription and advertising books and other impor-
tant documents, were stolen over night." The editor
got out an extra edition only one day late, scoring his
enemies, whom he took to be the Ku Klux Klan, with
an editorial, " They Shall Not Pass." White editors and
others commended his bravery. 3
The Dallas Express also received a letter as follows: 4
1 Dates of the Negro papers above, respectively, March 19, 1921,
April 23, 1921, February 12, 1921.
2 Reprinted, New York, 1919 ("Chicago Race Riots").
3 See Savannah Tribune, December 25, 1921, and Houston Informer,
December 10, 1921.
* Chicago Whip, February 19, 1921.
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 153
We are rapidly organizing the Famous Ku Klux Klan in this
City to keep forever inviolate the Constitution and make this a
white man's country also to protect both Races humble and
ignorant. We are Convinced that Negroes like yourself & staff
are Enemies of Poor ignorant Negroes trying to incite them to
Rebellion no one pays any attention to it but ignorant Coons like
yourself now we propose to let you do business provided you tell
the truth and cut out trying to incite trouble between the Races
if you Keep it up there will be a Negro massacre now don 't think
We Don 't Know you We are here to keep Order, and much better
hand Coons like you than kill thousands of ignorant Coons Don 't
let Us hear of any more boasting lies in your paper the Press of the
Country has not taken it up yet but We have and believe us We Ve
been Coon hunting before Yours for Law & Order even though
it takes Death.
"Ku KLUX KLAN."
The Dallas Express answered by printing the letter and
with it a defiant statement of its own. The following
item appearing in the Chicago Defender, March 19, 1921,
gives a similar instance:
BIRMINGHAM, ALA., March 18. Members of the local Ku Klux
Klan invaded the office of the Baptist Leader, official organ of the
Alabama Baptist denomination, and notified the editor, Rev.
R. N. Hall, that unless the publication ceased making attacks on
the notorious order harm would be done Rev. Hall
announces that the articles would be continued
forts made by local authorities to suppress the cir-
culation of northern newspapers have been very common
in widely separated parts of the South. The Crisis, the
Chicago Defender, the Crusader, and other papers of this
sort have been forbidden by law to be circulated. For
instance the Crusader (July, 1920) prints a letter in this
form:
154 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
IN THE LAND OF "THE FREE"
(Somewhere in the South. Names are deleted for safety of the
writer.)
The Crusader Magazine,
2299 Seventh Avenue, N.Y.
DEAR SIR : We here in the South are not allowed to sell Northern
newspapers. We have to slip the paper into the hands of our
friends, and I am trying to induce my friends to subscribe by the
year for the Crusader. Every public school teacher is closely
watched, also the Negro preacher. I give you this Dot and you
can read between the lines. You will please send me the maga-
zines as I notify you. I will be responsible for every one sent to
me for my friends.
Sincerely yours,
[Signature deleted by the editor]
In the spring of 1920 the Mississippi legislature
passed "An act to make it a misdemeanor to print or
publish or circulate printed or published appeals or pre-
sentations of arguments or suggestions favoring social
equality or marriage between the white and Negro
races." 1 The Chicago Defender and the Crisis doubtless
were the publications at which this was aimed, in spite
of the interpretations of social equality and disapproval of
intermarriage as above given. 2 The following Associated
Press dispatch speaks for Arkansas.
PINE BLUFF, ARK., Feb. 14. Chancellor John M. Elliott
today issued an injunction restraining John D. Young, Jr., Negro,
and "any other parties" from circulating the Chicago Defender, a
Negro publication, in Pine Bluff or Jefferson County.
The injunction was granted at the instance of Mayor Mack
Hollis. It was sought following receipt here by Young of copies
1 Printed in the Crisis, June, 1920.
3 The Chicago Defender interprets "social equality" substantially as
does the Crisis in the quotation used.
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 155
of the paper containing an account of the killing of George Vicks,
Negro, here Thursday, February 5.
The Defender's account of the affair portrayed Vicks as
defending his home, his liberty and his person, and was held to be
false in its entirety by the court l
The Defender itself prints the following (March 15,
1919):
YAZOO CITY, Miss., March 14. Threatening her with death
unless she stopped acting as agent for newspapers published by
people of her Race, Miss Pauline Willis was compelled to leave
town.
Letters to the Crisis 2 from agents in the South show
that the hostility of the whites is no trivial thing. This
came from Florida:
I would be glad to continue to serve you as agent and willing
but you are aware of the fact that the crackers or the Ku Klux will
beat a colored man for giving the Crisis away in some sections of
this country. I wish to stop here a little longer as I make good
wages in railroad service As long as I can stay in peace I
decided I would discontinue for reasons stated above
From Mississippi:
I cannot make successful sale of the Crisis for the past three
months. The people have been afraid to buy the books and have
been trying to get me to stop handling them but I have not con-
sented to do that I am sacrificing to do this.
And Tennessee:
I am sending you a postal that I received from you last month.
I have been to the post office every day since I received the postal
card inquiring for the Crisis. On the 1 2th inst. I asked one of the
clerks in the office stating to him that you had started the books to
me on the iyth of last month and that I could almost walk to New
York in that length of time. He went and looked for the first
1 Taken from the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, February 15.
1 Copies of letters in the office of the Crisis. Names deleted.
156 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
time since I had been calling for them and told me that they had
been in the office several days You know I can't make
these people give me my mail when it arrives
The Crisis for June, 1920, states that a young colored
minister, Rev. E. R. Franklin, having given away on the
train a few copies of the Crisis, was mobbed on getting off
at a little Mississippi station and took refuge in a swamp.
After being hunted in a field at night and remaining there
during a thunderstorm, he went into town and asked for
protection by the justice of the peace, only to be thrown
into jail. The justice of the peace refused to accept the
bond offered by colored friends in Jackson and sentenced
Franklin to the chain-gang. A lawyer coming to defend
him was threatened with lynching, and the governor and
lieutenant-governor of the state refused to intervene,
saying that Franklin ought to be thankful for getting off
so easily.
The Crusader (February, 1921) prints a letter from
Texas and alongside of it the editor's comment. The
original letter was smeared with large letters in black
ink over the typewritten text so as to read, "TO HELL
WITH NIGGERS! ! !"
"Nigger" Briggs:
Your plan to organize an "African Brotherhood" to protect
the gang of "black bellied" reptiles termed by you as an African
and by a true Southerner a "black nigger" is amusing inasmuch as
you state that your race "met and defeated the flower of the white
race on the bloody fields of Flanders" which you know to be
nothing but a damnable black lie! ! ! Being a soldier in the
American Expeditionary Forces, I saw your gang of "niggers"
serving in Labor Battalions because they couldn't stand the "gaff"
of the big guns the niggers got down on their knees and prayed for
their lives whenever a German Gun would explode.
This is a notice to you to put the "soft pedal" on the organiza-
tion of your society or we witt
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 157
Editor's Note. The latter part of the letter was deleted
because of indecent language. The letter bore no signature. In
the place where a brave man would have signed his name were two
badly scrawled initials. This is what comes out of Texas. The
Negro 's courage needs no defense. Texan can ask the Germans,
who ran every time they faced our boys, or the French, who
decorated a full Negro American regiment.
In carrying on their general fusillade of protest the
Negro newspapers are careful to proclaim their patriot-
ism. Their loyal attitude during the war has been
remarked above. The Buffalo American, a paper which
has given considerable space to news of the Garvey
movement, keeps at the head of its editorial column
the following:
OATH OF AFRO-AMERICAN YOUTH
I will never bring disgrace upon my race by any unworthy
deed or dishonorable act; I will live a clean, decent, manly life,
and will ever respect and defend the virtue and honor of woman-
hood; I will uphold and obey the just laws of my country and of
the community in which I live, and will encourage others to do like-
wise; I will not allow prejudice, injustice, insult or outrage to cower
my spirit or sour my soul, but will ever preserve the inner freedom
of heart and conscience; I will not allow myself to be overcome of
evil, but will strive to overcome evil with good; I will endeavor to
develop and exert the best powers within me for my own personal
improvement, and will strive unceasingly to quicken the sense of
racial duty and responsibility; I will in all these ways aim to uplift
my race so that, to everyone bound to it by ties of blood, it shall
become a bond of ennoblement, and not a byword of reprou< h
Tin- essential Americanism of the Negro press is
proved by the fact that its appeal is always to American
constitutional rights. It wants its case handled by the
United States. It does not desire to see the nation
wrecked and rebuilt. "We are Americans always," says
158 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
the Chicago Defender (December n, 1920). This is the
burden of the sentiment one finds in reading editorial
after editorial. Sometimes the expressions of frantic
protest become extreme, but there is always a line beyond
which denunciation must not pass. This is well exhibited
in the comments made by the Guardian of Boston and
the Whip of Chicago 1 both rather " radical" champions
of rights on the flag-burning incident in Chicago in
which the " Abyssinian movement" figured. The move-
ment and the temporary wildness of that procession on
the June Sunday evening were not only repudiated by
the Negroes of Chicago, but were succeeded by the instant
vanishing of the "Abyssinians" from the map. Both of
these papers use extreme language in attempting to miti-
gate the offense on the ground of racial injustice, but
both state that the act of disgrace to the flag was wrong.
Bitter too as the comments have been on the Tulsa riot,
the press still represents Americanism. "God is not
dead, neither are all of the righteous people," admits the
Black Dispatch of Oklahoma City (June 3, 1921). And
the New York Amsterdam News for June 15 preaches
from the same text:
God is not dead in this Republic. Far from it. The Chris-
tians of the Republic, its rulers and those in authority, had better
come to their senses in dealing with the so-called relations of the
races, because the vengeance of the spirit of God 's justice is after
the Nation, to rebuke and to punish it, for its violation of the law
of brotherhood and citizenship.
This is a/ far cry from revolutionary socialism or bol-
shevism. Kerlin finds " the attitude of the colored week-
1 Editorial in the Guardian, July i, 1920, quoting the Whip.
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 159
lies with not above three exceptions" 1 represented in an
editorial from the Denver Star (September 27, 1919) :
We are face to face with anarchy and bolshevism which is
applied socialism gone to seed and which is more likely to directly
or indirectly affect the happiness, peace, and prosperity and even
the life of our people We cannot win by and through hate,
loss of the church or Christianity, exchanging what we now have
for a condition far worse than what we now have Steady,
Negroes, and pause, for you may have to save America from her-
self yet. Be wise.
That the Negro does not lack counselors who urge
them toward bolshevism is witnessed by a dispatch
widely carried 2 giving the news that John Reed had spoken
of the desirability of enlisting Negroes in communism.
This was at the Moscow meeting of the Internationale.
The Portland Times? however, thus interprets the
Negro's response:
John Reed, who died recently in Russia, and who lived in
Portland a few years ago, gave the world his presumption, when he
dreamed that American Negroes would be driven into the
folds of radicals and embrace the doctrine of soviet government
because of persecution and humiliation John Reed showed
how ignorant he was of Negro psychology. Had he been versed in
comparative psychology, or had recalled the historical error in
judgment of John Brown at Harper's Ferry, he could not arrive
at the conclusion that the Negro because of ostracism would revolt
and embrace ideas of radical soviet government At present
John Reed 's dream will find no American Negro who thinks seri-
ously of it.
"When," asks the Gary (Indiana) National Defender
and Sun (February 26, 1921) "When did the colored
man turn red?"
1 Op. cU. t chap. viii.
As by Dallas Express, December 2, 1920.
* Quoted in Denver Star, January i, 1921.
160 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
He did not turn red for the sainted John Brown. He did not
turn red when the slaveholder left him at home while he (the
slaveholder) went to the front to fight for the perpetuation of
slavery. He did not turn red in France, when that country was
flooded with circulars attacking him and spreading the doctrines of
Southern hate against him.
We never carry a chip on our shoulders. We do not like to
fight. We are not brave, but we do claim to be courageous. If it
is possible to fulfil our mission peacefully we welcome peace. If
the enemies of the race force a fight on us, we will fight to the last
ditch.
To the same effect is a full-page advertisement in the
New York News (July 23, 1921) said to be paid for by
subscriptions to the Afro-American Loyalty League,
entitled "The Strong Black Arm of Loyalty."
There are those within your race who follow the false idols of
Bolshevism and Socialism who urge you chase the delusive phan-
toms of hope that in "the revolution" and the destruction of law
and order you would gain your equal rights
Give neither mind nor time to those false prophets within, nor
to your and the Nation's enemies without. Let us be forever
loyal to the Stars and Stripes. Let us by word and deed continue
to make it in fact as in name, "My Country 'tis of Thee, Sweet
Land of Liberty."
Suspicions of Negro disloyalty have, however, been
strong at times. In the fall of 1919 these suspicions
led the federal Department of Justice to include Negro
periodicals in the scope of its quest for bolshevism. The
result, embodied in the concluding pages of the attorney-
general's letter to the Senate, 1 will seem less conclusive
to some minds than to that of the attorney-general of
those days. The advocacy of the Russian system of
1 Investigation Activities of the Department of Justice, Sixty-sixth Con-
gress, First Session, Sen. Doc. 153, Washington, 1919, pp. 161 ff.
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 161
government, or bolshevism, along with theories of some
form of socialism or radical labor organization, is evi-
dently confined to a small group of New York magazines.
Apart from their utterances, the undesirable matter seems
to be mainly a rather intemperate use of terms in express-
ing Negro grievances and the summons to armed resist-
ance. It should be noted that the Department took up
the investigation of these papers at a time when a great
many beside the Negroes felt that their grievances were
by no means imaginary. At any rate the black man's
feelings were raw and inflamed. Riots had occurred in
Washington, Knoxville, Chicago, Omaha, and Arkansas.
The soldiers of the Twenty-fourth Infantry punished at
Houston were not forgotten. And after the experiences
of war time, in which the troubles connected with segrega-
tion and discrimination were forced to the surface and the
anomaly of Negro soldiers fighting for a country that re-
fused them civil satisfactions tortured the Negro mind,
extravagance of expression would certainly be expected.
One who reads the Negro press today would feel its pulse
beating more measuredly. This may explain the accusa-
tion made in the report referred to (p. 162).
Among the more salient points to be noted .... are first, the
ill-governed reaction toward race rioting; second, the threat of
retaliatory measures in connection with lynching; third, the more
openly expressed demand for social equality, in which demand the
sex problem is not infrequently included; fourth, the identification
of the Negro with such radical organizations as the I.W.W. and
an outspoken advocacy of the Bolsheviki or Soviet doctrines;
fifth, the political stand assumed toward the present Federal
administration, the South in general, and incidentally toward the
peace treaty and the league of nations. Underlying these more
salient viewpoints is the increasingly emphasized feeling of a race
162 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
consciousness, in many of these publications always antagonistic
to the white race and openly, defiantly assertive of its own equality
and even superiority./
Whether this program is un-American or not and
whether it is disloyal will be decided by each reader
according to his own standard of Americanism. For
the papers mentioned in the report to the Senate include
only the few that seemed to be easily accessible to the
investigators. Evidently no serious attempt was made
to bring together representative Negro papers from the
country at large.
An indication that confirms us in the view of the
essential loyalty of the American Negro is the fact that
he is now insisting more and more on the use of the con-
stituted legal and political machinery to gain his ends.
A speaker at the 1921 convention of the National Associ-
ation for the Advancement of Colored People emphasized
the fact that the grievances of his people are coming in
increasing volume into the courts and spoke of this as a
very good omen. Not only are the unceasing protests
largely made up of demands for law enforcement under
the Constitution, but there is heard an urgent call for
political organization. The Republican administration
now in charge of national affairs has been first looked up
to with hope and then viewed with suspicion. Discus-
sions as to the advisability of breaking into the white
primary in the South, of preventing " lily-whitism " in
the Republican organizations, of splitting the vote in the
large city centers has been heard. "The forming of a
permanent country-wide organization of Negro voters
here begins an epoch," says the Pittsburgh American. 1
1 Quoted by the Public Journal, Philadelphia, June 18, 1921.
THE DEMAND FOR RIGHTS 163
"Eight million Negro voters in this country if prop-
erly organized could swing any election," cries the By-
stander of Des Moines (June 23, 1921). " We must show
our strength in state party organizations from this time
on," chimes in the Kansas City Call (June iS). 1 One of
the most American editorials is this one in the Raleigh
(North Carolina) Independent, October 9, 1920. Editor
Ben Davis, of Atlanta, perhaps surpasses it in glowing
enthusiasm, judging by the latter 's hearty song of praise
for Georgia; 2 but the Raleigh paper is perhaps more
characteristic.
In a recent issue of a little weekly paper known as the "Ex-
press" published in Sanford, N.C., there appears an article entitled
"Political Gab."
The writer seems to have been charged with much suspicion of
the Negro entering politics. We are sorry that a few of our white
people still hold to the idea of the "Red Shirts" and unfair means
when they think of Negroes' political rights.
We, the proud citizens of North Carolina, feel ourselves capable
of voting and when the times comes will show you that our votes
will be cast for the good of the country.
The writer said that "Hell will break loose if the white man's
power was at least suspected." I am sure that the writer could
have expressed his mind in a better way than that.
We acknowledge that this is the white man's state. It is his
because he founded it and now dictates affairs.
It is our state because we made it what it is today. We labored
with ardent love and uncalculating devotion, for two hundred and
fifty six years in this state. And we labored without honor and
without pay. The constitution of the United States approves of
our rights in the fourteenth and fifteenth amendment, which shall
not be denied.
1 For various state organizations for political action see the Washing-
ton Bee, October i, 1921.
' Atlanta Independent, editorial, February 27, 1921.
164 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
With regard to national and international issues of all
sorts, the opinions occasionally uttered by the Negro editor
are colored by his "race problem." The League of
Nations, immigration, the open shop, for instance, are
three topics dealt with in the Christian Recorder (Feb-
ruary 24, 1921) as "Some of the big national questions. "
The judgment of the editor is against the League, against
immigration, and for the open shop. All Negroes would
not agree with him on the last issue, but the agreement on
the second would be virtually complete, and on the first
fairly general. The Irish question is occasionally dis-
cussed only for the parallels it furnishes to the Negro
question. There is a great interest in the matter of rela-
tions with Japan, sympathy for the yellow people being
the general tone. 1 One paper hints mysteriously that
the main thing to remember, while the nations are quar-
reling about Yap, is that the island is peopled by dark-
skinned inhabitants and Negroes may have a stake in its
disposal. 2 Recently there has been a strong interest in
Haiti and general condemnation of its treatment by our
government. The Associated Negro Press frequently re-
views larger national issues in the light of racial demands.
So much for the policy of the Negro press on the race-
problem, taking the press as exemplified by the great
mass of newspapers throughout the country. They are
contending for political and civil rights.
1 Clippings from the New York Dispatch, Detroit Contender, New Era
(Charleston, S.C.) this last by W. H. A. Moore, of the Associated
Negro Press and the Guardian (head reads, "Negroes might take
sides with the Japanese in event of war").
2 Chicago Whip, April 30, 1921.
CHAPTER VII
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM
There is a small group of Negro magazines in New
York making an impression quite out of proportion to
their number. Prominent among these is the Crusader,
which looks from its safe distance on Russia with pleasure
and even mentions socialism rather approvingly. 1 The
Challenge, also of New York, makes fearlessness its
selling-point: "It Fears Only God" is its motto.
Garveyism is approved by this periodical, national loy-
alty is interpreted in a radical way, and violent state-
ment is its rule. 3 The Promoter, a periodical which
was recently issued, partakes somewhat of the tone of
the Crusader. It is impossible to estimate the number
of colored people who read these magazines. The
Crusader varied in circulation between 23,000 and
37,000 copies during 1920 and went into "nearly every
big town in the United States, and many rural com-
munities." This magazine, like the others, and the
Negro World, cultivates the field for racial propaganda
in the West Indies. It prints a letter from Trinidad
(January, 1921) telling of government agents who
searched homes for the Negro World, the Messenger, and
the Crusader, and who carried away the Promoter for
examination. Apart from the Messenger, which must
be examined separately, it is hard to distinguish a con-
<-nt policy in these publications. When the Crusader
1 April, 1921, pp. 8 ff. 'June, 1921.
165
166 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
began its work, the purpose was propaganda for "A
Free Africa, A Strong Negro State (in Africa or elsewhere,
e.g., South America, Haiti, etc.), Instruction in Negro
History, etc." Cyril V. Briggs, the editor, is head
of the African Blood Brotherhood. The April, 1921,
number "invites discussion," but suggests as a basis
for it the following program:
Combine the two most likely and feasible propositions,
viz.: salvation for all Negroes through the establishment of a
strong, stable, independent Negro State (along lines of our own
race genius) in Africa or elsewhere; and salvation for all Negroes
(as well as other oppressed peoples) through the establishment of
a Universal Socialist Co-operative Commonwealth. To us it
seems that one working for the first proposition would also be
working for the second proposition.
All these magazines are intelligently and ably edited.
They show interest in history, in the drama, in music,
and in poetry. A vein of radical and undefined protest
runs through them all. This is the attitude seen in the
declaration of principles of the Triangle (March, 1920,
Newport, Rhode Island), now defunct:
A Magazine that stands for a new Negro, a new day, a new
order of society.
A Magazine that abhors the negative, effeminate stuff that
passes for " conservatism."
A Magazine, exponent of neither Bolshevism nor Anarchism,
but an advocate of that "Radicalism" which is the father of all
true progress.
Similarly, after listening to a street harangue by a young
colored man, a white man asked one of the group who
seemed to admire the speaker, "What is he Socialist,
I.W.W., or what?" "He is just a radical," seemed to
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 167
be the only answer. Another member of the crowd
was giving his own version of the doctrine:
"Didn't we once have a fellow in that other war not the
Civil War, but the first war, what was that war?"
"Revolutionary War," suggested another.
"Yes, that's it, the Revolutionary War. Well, hi that war,
didn't we have a fellow by the name of Chrismus Attucks? and
he fought, but he fought the white man's battle.
"Then in the Civil War we fought, but it wasn't our battle;
it was somebody else's battle.
"The same way hi the Spanish War and the previous war.
We always fought somebody else's battle, not our own.
"Bv GOD ! Why can't we fight our own battle ? "
A corollary was then supplied by the additional sug-
gestion that we may have arrived at a time when the
oppressed of both white and black groups ought to get
together.
The Messenger has a rather definite program. It is
impossible not to know what the Messenger stands for.
It is radical, its tone is emphatic, its challenge insistent.
The editors, Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph,
propound a socialistic solution for the great ''problem"
in the form of a reconstruction program, issued as a
supplement and called, "The Negro and the New Social
Order." 1
The reconstruction program for the Negro must involve the
introduction of the new social order a democratic order in which
human rights are recognized above property rights. We recogn i/i- .
in sketching, in broad outline, this new order, that there can not
be any separate and distinct principles for the social, political and
economic emancipation of the Negro which are not applicable to
all other people.
'Issued near thejdose of the war.
i68 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Suggestions are made under these heads:
Demobilization
Industrial Program peonage, the company store, tenant farm-
ing, socio-industrial psychiatry, industrial organization policy,
child labor, woman labor, equal pay for equal work (white
and black), equal opportunity, social insurance, co-operative
movement
Political Program
Social Program education, public education
Civil Rights social equality, including intermarriage
Civil Liberties
Legislative and Administrative Invention suggesting federal
departments of education, prisons, recreation and amuse-
ment, health, housing, fuel, munitions, transportation
The Negro and the Cabinet a Negro representative in every
department of the government
The New Negro
Peace Terms
The " Political Program," although elaborate, is, in
substance, that which we have already shown the weekly
press to demand. The suggestions for " legislative and
administrative invention" would be called state social-
ism. The " industrial organization policy" is this:
We recommend that Negro workers join the Union which con-
trols the industry in which they work, whether it be the American
Federation of Labor, the I.W.W. or independent labor organiza-
tions, such as, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and
the International Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Workers.
We make this recommendation for this reason: We recognize
the fundamental difference in principle between the A.F. of L.,
the I.W.W. and the A.C.W. of A., I.F. of H. and R.W., yet we
realize that, with regard to the black workers, the issue is chiefly
getting them to understand the value of collective bargaining.
The relative merits of pure and simple unionism and industrial
unionism will assume their places of vantage in their class con-
sciousness as their industrial education proceeds apace.
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 169
How thoroughgoing as well as consistent the Messenger
has been in its underlying principle is seen in the fact
that as far back as March, 1919, an article appears
headed, "Lynching: Capitalism Its Cause; Socialism
Its Cure." That this principle connects itself with what
is popularly known as bolshevism is evident from page 8
of the May- June number, 1919: "Soviet government
proceeds apace. It bids fair to sweep over the whole
world. The sooner the better. On with the dance!"
And this: " The time is come for a great mass movement
among Negroes. It ought to assume four distinct forms,
viz. : labor unions, farmers' protective unions, cooperative
business, and socialism."
United with this advocacy of radical socialism is the
bitter protest we are already familiar with, the cry for
security and rights. A poem is printed (July, 1919)
called "The Mob Victim," which describes in stark,
hideous detail a lynching, the first lines being:
And it was in a Christian land,
With freedom's towers on every hand,
Where shafts to civic pride arise
To lift America to the skies.
And it was on a Sabbath day,
While men and women went to pray
There is a cartoon above the poem with this legend
across it,
A GLORIOUS DESECRATION
Oh say can you see
By the dawn's early light
and the figure of the victim hanging over a fire, with the
flames, smoke, and embers wrought into the likeness of
the American flag. Archibald H. Grimke's poem, "Her
1 70 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Thirteen Black Soldiers," refused by the Atlantic
Monthly, and even by the Crisis, found a welcome on
the pages of the Messenger (October, 1919). This is a
somber invective against the nation, which is held guilty
for the fate of the Negro soldiers who rioted at Houston
in the summer of 1917. In another issue the new Negro
is cartooned as riding in an armored car and shooting
down his white opponents in race riots (September,
1919). Nowhere is racial sentiment more strongly
expressed. It is the Messenger that publishes Claude
McKay's "If We Must Die" (September, 1919):
' If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, oh, let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us, though dead!
Oh, kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;
Though far outnumbered let us still be brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave ?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
The Messenger attacks all Negroes who are less
radical than itself, including Kelly Miller, Emmet t J.
Scott, Robert R. Moton, Roscoe C. Simmons, even the
editor of the Crisis, Dr. Du Bois. Because Simmons
said in a speech, "I am an American, proud of it and
jealous of both the power and reputation of my country
and countrymen," the Messenger retorts, " Think of a
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 171
Negro being proud to be an American!" 1 The editors
insist on taking as a compliment and printing as an
advertisement the evaluation placed upon the paper by
the Department of Justice : " The Messenger, the monthly
magazine published in New York, is by long odds the
most able and most dangerous of all the Negro publica-
tions."
The paper was first sold from street corners at the
time when Owen and Randolph were conducting Morris
Hillquit's mayoralty campaign among the Negroes.
A letter says:
On August 4th, 1918, the Messenger editors were speaking in
Cleveland, Ohio. One of the copies of the Messenger had an
article entitled "Pro-Germanism Among Negroes." With the
characteristic stupidity of the Department of Justice, they did
not understand that the article was satirical and sarcastic, but
arrested us, confiscated about 100 copies which we had with us,
put us in jail for i\ days. Within the next two weeks the associate
editor, Chandler Owen, was drafted. Second class mailing privi-
leges were, and still are, being denied
With respect to circulation, we may say that upon coming
from camp, January, 1919, we immediately published 10,000
copies which went very rapidly; then 12,000, increasing to 15,000
.... and 26,000, which is the highest circulation .... its read-
ers are about | white and f colored a
Those, both white and black, who are interested in
radical labor are probably the ones who buy this pub-
lication. What success the periodical has in promoting
Negro labor organization can be set over against the
fact that the large majority of Negro workers are still
unorganized and very few are found in the ranks of the
I.W.W.
1 P. 25, December, 1919. ' Letter bears date of March 19, 1921.
172 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
There are other papers that .show some interest in
the labor problem. The New York Dispatch speaks out
thus (May 27, 1921):
The problems for our leaders to solve are, first, how to insure
to every colored person, able and willing to work, an oppor-
tunity to earn an honest livelihood. Second, to effect a better
or larger distribution of the wealth of the nation created in the
sweat of colored men's faces. All other problems pale into
insignificance.
Two news weeklies, the (Birmingham) Times-Plain
Dealer and the (Memphis) Western World Reporter, are
representatives of the active Railway Men's International
Benevolent Industrial Association. A few other organi-
zation papers exist. Others here and there realize that
labor conditions enter into the race problem. Labor
unionism is discussed, some articles advocate member-
ship, some still stand for the open shop, some endeavor to
suit their advice to time and circumstance, while others
again point out the difficulties that organized white
laborers present to the further organization of Negroes.
The American Federation of Labor declared in ipio 1 for
inviting colored men into unions; but Negroes resent the
fact that the local and international bodies affiliated
with the general Federation have not freely followed this
policy. The New York Age says (July 2, 1917), quoting
Samuel Gompers at Denver, "The American Federa-
tion of Labor has previously declared that it is the duty
of all workers to organize regardless of sex, nationality,
race, political belief or color. The Federation, however,
cannot force this view upon individual or affiliated unions
without their consent."
1 Negro Year Book, p. 341.
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 173
One of the most striking attempts to solve the problem
of the Negro by economic organization was the Progres-
sive Farmers' and Household Union, which was made to
bear the blame for the riots near Elaine, Arkansas, late
in 1919. The Arkansas Gazette (white) published at
Little Rock, is authority for the following description
and quotations (October 10, 1919). This Union circu-
lated considerable pamphlet literature among the colored
farmers and tenants. In particular the words of a song,
to be sung to the tune of "Maryland, My Maryland,"
came to the notice of the Gazette:
Ye farmers of this mighty land,
Organize, oh, organize!
Its bulwark evermore to stand
Organize, oh, organize!
For with the flag of right unfurled,
In spite of darts against you hurled,
You still must free this hungry world
Organize, oh, organize!
If you would come into your own,
Organize, oh, organize!
Or be forever overthrown,
Organize, oh, organize!
Yes, everywhere throughout this land
The tillers of the soil must stand
And be a firm united band
Organize, oh, organize!
To firmly stand against each wrong,
Organize, oh, organize!
Your only hope is union strong
Organize, oh, organize!
To break the bonds of slavery
That bind you now from sea to sea
And from oppression to be free,
Organize, oh, organize 1
174 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Your calling was the first on earth
Organize, oh, organize!
And ever since has proved its worth
Organize, oh, organize!
Then come, ye farmers, good and true;
The die is cast it's up to you
[line omitted ?]
Organize, oh, organize!
Among the circulars one has sentences like these:
The time is at hand that all men, all nations and tongues must
receive a just reward!
This union wants to know why it is that the laborers cannot
control their just earnings which they work for. Some of the
leading business merchants and authorities are saying we are
pleading the right cause and due consideration.
There are many of our families suffering because our men are
forced to act as children
Remember the Holy Word, when the Almighty took John
upon the mountain and commanded him to look, and asked John
what he saw, and John said, "I see all nations and tongues coming
up before God."
Now, we are a nation and a tongue. Why should we be cut
off from fair play ? Hear us, God, hear us!
We only ask every negro man for $1.50 for joining fees,
women, 5oc.
Write Box 31, Winchester, Ark.
And we will come down and set up a lodge among you. Get
1 5 men and 1 2 women. We will set you up together.
In the application blank for membership an affirmative
answer seems to be expected to the following questions:
Did you register for war ?
Do you obey the laws at all times ?
Do you believe in court ?
Will you defend this government and the constitution at all
times?
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 175
This prayer follows: "God grant that all men will be
equal in Thy sight and the sight of men."
To many leading Negroes "the economic way out"
would suggest things quite different from the foregoing.
The term generally means: Invest in property, get into
business, accumulate wealth, and thus attain a standing
that will be independent of your racial status. This
would not be considered a satisfactory entire program
by most editors. The radicals criticize Booker T. Wash-
ington on this point: the Negroes that have gained
wealth and ability have not escaped but only intensified
racial prejudice, and hence this by itself still leaves a
"race problem." The "radical" editor now urges the
economic advance but would supplement this by agita-
tion for rights. One of the more conservative editors,
Dr. R. R. Wright, in the Christian Recorder (April 28,
1921) states his view of "the economic way out":
While we did not get a civil rights bill in the State of Penn-
sylvania, there is no cause for discouragement. One of the
reasons given for not giving the colored man civil rights was that
it would invade the social life of the white people. Many, even
good white people, seem to think that the Negro wants what they
call "social equality." The other side of the question is that
we must build up our own institutions, we must build the basis
of a firm and respectable society among us. We must build up
our people in education, in business and in all the fine things of
life. We must provide our own hotels and dub houses, and other
places of entertainment, labor and amusement, in order that as
far as possible we may take care of our own group. The more
this is done the more people will see that it is not so-called social
equality that we want, but that we are able more and more to
take care of ourselves. We will get more respect in all hotels,
in moving picture houses, etc., when it is known that we have
our own. We will get more accommodations in white banks and
176 THE NEGRO PRESS I]ST THE UNITED STATES
trust companies when we are known to have our own. So that
the real big work to be done is not to work so much in getting a
law upon the statute books of the state as it is getting hold of the
social, political and economical resources of our community in
order that we may build firmly and solidly the kind of manhood
and womanhood that will make the finest kind of American
citizenship. At best, a civil rights bill would have protected us
legally in the things we are able to maintain economically. The
civil rights bill, as equitable and just as it was, would have solved
nothing. If we should put half as much energy in developing
our economic resources as we have in agitating for a civil rights
bill, we would carry ourselves far ahead. But we have not yet
learned to organize economically. Hence we are the playthings
of the politicians.
The nationalist movement is represented almost
entirely by the United Negro Improvement Association
and African Communities League, of which the moving
spirit is Marcus Garvey and the official organ, the Negro
World. As has been noted there are other voices calling
for a Negro state, such as that heard in the Crusader,
and there are occasional articles in newspapers indicating
possibilities for Negroes in Africa and other parts of the
world. But in the Negro World* we have the real propa-
ganda for a " free Africa." 2 Yet with all the writing and
1 The Voice, at Buffalo, New York, is a weekly organ of the local
organization of the U.N.I.A.
3 Representatives of the movement acknowledge the articles pub-
lished in the World's Work (December, 1920, and January, 1921) as
authentic history, while Du Bois in the Crisis (same dates) has written
a critical account from the viewpoint of one who disapproves. Current
Opinion (March, 1921) and the Independent (February 26, 1921) also
have something to say about the movement. This and the "Pan-
African Congress" fostered by W. E. B. Du Bois are not only distinct
from each other but mutually hostile. The Congress "has nothing to
do with any 'Africa for the Africans' movement," says Du Bois (New
York Age, June 25, 1921).
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 177
talking it is difficult to find in the literature on the sub-
ject any clear statement of its aims. The following
points seem to stand out:
Protest against the wrongs of the Negro both in America,
including the West Indies, and Africa.
Summons to all Negroes of the world (counted as 400,000,000)
to unite, pooling their grievances and their energies, so as to
become, in some sense at least, a nation.
Project of making Africa free from the white man's dominion
and open to all blacks as a home and refuge. This does not
mean to get all the blacks of the world into Africa: that is not
thought of as immediately practicable.
In the meantime to stimulate economic independence on the
part of Negroes wherever they are, and to link their economic
advance with the fortunes of Africa. Hence the Black Star Line,
the Negro Factories Corporation, the Ethiopian Engineering
Association and so on.
Perhaps the last of these points is the main objective.
The general betterment of the Negro lot in localities
where he now dwells may be the attractive force for
some. Doubtless others are drawn to the organization
because of its value in stimulating racial solidarity. In
Du Bois' words in the Crisis:
What he is trying to say and do is this: American Negroes
can, by accumulating and ministering their own capital, organize
industry, join the black centers of the south Atlantic by commer-
cial enterprise and in this way ultimately redeem Africa as a
fit and free home for black men.
While the first steps in this pVogram may be said to
date from 1914, when the Negro Improvement Society
was launched in Jamaica, it is only in the last two or
three years that it has attracted attention in the United
178 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
States. Even today the Negro World, judging from the
letters from readers, gets a large part of its support in
the West Indies. We know, too, that the Negro popula-
tion of New York, where the movement is at home, has
been largely augmented by arrivals from the West
Indies since the days of the war. Northern cities in
the United States certainly have heard of the organi-
zation, as their press reflects the activities of Garvey
followers, sometimes favorably, sometimes adversely.
It is difficult to give an adequate idea of the enthu-
siasm and rainbow-tinted outlook that any casual reader
must discern in the Negro World. The fifty-four articles
in which the policy sketched above is outlined 1 are
called the " Declaration of Independence of the Negro
Race." There are reports of gorgeous processions,
solemn Easter services, powerful sermons, flowing robes
and a flag of red, green, and black. Accounts of new
branches organized are constantly coming in. A large
part of the news in the official organ is made up of
speeches. Of these Garvey's are the most striking.
Here are some of his sentences: 2
We are going to build up in Africa a government of our own,
big enough and strong enough to protect Africa and Negroes
anywhere.
Here you have three men, one white, one black, one yellow,
all came into the world at one and the same time. The white
man has guns and swords, daggers and other implements and
keeps them with him; the yellow man does the same, and this
1 Negro World, September n, 1920, reporting a convention in Liberty
Hall, in August of that year. The convention lasted the entire month,
and called itself "the first international convention of the Negro people
of the world." There were conventions also in 1921 and 1922.
a Speech in Chicago: see Negro World, February 12, 1921.^
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 179
foolish black man stands up in the middle between these two
men with two bare hands. You must realize that you are flirting
with your own future, your destiny, and your race What
is the idea of Japan having a big navy ? The idea is to protect
the rights of the yellow man in Asia. The nations of Europe have
navies to protect the rights of the white man in Europe. Negroes,
the time has come for you to make and create a nation of Africa
and have the greatest army and navy in the world.
Africa must be redeemed. There is no doubt about it, it is
no camouflage. The Universal Negro Improvement Association
is organizing now, and there is going to be some dying later on.
We are not organizing to fight against or disrespect the govern-
ment of America, I say this plainly and for everybody to hear we
are organizing to drive every pale-face out of Africa. [Applause.]
Do you know why? Because Africa is mine; Africa is the land
of my fathers; and what my fathers never gave to anybody else,
since they did not will it to anybody, must have been for me.
.... Some of you turn up your noses against the Africa of
Africans. Africa was the land from whence our fore-parents were
brought three hundred years ago into this Western Hemisphere.
They did not probably know what the consequences would be.
But that God who rules, that God who sees and knows, he had his
plan when he inspired the Psalmist to write: "Princes shall come
out of Egypt, and Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand unto
God."
xlf anybody should be a radical it should be the Negro. We are
not radicals, even though some men think that we are. The
I.W.W. are radicals, and so are some Socialists; but they are
white people, so let them "raise Cain" and do what they please.
We have no time with them; we have all the time with four
hundred million Negroes So, please understand that
Marcus Garvey is no I.W.W. ; he doesn't even know what it
means; he is no anarchist, as far as Western civilization is con-
cerned ; but if anarchism means that you have to drive out some-
body and sometimes kill somebody, to get that which belongs to
you, then when I get to Africa I am going to be an anarchist.
i8o THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
If it is right for the white man and the yellow man to rule
in their respective domains, it is right for the black man to rule
in his own domain. Remaining here you will never have a black
man as president of the United States; you will never have a
black Premier of Great Britain; you need not waste time over it.
I am going to use all my time to establish a great republic in Africa
for four hundred million Negroes, so that one day if I desire to be
president, I can throw my hat in the ring and run as a candidate
for the presidency.
The United Negro Improvement Association and
African Communities League are not to be looked upon
as having great political or international significance on
account of the absence of ways and means to political
power as well as the lack of recognition by political units
now in Africa. 1 The organization is rather a national-
istic movement bearing the characteristics of a religious
revival and including an effort toward economic inde-
pendence. Sometimes one of these aspects is stressed
and sometimes another. It is the economic phase for
example that appears in this advertisement (February
26, 1921):
If Negroes during the time of prosperity had subscribed the
$10,000,000 capital of the Black Star Line we would today have
at least twenty large ocean going ships, and we would be able to
ship at least 5,000 unemployed Negroes from America and other
parts every week during these hard times.
The emphasis on nationality seems generally to be
uppermost.
The following are illustrative expressions used by
Garvey himself in various speeches reported in the Negro
World (July 30, 1921).
1 A disclaimer by the Liberian Secretary of State is printed in the
New York Age, July 16, 1921.
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 181
You will understand that the U.NJ.A.'s programme is
nowhere different from that of George Washington when he
attempted, about 140 years ago, to form his own government and
throw off the British yoke. He laid the foundation for a Republic
which has become the greatest in the world today. I am deter-
mined that with the help of God I will lay a foundation for the
Negro race.
Touch the Englishman anywhere about the spirit of his race
and he will stand up and die in defense of his empire. Touch the
Frenchman and the American and they will all die in defense of
their countries. Touch the Negro and there will be no responsive
chord. He dies for no flag or country that is his own. But soon
400,000,000 Negroes of the world will demand what is theirs by
God's help.
Africa can only be won through sacrifice, through blood. All
of us will not die. Whether I die here tonight, or in the West
Indies, or any part of the world, I will die for the aims and objects
of the U.N.I. A. and A.C.L., and in the cause of Africa; whether I
die in jail, on the gallows, or by the guillotine, in whatsoever way
I die, I will die for the freedom of Africa.
I appeal to you men to give your support to the U.N.I.A.;
the propaganda that we teach is not mere sentiment; death may
be the price of leadership. Look at the long line of martyrs.
Let us take the history of Ireland; for the last seven hundred years
Ireland has been bleeding for her freedom. I repeat again the
words of Patrick Henry, the patriot, "I care not what others
may say, give me liberty or give me death."
- They talk about the New York isth; that was only an experi-
ment in warfare. (Cheers.] They talk about the Illinois 8th; that
was only a pastime for the boys. They talk about the prowess of
the West Indian regiments; those fellows were only having a
picnic; it was a gala day. No man has ever yet seen the Negro
fighting at his best, because the Negro has never yet fought for
himself. [Loud and prolonged cht
I I'Tc stands a Negro who is black, and who would never care
to change it. God made me for a purpose We can't all
182 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
go to Africa; we will leave the black-white man, the brown-white
man, the yellow-white man, and the aristocrat Negro when we go
to Africa. I would rather be in Africa with my Prince Albert
coat no, by that time we will have another name for the coat
[laughter], my gold-headed cane, my bell top, walking down the
African boulevards than anywhere else in the world.
Let us not lose hope; have courage, there is great work in
store for us. Let me ask you to do the best you can for the Black
Star Line; buy bonds in the Liberian Construction Loan. When
we go to Africa we will need doctors, lawyers, preachers and
teachers also. By that time we will also have a language of
our own.
A large amount of space in the Negro World is taken
up with huge advertisements of the subsidiary corpora-
tions. The absence of statements of financial condition
and of banking references does not seem to hinder the
success of this appeal, although there have been occa-
sional financial reports. There are also advertisements
of a "Catechism for instruction to our people in new
Religious Knowledge, Racial History, the U.N.I.A. and
the Declaration of Rights," the price being thirty cents.
Along with this a "Universal Negro Ritual" is spoken of.
The religious note is stressed in the motto, "One God,
One Aim, One Destiny," and the place for the meetings
of the order is often a church. One finds also, in the
advertising, notices to beware of "fakers" ostensibly
collectors for the U.N.I.A. Another advertisement offers
for sale flags and banners of the red, black, and green,
"an assortment of photo post-cards of each of the
executive officials," and
Photo Medallions beautifully finished of the Hon. Marcus
Garvey, the Potentate; Dr. J. D. Gordon, Miss Henrietta Vinton
Davis, Rev. Dr. McGuire, and Dr. W. H. Eason, in Pontifical
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 183
Robes, as he appeared at the International Convention. Medal-
lions emblazoned in the Red, Black and Green, unbreakable work
by our colored artist, at $2 each for double and $1.75 for single
portraits.
Much space is given to letters received. These are
generally full of enthusiasm for the movement. One
from Brunswick, Georgia, runs like this:
Please permit us a place in the Negro World to exclaim and
proclaim to the world the good done us. Oh! for the wonderful
work wrought in the city of Brunswick, Ga., in the shortest month
of the year, the month of February, 1921, by our Hon. Dr. Eason
and Sec. Prof. Prendergast. When these marvelous and powerful
men came to us they found us because of the want of race con-
sciousness, race pride and true religion, because of the want of
stronger faith, stronger hope, and charity in God and in ourselves,
to do something real, something necessary and wonderful, they
found us practically dead, but with stern personality, strong
determination, and Christ-like spirit to conquer though they die,
they are, we are proud to say, living, and we, the members of the
Sixty-seventh Division, Brunswick, Ga., are proud to be able to
say that these men have wrought into us new life, new inspiration,
and new aspiration *
Adulation of Garvey goes to great lengths, for
"Bruce Grit" can liken him to Jesus. 2 W. H. Ferris,
the editor, likens him to St. Patrick. The use of the
term " Jesus, " in a bit of contributed poetry (July 30,
1921) is peculiarly enlightening, indicating as it does the
strong religious sentiment involved in the use of Garvey 's
name. The verse comes from a reader in Cuba.
1 Issue for March 26, 1921.
'Rather than "Negro Moses" a better name would be "Negro
Messiah, " as a sobriquet for Garvey. There are parallels with Jewish
Messianism here. The appellations mentioned in the text are from the
Negro World, March 26 and April 2, 1921.
184 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
While'Garvey's spirit bid you come,
Sinner do not longer wait,
'Less you seal your hopeless doom,
Be in time.
Time is gliding swiftly by,
Death and judgment draweth nigh,
To the arms of Jesus fly,
Be in time.
Oh, I pray you count the cost,
Ere the fatal line is crossed,
And your soul in hell be lost,
Be in time.
Sinners, heed the warning voice of Garvey,
Make Garvey your final choice on earth,
Then all African sons and daughters will rejoice,
Be in time.
Come from darkness into light,
Come let Garvey make you right,
Come and start for Africa tonight,
Be in time.
Indeed one of the most arresting features of the Negro
World is the poetry contributed by the readers. Lucian
B. Watkins is the author of several such poems; but
most of the " poetry" is of little literary value. The
writers seem to have experienced a new birth in dedicat-
ing themselves to the great cause. Here we might find
grounds for the assertion that there was already a great
sentiment existing in Negro minds which needed only to
be touched into flame by the man, Marcus Garvey.
Ethel Drew Dunlap, of Chicago, who sometimes, after
an uplifting meeting of the local U.N.I.A., would go
home and put her emotions into verse, is a very frequent
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 185
contributor. This catches the attention (Negro World,
April 30, 1921):
Come out from behind the flag
And show us you're for the free,
We know by the way you treat
The captive from over the sea.
Come out from behind the flag,
If you hate men that are black,
Don't cover wrath with the stripes
In order to hide your lack.
Come out from behind the flag,
Garvey is waiting for you,
He's black, and if you're not right
You certainly will be blue.
O. M. Skinner contributes the following (April 23,
1921):
Africa, sweet Africa!
The land so rich and fair,
1 want to see thy sunny shores
And feel thy acrid air.
I want to place my feet
Upon thy golden soil,
To enjoy the warmth of tropics sweet
And share in all thy spoil.
O Africa, sweet Africa!
I am in love with thee
And all my soul's desire's
To see thy liberty,
To see thy sons and daughters
Enjoy their bounteous store,
And all that are thy fathers'
Be theirs for evermore.
186 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
O Africa, sweet Africa!
How can my soul be free
When thou art fooled and robbed by those
Who stung thee like a bee ?
My spirit sinks within,
My feeble body shakes
To know the grossful sin
Of what they give and take.
O Africa, sweet Africa!
All Negroes turn to thee,
All thoughts are centered on thy cares,
And how long can it be
Before thy thrones and places,
Kidnapped by thievish men,
Be given thy princes and princesses,
So innocent and clean ?
O Africa, sweet Africa !
The time will come some day,
And all the world shall hail thee
In spite of all they say,
Thy sons shall lift their heads
Above the present tide,
Shall see just why the Savior shed
His precious blood and died.
For Ethiopia's calling,
She's stretching forth her hand,
While Pharaoh's hosts still ruling
Are scattered through the land.
But God has raised a Moses
Who takes the word of cheer,
Hurrah! The time approaches,
Redemption day is near.
The triumph of the " chosen people" seems to be identi-
fied here with the triumph of Christianity. If taken as
a symbol or collective representation of group spirit,
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 187
"Africa" seems to have been a word in season. Some-
times instead of Africa as a whole, the apostrophe is to
Abyssinia, or some other division of the continent.
My heart is over the sea
In Abyssinia's land.
And, when my fancy is free,
I sail for its beautiful strand.
Thus begins another poem (in the Citizens Advocate, Los
Angeles, February 26, 1921). And Nathaniel Charles
Miller of "Savannah, Ga., R.F.D. No. 2, Box 45,"
thrills to the theme of "The Black Star Line" (Negro
World, April 2, 1921).
Sail on, O glorious ships,
O'er rough and tempest seas!
O brave and gallant men
That man these ships with ease!
Sail on, staunch ships,
Over the seven seas!
May your flags unfurled aloft
Never cease to weave!
May we some day on Africa's soil
Garner in our sheaves.
The Negro World has contributions in one issue
(March 12, 1921) bearing the following headings: "The
Ethiopian as Viewed by the Bible," "The Pyramids of
Egypt/' "Negro Nationalism." The writer of the last
feels that his experience has been a conversion and
writes, "As a Negro born anew in spirit, I say, let us
forget our grievances and petty jealousies toward one
another and work unitedly for the dawn of a brighter
day." The same experience in different form has
1 88 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
evidently been the lot of the other two writers. The
first of these, who signs his name as usual, but says in
his first sentence, "I truly hope that this will not be
considered anonymous," argues against the use of
medallions and pictures by the U.N.I.A. The other
letter, that on the pyramids, says,
It has been my good fortune, dear sir, to have discovered the
real purpose of the erection of the great Pyramid and Sphinx
of Egypt, and the disclosure is a noble indication of the genius of
the Negro race.
These monuments constitute the earliest reliable records of the
doctrine of the atonement and the advent of a redeemer. Not
merely this, but in the astrological calculations .... are recorded
the exact time and place of the birth of the redeemer. The time
is yet to come, and the redeemer in question is of the Negro
race
In the interest of truth, therefore, dear Mr. Ferris, I offer
to submit for publication in your paper a special article upon this
most interesting subject. I seek no compensation
No doubt the strong group sentiment aroused by
this movement, and the evident awakening of race-
consciousness, make it possible for editors who disagree
with Garvey to congratulate the race upon his organiza-
tion. The newspapers are not all friends of the
movement, but neither are they all as curt as the
Charlottesmlle Messenger (March 19, 1921):
The back of [sic] Africa advocates never seem to take into
consideration the fact that this country is ours, and that
nothing can be done which will result in our wholesale removal to
Africa or any other country. We are here to stay.
Du Bois, in the Crisis, points out the dangers of the
U.N.I.A. Several papers print news of the movement
("Garvey Movement Spreading in Spite of Severe
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 189
Criticism," Dallas Express, March 26, 1921). A curious
comment is made in the Michigan State News* which
refers to the Chicago Whip as having called Garvey the
race's first " great man," although not itself indorsing
his movement. This the State News calls " the groping
masses' growing desire for a great flag and country of
their own"; but goes on to say, "Garveyism may be a
menace or a mania it possibly and probably is both."
The failure of the Negro press to adopt a tone of con-
sistent hostility to the Universal Negro Improvement
Association may suggest that possibly a large number
of its readers are well disposed toward that organization.
Side-eddies in this current exist. The interest in
Liberia may grow independently of Garvey though
nourished by his efforts. "A society of engineers plans
to develop Liberia, " announces the Brooklyn and Long
Island Informer (April 9, 1921). "The Independent In-
dustrial League of North America, South America and
Mexico held a meeting recently at Wewoka, Oklahoma,
to encourage colored people to locate in Mexico, " reads
the Beaumont (Texas) Monitor (February 19, 1921).
"Garvey's Assistant Endorses Lower California Move-
ment," says the New Age (Los Angeles, March 25,
1921) the object being "a liberation settlement in
Lower California." The Associated Negro Press sent
out a note originating in Rio Janeiro, Brazil, and contain-
ing the sentence: "This historical fact is pointed out as
good and sufficient reason why Negroes from the States
should settle in this part of Brazil." Brazil is often
mentioned in the Negro press. A long article in the
Denver Star, April 23, 1921, headed "The American
1 Date of clipping lost.
190 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Negro in the Far East," sets forth the inducements of
the Philippines.
In the preceding chapter four solutions of the race
problem were mentioned as indicating the types of policy
generally represented by Negro periodicals. Three of
these have now been considered. The fourth, however,
cannot be so clearly stated. It is intended to give merely
a glimpse of other thoughts that prevail among colored
writers, thoughts that are as various almost as the indi-
viduals, and yet in general look toward the lessening of (
struggle. There is the " too-proud- to-fight " attitude,
the advice to other Negroes to get their minds off the
race struggle and upon some practical advancement, and
even a movement that calls for forgiveness and friendly
reconciliation. Most important, however, may be a
movement that belongs in this class because it seeks in
immediate, pragmatic ways to lessen the race conflict.
This is the organization of inter-racial committees for
practical local co-operation.
These inter-racial committees are being formed
throughout several states and countries of the South.
As a rule the Negro press favors the plan. There is
suspicion in certain quarters, some saying with the
Crisis (May, 1921) that the Negroes must not name
any " pussy-footers " on committees. The New York
Dispatch does not believe in these organizations, judg-
ing by the following:
The public is growing impatient with that class of Colored
men and women who attend joint conferences, take off the hat,
coats, wraps and rubbers for white members of committees, and
then come to us and pose as great. Co-operation? Yes, any
time, anywhere, with anybody, or any movement which tends for
a development of our full manhood rights but to walk between
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 191
the huge legs of inordinate wealth and exchange honorable oppor-
tunity and manhood for positions N-o, a thousand N-o-e^s.
There does not seem to be any southern paper that
actively opposes the plan. The Black Dispatch (Okla-
homa City) is an ardent supporter of it, as also the East
Tennessee News (Knoxville), the Birmingham papers, and
the Houston Informer which is as aggressive as any. The
Charleston New Era (July 23, 1921) presents a cartoon
in which an arm called " Inter-racial Commission," is
watering a plant called, " Friendly Race Relations," by
means of a watering-pot that bears the legend, " Mutual
Interest, Frank Discussion of Conditions." The New
Age of Los Angeles (April 15, 1921) prints Mrs. Drusilla
Dunjee Houston's words on the subject.
The appointment of these commissions over the South, to
study the relations between the races and to help bring them to
equitable adjustment, is the most hopeful sign in fifty years of
reaching a true solution of the Negro problem. Fifty-five years
ago the SOUTH BY FORCE, was compelled to give up her slaves.
Had the powerful logic of Clay, Webster, and Calhoun been used
upon the crying subject of human slavery, this nation today need
not be reaping the whirlwind of hate, because we forced the South
to do what she might have been won to do. The day has passed
for compromise.
The work that Clay, Webster, and Calhoun failed to do lies
before us. We need pass no more laws compelling the South to
justice, that is not the wisest way. Sentiment is stronger than law.
The Inter-Racial Commissions must change this sentiment.
Today, the heart of not only the South but of the average Ameri-
can is turned from the Negro by calumny. A spirit of justice can
only be won for him by the truth. The sword of truth is the only
weapon given us by the Master.
This movement is young, however, and its youth explains
why it has not yet won a more hearty response from
192 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
many influential members of the press. A pronounce-
ment by the Federal Council of Churches looking in
somewhat the same direction as this movement is com-
mented on by James Weldon Johnson in the New York
Age (July 23, 1921) in such .a way as to suggest that
success will come "if" that is, if the organization will
work honestly for justice. 1 Judging by an editorial in
the number for May 21 of the same year, the Chicago
Defender is cautious on the subject, not being willing to
believe that southern white men are in earnest when it
comes to the real grievances of the Negro.
Occasionally one comes upon a Negro paper that
has made it a policy to stay out of the race conflict and
minimize the problem. Perhaps this is one way to
lessen the tension of struggle. The Phoenix (Arizona)
Tribune, for instance (June 4, 1921), says:
Again we wish to express our thanks to the white as well as
to the colored people, for the loyal support they are giving the
Tribune in the form of subscriptions and advertising. We are
a firm believer in the divine injunction: "Whatsoever A Man
Soweth, That Shall He Also Reap," and accordingly we have
tried to keep the columns of this paper free from those articles
that would antagonize one group or the other. Our policy is to
be fair and impartial and, in consequence, we number today among
our subscribers and patrons as many people of the white race as
among our own people. Every day brings requests from some
member of the white race to be placed on our mailing list. And,
too, our own people seem to appreciate the Tribune now more
than ever. We had no idea that conservatism in journalism would
pay such big dividends, notwithstanding, we adopted it as our
policy and have no regrets.
1 The St. Luke Herald (Richmond, Virginia) in its issue of June 4,
1921, evinces a similar attitude.
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 193
It is not strange that a paper will adopt a careful policy
in some parts of the South. Letters from publishers to
this writer tell of the difficulty in getting papers delivered
to subscribers in case the surrounding white population
thinks the paper radical.
A unique publication is the Cotton Farmer, published
ostensibly by the " tenants of the Delta Pine Land Com-
pany," a concern that operates eighteen plantations in
Mississippi. There is a committee of reporters on each
plantation to keep in touch with the editor. The
syndicate under which the tenants work is praised
in this periodical, and white people are mentioned
with gratitude. The motto is: "Labor overcomes
all things everybody work." "School teachers or
preachers not willing to work and who think them-
selves above working in the field, are a positive injury
to the race" (July 9, 1921). There is news from the
welfare activities of the syndicate, "Base Ball Games"
vying for space with "Better Babies." Someone
writes, "The Syndicate certainly looks out for the
welfare of each and every tenant regardless of circum-
stances It is a real father and mother to the
tenantry. 1 ' Apparently this organ is also interested in
lessening the race conflict.
A remarkable attitude toward the racial difficulties
remains to be noticed. It is summed up in the word
"reconciliation," and found in Fen ton Johnson's Favor-
ite Magazine (Chicago). Johnson has given us his
autobiography through a letter to the New York Tribune.
What is the remedy when one has spent all he had in the
world, $10,000, in trying to solve the race problem through the
doctrine of co-operation of the races, and finds himself with only
IQ4 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
$30 in the bank, a wife whom he loves above everything else, and
the magazine that he edits, that has never brought a cent ? Does
it pay to work for humanity ?
And in literature I have published three volumes of verse,
two of prose, contributed to Poetry and other magazines, have
been in nearly all anthologies and have honorable mention from
Poetry for 1918 but no income from literature. 1
In his magazine, he has been seeking to establish this
''Reconciliation Movement."
[It] aims to enlist on its side the best social settlement workers
of both races whose hearts will be in the work for no mercenary
gain but for the sole purpose of building up a greater America
and a more happy and contented people
It is the aim of the movement for "the reconciliation of the
races" to institute Sunday afternoon clubs which are to be oper-
ated through a social settlement and a vigorous system of propa-
ganda. At these meetings the ablest white and colored speakers
are to lecture on the subject of "reconciliation." . . . . a
The editor of the Richmond (Indiana) Blade, another
poet, thinks that the colored race must be one of great
promise because even after Tulsa it forgives (Blade,
July i, 1921). Fen ton Johnson speaks 3 for this quality
(whether indeed it be a racial gift or not) in his poem,
"A Prayer for Our Enemies."
ALMIGHTY FATHER I am praying for my enemies!
Almighty Father lift up my enemies.
Almighty Father be as honeycomb to my enemies.
Almighty Father be to my enemies as the moon to the young
lovers in the June of life.
Almighty Father be to my enemies as the voice of Gabriel laughing
in the Heavens.
Almighty Father be to my enemies as the smiling face of God.
1 Quoted by the Brooklyn and Long Island Informer, May 14, 1921.
2 Issue for autumn, 1920. *Ibid.
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 195
ALMIGHTY FATHER be to my enemies as the Song of Israel when
the hosts assembled for the evening.
Almighty Father be to my enemies as the breath of the Holy One.
Almighty Father be to my enemies as the Day is to the soul of
the wayward child.
Almighty Father be to my enemies as the Light is in the night
of despair.
Almighty Father be to my enemies as the love of a Christian for
the Church of God.
Almighty Father deal with the white South as I would have you
deal with those who hate me for they know not what they do.
Amen.
It must be evident, now, that these variant voices
may produce discord within the group. How do the
leaders of the race harmonize? How does the whole
group get itself integrated ?
Discord does exist. The voices jangle. Race leaders
appear in the press as disputants of each others' abilities,
motives, and policies. The Hopkinsville (Kentucky)
New Age (February 5, 1921) defends the honor of the
orator, Roscoe Conkling Simmons, one who stands for
as much co-operation with the whites as possible.
But Simmons attacks Marcus Garvey. So for that
matter do many others: Garvey has more enemies than
friends among the race leaders. The Crusader (July,
1920), the Crisis, and various newspapers 1 have disputed
his attempt to represent all the Negroes of the nation
and of the world, his apparent commercialism, his back-
to-Africa program. But the Negro World is an able
defender. Choice literary invective, giving hints of
having been written by the scholarly W. H. Ferris,
1 Instances: Kansas City Sun (J. Dallas Bowser) of March 19, 1921,
and St. Luke Herald, May 28, 1921.
ig6 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
appears as, for example, under the caption, "Roscoe
Conkling Simmons Brays Again" (November 27, 1921).
An outstanding opponent of Garvey is Du Bois, whose
Pan-African Congress has itself been discounted by
other leaders. 1 One newspaper attacks Du Bois because
he does not recognize that Garvey is doing a great thing
for group consciousness, although this paper disagrees
with Garvey. 2 Fenton Johnson in his magazine (Janu-
ary, 1921) points out further failings of Du Bois, in that
the latter has attacked not only Moton as was to be
expected but even Emmett J. Scott, "blaming him,"
says Johnson, "for everything that happened in the
army." The newspaper just referred to prints, with
evident approval, Du Bois' criticism of the Chicago
Commission on Race Relations appointed by Governor
Lowden after the 1919 riots. This Commission had
colored members who were suspected of not standing
up strongly for their group. While the newspapers
carry a great deal of the propaganda issued by the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, it is interesting to see that this organization too
is sometimes spoken of disparagingly. 3 On the other
hand one is likely to happen next upon a letter in the
New York Age "Readers' Forum" (April 16, 1921)
defending that body and decrying the National Race
Congress. Finally, the Messenger (March, 1921), speak-
ing of the refusal of "white capitalists" to support the
Y.W.C.A., because of its industrial program, character-
izes wholesale a goodly number of leaders :
1 New York Age, June 18, July 23, 1921.
2 Chicago Whip, January 15, 1921.
J East Tennessee News, March 17, 1921.
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 197
The ignoramuses who edit most of the Negro papers, the
pedagogical poltroons who teach history in most Negro colleges,
the pigmy-minded preachers who infest many of the Negro
churches, the political prostitutes who ply their trade for petty
gain, the social work yeggmen who fatten off the bodies of human
derelicts, the vast army of me-too-boss Negro leaders who bask
in the beams of white financial bosses may well give attention to
this attitude toward chiefly white girls by the so-called best and
richest white people But how can leaders learn who are
enthralled by financial latch-strings!
That this situation as a whole is decidedly unsatis-
factory to the people is evident, and one often reads an
article calling on the leaders and organizations to get
together. Yet acute differences serve the purpose of
making the whole matter of a race policy an interesting
one. They keep the great cause alive and the whole
people alert. It is possibly a logical and necessary part
of the process a group must go through in integrating
its ideas or "making up its mind."
Meanwhile there is a fair amount of concord on a
few things. Already some sentiments and ideals may
be discerned disengaging themselves from the welter of
the discussion and coming gradually into wider and
wider acceptance. The group-idea itself is one of these.
Looking through the window of the Negro press we see
the growth of solidarity. If an individual Negro makes
a success in the world it is credited not only to him but
to the group. This is the constant newspaper policy
and it is what the individual expects. If a Negro
experiences some distress at the hands of the white
man he at once gets it into the papers, if possible, and
the race makes the matter its own. Successful business
men cause business advancement to become a definite
ig8 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
ideal: the whole group unites on this. Successful stu-
dents raise the banner of education. So in art, in music,
in drama, in literature. And the process is one that is
accelerated, if not partly made possible, by the existence
of the press, the common looking-glass before which all
strive to see and be seen.
Not only for this reason, but also because the colored
people take an interest in their papers as literature and
the papers often contain Negro poetry, some attention
should be given to the more significant poems recently
current. Kerlin says in his Contemporary Poetry of the
Negro:
A people's poetry affords the most serious subject of study to
those who would understand that people that people's soul, that
people's status, that people's potentialities. A people that is
producing poetry is not perishing, but is astir with life, with vital
impulses, with life-giving visions Poetry, I say, is perhaps
the most potent and significant expression of the reborn soul of
the Negro in this our day. 1
Where indeed is there a better statement of the things
agreed on by this greatly striving people than the poem
standing at the head of this chapter? It is the voice
of "the new Negro." On the other hand if one wants
an expression of the bitter, fighting-back spirit, the
spirit fanned into flame by the post-war riots, one must
take not simply the more careful line of Georgia Douglass
Johnson
Spurn the handicap that binds you, taking what the
world denies, 2
but the, two poems that have been printed again and
again on newspaper pages. I refer to Claude McKay's
1 Hampton Bulletin, February, 1921.
8 In "The Question," Crisis, August, 1919.
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 199
"If We Must Die," quoted above, and Carita Owens
Collins' "This Must Not Be. '
This must not be!
The time is past when black men,
Laggard sons of Ham,
Shall tamely bow and weakly cringe
In servile manner, full of shame.
Lift up your heads!
Be proud! Be brave!
Though black, the same red blood
Flows through your paler brothers.
And that same blood,
So freely spent on Flanders fields,
Shall yet redeem your Race.
Be men, not cowards,
And demand your rights.
Your toil enriched the Southern lands;
Your anguish has made sweet the sugar cane;
Your sweat has moistened the growing corn,
And drops of blood from the cruel master's whip
Have caused the white cotton to burst forth in mute protest.
Demand, come not mock suppliant!
Demand, and if not given take!
An eye for an eye;
A soul for soul ;
Strike, black man, strike!
This shall not
Representative of another aspect of Negro feeling
is the poem of Roscoe C. Jamison, "Negro Soldiers." 2
1 Chicago Defender, April 30, 1921.
'Crisis, September, 1917; quoted from Mr. Braithwaite's article
in the same periodical, April, 1919.
200 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Its burden is the inevitable sacrifice and inevitable
patriotism of the Negro of today. William Stanley
Braithwaite says it is the "finest contribution in verse
to the Negro's participation in the war." It is more
than that indeed when thought of as echoing the larger
situation and the Negro attitude even in peace time.
These truly are the Brave,
These men who cast aside
Old memories, to walk the blood-stained pave
Of Sacrifice, joining the solemn tide
That moves away, to suffer and to die
For Freedom when their own is yet denied!
O Pride! Prejudice! When they pass by,
Hail then, the Brave, for you now crucified!
These truly are the Free,
These souls that grandly rise
Above base dreams of vengeance for their wrongs,
Who march to war with visions in their eyes
Of Peace through Brotherhood, lifting glad songs
Aforetime, while they front the firing-line.
Stand and behold! They take the field today,
Shedding their blood like him now held divine,
That those who mock might find a better way!
Perhaps, however, no one lets us see the mind of the
present-day Negro in its deeper and more religious moods
so well as James Weldon Johnson in his " Fifty Years
and After." Here we find the consciousness of race
history and the vision of a race future. The poem is
too long to be quoted entire. Brander Matthews has
said: "In it he speaks the voice of his race; and the
race is fortunate in its spokesman In it we are
made to see something of the soul of the people who are
OTHER SOLUTIONS OF THE RACE PROBLEM 201
our fellow-citizens now and forever even if we do not
always so regard them." 1
O brothers mine, today we stand
Where half a century sweeps our ken,
Since God, through Lincoln's ready hand.
Struck off our bonds and made us men
Far, far the way that we have trod,
From heathen kraals and jungle dens.
To freedmen, freemen, sons of God,
Americans and citizens.
This land is ours by right of birth,
This land is ours by right of toil;
We helped to turn its virgin earth,
Our sweat is in its fruitful soil.
That banner which is now the type
Of victory on field and flood
Remember, its first crimson stripe
Was dyed by Attucks' willing blood.
And never yet, haughty Land
Let us, at least, for this be praised
Has one black, treason-guided hand
Ever against that flag been raised.
Then should we speak but servile words.
Or shall we hang our heads in shame ?
Stand back of new-come foreign hordes,
And fear our heritage to claim ?
1 Quoted by Braithwaite in article just cited, Crisis, April, 1919.
The poem itself may be found in the Duttbar Speaker and Entertainer,
etc., pp. 270 ff., or the author's volume, Fifty Yean and Other Poems, New
York, 1917.
202 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
No! Stand erect and without fear,
And for our foes let this suffice
We've bought a rightful sonship here;
And we have more than paid the price.
Courage! Look out, beyond, and see
The far horizon's beckoning span!
Faith in your God-known destiny!
We are a part of some great plan.
CHAPTER VIII
NEGRO LIFE
The deepest interest in the Negro press will spring
from a desire to see as clearly and as intimately as possible
the life there mirrored. While it is true that possible
anxiety over the racial problem ought to send students
to Negro newspapers to discover what Negroes are think-
ing, a still more satisfactory impulse is the wish simply to
become acquainted with these new reaches of human
experience.
It must not be forgotten, of course, that no white man
will be as greatly interested in journalistic glimpses of
Negro life as the colored man himself will be. In the first
place the life of his own group was never so exciting as
now, and it is daily growing more so. Group conscious-
ness is growing, various individuals are opening up new
doors of racial activity, new adjustments with the white
group are being demanded. The economic movements
in both South and North largely those involved in
increased industrialism on the one hand and better farm-
ing on the other and the shifting of population both
from South to North and from the country to the city,
added to the teasing uncertainty of present political
tendencies, democratic agitations, international realign-
ments and all these bring fresh zest every day to the
Negro's appetite for news and discussion. Pictures, de-
scriptions, and reports of others like himself are indemand.
In addition, the colored man wants publicity. It is
203
204 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
isolation which has always been his bete noir. His pas-
sionate evaluation of his own press is due to this urge for
recognition. To be sure, we all like to see our names in
print and sometimes the pleasure of having a party is
blighted if we do not find a report of it in the social
column the next day. But in the Negro's case the
instrument of publicity is still new and hence more fas-
cinating. Still another appeal of the newspapers lies in
this being a means through which intra-group discussion
can go on. Arguments can be heard pro and con, and
the group can thus make up its mind. It is not surpris-
ing if the Negro turns with more than ordinary devotion
to the printed page. To him it is an institution peculiarly
embodying his group life, something like his church or his
lodge, but even more like some public work of art sym-
bolizing his aspiration.
In what follows there has been an endeavor to bring
together a representative selection of newspaper and
magazine sidelights on the Negro. It can scarcely be
claimed that these cover with accurate proportion the
representative areas of all Negro life. The effort has
been made indeed. But it may be that the press gives
more space to some areas of life than to others; it may
be that the city community is over-represented; it
may be that more emphasis is placed on the rising, learn-
ing, upward-struggling, contingent of the race.
It might be hard to find anything different from this
in the publications of any people that is similarly awaken-
ing into self-consciousness. As a people effects larger
contacts with its own units through increasing industrial-
ism and business organization, as it begins to swarm into
the city hive and build its cellular tissue there, it develops
I *
NEGRO LIFE 205
new interests in communal life, language comes to be
important, it seeks art-expression, and so it develops a
press. In the country one can get along without reading,
or at the most need read but a little. There, reading of
papers is a luxury, something to relieve the tedium of
twilight hours. In city life one 's very existence depends
on being able to read signs, advertisements, news. The
social contact is of a secondary kind and the newspaper
becomes its common carrier. Rural Europe might be
kept in social and political impotence with more or less
difficulty; but an urbanized Europe means compact
political organisms, thriving nationalistic movements.
And of course the city and the newspaper go together. It
is so among the Negroes of the United States.
One must immediately add, however, that the country
tends to copy the city. The rural life is not unrepre-
sented. It is consciously endeavoring to keep going some
form of publicity commensurate with a growing sense of
importance. For the emphasis on farm life, while a con-
sequence to some extent of the cityward drift, is very real.
Certain educational centers, like Tuskegee and Hampton,
are consistently standing for this.
I. THE CITY
It is a long way from the corn and cotton fields of the sunny
South to the commercial enterprises of big, beautiful Harlem, but
we are here, one hundred and fifty thousand of us, forming per-
haps the largest Colored community in the entire United States.
Here, where money will say more in one moment than the most elo-
quent lover can in years, a happy, thrifty people are working out a
greater destiny for the Race, by solving their economic and political
problems day by day. Fifteen years ago, Colored Harlem was
confined to one or two city blocks. Today, Harlem's Colored
People proudly claim almost the entire area north of 1 28th to i48th
206 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
streets, from Park to Eighth avenues, a city, "as it were," within
the city. About two miles long by two miles wide, having more
people than the entire combined population, whites and blacks,
of Richmond and Lynchburg, Va., together. Here thrive many
enterprises, such as light manufacture, commercial and professional
life affords, with a large number of Colored people doing excellent
business.
Large public schools, library, Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. build-
ings; casinos, theatres, political, social and music club houses;
fraternal homes, and 60 per cent of property in this area is owned by
Colored people. There are two Colored representatives on the
Board of Aldermen, and one in the State Legislature, all from big,
beautiful Harlem, to represent her interests. Our Churches are
palatial. Our professional and business men are among the best
in the country; here, too, the Colored artisans have commenced to
grow strong. Our women, God bless them, are the prettiest and
best dressed in the world.
Unity within the Race, here as elsewhere, is the Colored People 's
greatest concern; and when Harlem finds it, the so-called "Race
Problem" will crumble before an intelligent, determined group, and
Colored Harlem will not only be big and beautiful, but will become
great and powerful. New York Dispatch, January 7, 1921.
THE LOVERS
A youth moulded of the night and a young girl dipped in the sunset.
The moon peeps from behind a gigantic building and smiles. Such
is love in Harlem.
WILL SEXTON in Favorite Magazine, Autumn, 1920.
The editor asked Capt. Abram Simpson, who has just returned
from Memphis, to tell the readers of the News what he saw there.
In response to our request for an article, he sat down at the
typewriter and "knocked off" the following: ....
To understand and enjoy Memphis of today one must have
seen other cities, scattered throughout the country where Colored
people are assembled in large numbers, with their laissez-faire atti-
tude and the absence of the pioneer spirit. Then he can appreciate
this busy, prosperous, and promising city
NEGRO LIFE 207
Go there today and you will find
Four hospitals, one having recently been purchased at an
initial cost of thirty thousand dollars;
Twelve or more drugstores, furnished with the most modern
of equipment ;
Eighty-nine doctors, dentists, and pharmacists who have
graduated from the leading medical colleges of the country;
The courts of the city,
Twelve lawyers practicing in all ; undertaking establishments,
restaurants, haberdashery stores, grocery stores and other forms
of business which give to it the commercial spirit of New York.
But thanks to its heritage, it has not lost the social spirit of the
South.
Behind the movement for advancement and individual expres-
sion in financial circles stand the two Colored banks of Memphis
with their combined resources of over a million and a half dollars.
They are the Solvent Savings Bank and Trust Co. and the
Fraternal Bank.
One of the most outstanding features of the business life of
Memphis is the Roddy Co-Operative Grocery Concern. This
organization has a chain of fifteen groceries scattered throughout
the city and the towns surrounding Memphis. In some cases they
have established and in others acquired groceries. Mr. B. M.
Roddy, the cashier of the Solvent Savings Bank and Trust Co., is at
the head of this organization. It is operated under the same gen-
eral plan as the Piggly-Wiggly or the Quaker Maid chain of stores.
Their business outlay represents an expenditure of thousands of
dollars and their turnover yearly is in the hundreds of thousands.
Recently the Mississippi Beneficial Life Insurance Co. with
a capitalization of one hundred thousand dollars, moved their
home office to Memphis. This concern operates in four states and
employs in the home office over sixty persons. Dr. Walker is the
President. Its city branch with an agency of twenty-five or more
is under the management of Mr. G. W. Lee, a young politician of
national repute.
During the present week the Negro Coffin Manufacturing Con-
cern, of which Mr. Hayes, Vice President of the Solvent Bank and
208 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Trust Co. is the President, opened its factory for the manufacturing
of coffins and accessories. It is a hundred thousand dollar concern
with most of the capital paid in. Its field of activity is unlimited,
having all of Southern States from which to draw.
The American Home Investment Corporation, realtors, is try-
ing to solve housing conditions in Memphis by opening additions
and securing desirable property for resale on easy payment plans.
This in brief is Negro business in Memphis. Thousands of
people together. And behind them all stand two Negro banks ever
ready to give financial aid and backing to help build up the Negro
business. Louisville News, January i, 1921.
Greenville, Miss., is my home town and Nelson is the main
street in the city for colored business enterprises, of which all the
colored people of the town are justly proud.
Nelson street is the home of the Y.M.C.A., the Pythian Castle,
Delta Hall, Mt. Horeb missionary Baptist Church, St. Matthew
A.M.E. Church, ten grocery stores and three first-class cafes;
three ice cream parlors, the high school and the grammar school,
hi the East end of the street while the West end contains the
beautiful homes of some of our most prominent men of the race,
viz., Dr. Miller, physician and surgeon; Dr. Overton, surgeon
dentist; Rev. W. T. Strong, preacher and writer, Dr. A. A. Weding-
ton, pulpit orator and leader. There is not a single white resident
in this street, and only four small grocery stores.
I think a street with so much, representing the prosperity and
prospects of the race as this one does should be named from one of
the men of the race. I suggest the names: Dunbarton avenue,
in honor of the Poet Paul Laurence D unbar. Afro-American,
February 25, 1921.
At present hi the city of New Orleans our people are doing nicely
along certain lines. In many instances the enterprises are very
new and yet others are quite old. Along society lines they have
enough organizations to care for all of the people Many
barber shops ought to be combined and thereby secure larger and
more modern and up-to-date accommodations. Restaurant busi-
ness is all right and yet room for improvement.
NEGRO LIFE 209
There is plenty of room for launching other enterprises. We
need first grocery stores, clothing, shoe and hat stores. If we
could see more of these enterprises going along, employing the
girls and boys who come out from our schools will encourage one
to live and hope for better and higher things
Carpenters, bricklayers and building tradesmen ought to per-
fect a strong real estate company in the city and encourage our
people to secure homes and how they can pay for them. Our
people must be saved by those who are able; by those who have
such visions
The Negro population is said to be 90,000 or 100,000 strong
in the city of New Orleans. This is about a third or more of the
entire population of the city; nine times the size of Alexandria,
La., Shreveport and almost as large as the population of the city
of Nashville, Tenn. In fact the Negro population here represents
to a large degree a city within a city. New Orleans Searchlight,
November 26, 1920.
GREAT GET-TOGETHER MEETING
Representing Texarkana and adjacent towns will march to the
Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Friday, March 4th
PROGRESSIVE CITIZEN DAY
The 12 Baptist Churches, led by their pastors, will be the
guests. The inter-denominational alliance and their Churches
will be on hand.
The lodges and business men will be there, and every effort
will be made to put the Citizen in every home in Texarkana.
The day will open with a Sunrise Prayer Meeting, in which
Divine aid for victory will be sought.
At ii A.M. all ministers will assemble to hear a special message
dealing with some vital questions of race development.
Symposium
How can our preachers promote a healthy growth in business
among our people ? (6 minutes each)
Business men 's league
At 3 P.M. the women and men of the race who are engaged in any
sort of business will assemble in Mt. Zion Church to hear a special
address on some topic vital to the business life of the race.
210 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Symposium
The brass band of A.W. will give an open air Musical Concert
from 7 to 8 o'clock
Oratorical Contest
The six colored schools of this city will be represented in an
Oratorical Contest at 8 o'clock P.M. using as a subject: "The
Value of a Colored Newspaper."
Charming Music
Will be rendered by the Sunset, College Hill, Polly Chapel, Canaan,
Oak St., and Mt. Pisgah Choirs.
Barbecue, ice cream and soft drinks of all sorts will be served on
the grounds all day. We want you to be one of the 10,000 colored
people who will meet at Mt. Zion determined to make our own
paper, The Progressive Citizen, the South 's greatest weekly.
All day meeting, March 4th, Mt. Zion Church
Progressive Citizen Day
Progressive Citizen, February 26, 1921
II. THE COUNTRY
For approximately half a million people to have accumulated
4,460,457 acres of land valued at $227,757,850 in a half century is
remarkable and inspiring. And no less startling is the fact, as
shown by a recent census release, that in the past ten year period,
the increase in improved farm land owned by Negroes was more
than i million acres valued at approximately 13 million dollars.
These figures represent the holdings and increases of the
Negroes of Texas. These facts should be gratifying. They
denote progress.
Men who own farms and homes contribute largely to the wel-
fare of the communities in which they live. They enter largely
into the scheme of production. They are doing their share of the
work of the world.
Farm ownership is worth while.
But with this ownership there comes an increased duty to be-
come efficient.
A few days ago a government extension worker spoke of the
fact that Negro farmers and producers did well as individuals, but
NEGRO LIFE 211
as a group they failed of that intelligent co-operation which made
possible the marketing of their products under more favorable
conditions.
While it is not definitely known that marketing organizations
seek the membership of Negro producers, it is reasonable to sup-
pose that Negro communities could employ their more modern
methods of production and marketing to great advantage.
What is true of Texas is true of Negroes in all Southern states.
The aggregate of farms owned by the Negroes of 16 Southern
states totals 41,346,943 acres valued at $2,239,062,790.
There is no doubt but that the products of these farms total
a staggering yearly sum.
Producers with a common aim and idea become factors worthy
of recognition in the great business of determining price and labor
cost.
The speculation in terms of what the efficient control of that
vast amount of land could accomplish is interesting.
And we do not consider it a waste of time to engage in them.
The lemon, citrus and orange growers of California have be-
come a national institution controlling the price of their products
all over the field of their distribution. This was made possible by
co-operation and specialization.
The application of this same spirit among the Negro owners of
these millions of acres can result in good to them and those whom
they serve.
We all take pleasure and derive profit from the possession of
these farm lands. But it is no less the duty of the owners to
specialize and improve marketing methods to the end that these
acres may become productive of more good to them. Dallas
Express, June 18, 1921.
UTICA, Miss., Feb. 24. This has been a great day for the
farmers of Mississippi, it being their annual gathering at the Utica
Normal and Industrial Institute, Utica, Mississippi, for the pur-
pose of discussing their problems and trying to find a way out.
The number and character of the men, alone, present would have
been sufficient to guarantee the success of the gathering; but the
fervor with which these people discussed their problems and the
212 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
earnestness with which they sought to find solutions, will long be
remembered by those present.
In regard to the progress of the Negroes, reports showed that
in the community surrounding the Utica Normal and Industrial
Institute, Negroes have been steadily gaining in land ownership for
the past eighteen years; so that at the present time about 30,000
acres of land are owned by them, and although this is small by com-
parison, it still shows that commendable progress has been made.
William H. Holtzclaw, Principal of the Utica Normal and
Industrial Institute and re-elected for the fifteenth time President
of the Utica (Mississippi) Negro Farmers' Conference, delivered
an address to the farmers. Dallas Express, February, 1921.
The Negro has found that the white race is expecting some-
thing of him and he don 't mean to disappoint them. The white
man has had his fair, his races, showed blooded cows, hogs, fowls
and everything; now he has stepped back, and said to the Negro,
here is our fair ground, race track, grand stand and all, now use it
to your own pleasure for a fair.
Now in August at the West End Fair Ground, at Paducah, Ky.,
we will all be there with our race horses, breed mares, cows, fine
hogs, sheep, carpenters, mechanics, plumbers, teamsters and the
best line of cooks that can be produced by our race.
Now this talent has not been given us in the last few years;
the Negro has had them all the time, but the time has just come
for him to put them in use. Now as this is our first attempt to
show the public what we are doing I hope the farmers of Ballard
County will not let her fall behind. This will be a great fair if
we make it one. The men who have planned this fair deserve
credit for their undertaking.
Everybody should take a part in this and stick to them and
say with an earnest heart, if they fall, we fall with them. If they
stand, it is because we have upheld them. Paducah (Kentucky)
Light, July 7, 1921.
HAMPTON, VA., Feb. 10. "Some Suggestions for Improving
Rural Life through the Church, the School, and Recreation" was
the topic for the recent " Workers' Day" program of the thirtieth
annual Tuskegee Negro Conference. This topic, dealing with
NEGRO LIFE 213
rural life needs and methods of improving rural life, attracted
several hundred school officials and teachers, county and home
demonstration and other community workers who are interested
in rural organization and the making of good and happy citizens.
A large number of intelligent and thrifty Negro farmers came
to Tuskegee institute specially to attend the well known workers'
conference, which has today as much vitality as it had thirty years
ago and a great deal more definiteness in program. Dallas Express,
February 12, 1921.
The Seaboard Air Line from Savannah to Montgomery, Ala.,
the Central Railroad of Georgia, from Savannah to Macon and
Birmingham, and the Southern Railroad along its route, may tes-
tify to the fact that the automobile has helped rather than hurt
their business, for thousands of colored people are to be found at
every station and at almost every cross-road waiting to take the
trains or to meet their friends who use them.
With the advent of the motor cars and the increase in revenue
in the form of real money in the South, during the war, thousands
of colored people who seldom left their houses, remote from the
highways, have taken to traveling up and down the lines to all
kinds of meetings and to visit their friends.
Saturdays and Sundays the trains are crowded, and it is in
line with the American "Week end," that the people in this distant
section have taken to using the automobile and the road in such
proportions as to make a profit for the roads there while the people
in other sections have decreased their traffic because of the high
rates. Washington Colored American, April 13, 1921.
Mrs. Carrie Watkins, of North Main Street, saw an opossum
going across the field and she ran after him, and finally she caught
him after much running and it was a nice size one and she cooked
him with sweet potatoes around him. Hopkinsville (Kentucky)
New Age, April 2, 1921.
m. THE CHURCH
Last Sunday saw the old church in her pristine glory from the
time Sunday school began at 9:15 until the doors were shut at
214 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
10:15 in the evening. The work in the Sunday school was as
intense and steady as the work in a bee-hive, and Mrs. A. L.
Somerville, the superintendent, was as happy as she could be, Mrs.
Brinkly from Prentis Park was present and being introduced made
a very pleasant address.
At eleven o 'clock Rev. Joel King of North Carolina was intro-
duced by the pastor and preached a very interesting sermon that
seemed to please the congregation very much indeed. Two per-
sons came forward and offered themselves for membership bring-
ing their church letters. At Night the Children's Day program
was carried out without a hitch. The music furnished by Mrs.
Lillian Jones.
The Church is alive and much interest is manifested in the
forthcoming anniversary of the pastor and the church which begins
on the first of July running through for two weeks. The matter of
remodeling will also hold the attention of the congregation in the
near future since the motion has been adopted to remodel.
Vigil (Portsmouth, Virginia), June 16, 1921.
CLYDE, GA., Feb. 15. Israel Waters owes his life to the deep
religious nature of the colored people of this section. On Monday
night he was captured by posses of white and colored men for an
alleged outrage upon a colored school girl.
The whites turned him over to the colored men to deal with
him, and when arrangements had been made for a necktie party
with gun shot decorations, Waters asked the mob to pray for and
with him.
The effect was such that they deliberated and finally decided
to send him to jail and adjourned the lynching party.
Today, Waters, like many others, believes in the efficacy of
prayer. Richmond Colored American, February 27, 1921.
The Ministerial Alliance through Rev. J. H. Smith has invited
the business men of Dallas to co-operate with it in observing Busi-
ness Men 's Day, Sunday, June igth; at some service during the day
a special sermon to business men will be preached, short talks on
the need of the development of business and its relation to racial
and community life will be delivered.
NEGRO LIFE 215
We consider this step by our pastors highly worthy of com-
mendation. We feel that it will be productive of much good. It
will help the business man, pastor and pew member, by making
more clear to each his part in the development of that which may
prove of unlimited benefit to all concerned.
It is to be hoped that the response to this invitation of the
pastors may be heartily complied with and that this Business Men 's
Day may mark the beginning of a series of such meetings which,
if carried to their fullest development, will help all members of our
racial group in this community. Dallas Express, June 18, 1921.
RED ROCK, Miss., April 15. A local Colored preacher startled
his auditors last Sunday morning with the following somewhat
remarkable prayer:
"Oh, Lawd, give Thy servant this mornin' de eye of de eagle
and de wisdom of de owl; connect his soul with de gospel telephone
in de central skies; luminate his brow with de sun of heaben;
pizen his mind with love for the people; turpentine his imagination ;
grease his lips with 'possum oil; loosen his tongue with de sledge
hammer of Thy power; 'lectrify his brain with de lightnin ' of de
word; put 'petual motion in his ahms; fill him plum full of the
dynamite of Thy glory; 'noint him all over with de Kerosene oil
of Thy salvation, and sot him on fire. Amen! " Associated Negro
Press.
On July the 8th of 1920, there appeared upon the streets of
Houston, a colored man, who seemingly was a stranger in a strange
land; shabbily attired, unattractive but above all polite to an
extreme which caused him to be tolerated if not appreciated. This
individual we are now speaking of secured a permit from the city
omcials that same day, July 8th, 1920, and began a bitter tirade
against Satan and his host which he has kept up incessantly ever
since up to this writing, but he is no longer a stranger in a strange
land; far from it. He is more widely discussed than any other one
man in the city of Houston for he is known and reverenced as
Rev. E. L. Jeremiah, the Peer of Divinities and the friend of the
down-trodden. From the streets of the city, he repaired to an
open lot at the corner of Meyer and Robin St., and demonstrated
THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
to the world his power to gather more men, women and children
together in a short space of time than any other man in the con-
fines of the city.
His fame as a healer of divers diseases pronounced incurable
by some of the best medical doctors, is gaining as the days roll by.
Only a few short months ago, Rev. Jeremiah moved from his
stronghold under the Tree, to a church edifice at No. 1 702 Andrews
St., known as the Union Tabernacle Church, which is a credit to
any denomination, and was built and paid for in fourteen weeks at
a cost of nearly $41,000.
Not being satisfied, he immediately began the erection of a
swell little bungalow adjoining the church as his home and office.
The exterior is very unique in design but the interior is a dream.
All modern appliances and elaborate furnishings are there.
He seems to accomplish one given thing only to find himself
wanting and planning other things greater and grander.
He is now constructing one of the most commodious buildings
belonging to our race in the city. It measures 100 x 50 with seven
distinct business apartments. Consisting of a Grocery Store, Cafe
and Cold Drinks, Newspaper and Shoe-shining, Dress-making,
Beauty Parlor, Tailor Shop and Barber shop. Most of the furnish-
ings for the Cold Drinks Stand are installed and will be as soon as
the carpenters are out of the way. The Fountain alone cost $5,100.
The upper story will be the home of The Faith Hospital,
chartered by the State of Texas, with fourteen large and spacious
rooms.
It also contains a large hall, well lighted and ventilated.
There will be long or short distance telephone service, two cold
water baths, two hot and cold shower baths with lead floors and
Laboratories for both men and women on each floor. It is entirely
modern and all lumber and material including paints, paper,
canvas, hardware and electrical supplies are being furnished by
the contractor, Mr. Lincoln R. Jones.
These are a few of the accomplished objectives of Rev. Jere-
miah but many surprises are in store for those who watch his
movements.
Easter Sunday will find the new pews for the church installed
at a cost of $6,657.68. Union Tabernacle enjoys a membership
NEGRO LIFE 217
of 4,329 and as the church only seats 2,000 a new church or an
addition is in order.
To show his deep appreciation of all he has accomplished in
these few short months, he will baptize Easter Sunday on the banks
of Buffalo Bayou below Sabine St. bridge. Services will begin at
9 o'clock sharp, preaching at 9:30; all are invited. Houston Ob-
server, March 19, 1921.
IV. THE LODGE
Colored Masons in Chicago have purchased a site upon which
a Masonic Temple is to be erected at a cost of $600,000. The
president of the Prince Hall Masonic Temple Association is Samuel
Matthews.
The Pullman Porters' Beneficial Association, organized in
Chicago during February of this year, has a membership of 3,904
and a bank account of $25,000. Thomas R. Webb is head of the
organization.
In New York City Negro Masons have bought property for a
$300,000 Masonic Temple. David W. Parker is president.
Negro Knights of Pythias at Boston have purchased the
Ruggles Building, a 4-story structure in the business section.
Royal Arch Masons of Texas have held a 3-day meeting at
Fort Worth, as its 35th annual session. A. W. Edwards, grand
high priest, of Clebume, presided. The report of the grand secre-
tary showed a large increase in the number of companions over the
previous year. Crisis, August, 1921.
Why do Masons speak of those outside the Order as profane ?
Such is the question of a young Mason who does not like to have it
implied that he is sacred and his father "profane," as this man-
ner of speech seems to say.
The answer is, that a Mason, by his initiation, is set apart,
symbolically, to a dedicated life, devoted to moral truth, spiritual
faith and human service. If he is a Mason in spirit in fact he
is committed to a life that is sacred in its purpose and ideal, and
while he should not regard others as "profane" in the ordinary use
of that word, he must regard himself as obligated to a life of chas-
tity and good will.
2i8 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
The word has also a further allusion. Why do we regard the
street as profane and the lodge room as sacred ? Because any-
thing may go on the street a cat, a dog, a cow may litter the
street; fight in it; defile it. Not so in a lodge room. There such
things are excluded, and the place is set apart to high and beautiful
uses. Just so, a man who is really a Mason will regard his mind as
a sanctuary from which unclean thoughts, dirty motives, unjust
suspicions, unworthy ambitions are excluded. Some thoughts
cannot gain admission, no matter how many knocks they give at
the door. The filthy jest; the irreverent oath; the slimy slander
against his fellow, will be regarded as a Cowan; an Eavesdropper
[sic] and will be treated accordingly.
Truly, this matter of being a Mason is something more than
ritual and the wearing of a big square and compasses. Square
(St. Louis), February, 1921.
More about the Royal Circle of Friends of the World and other
things:
Now Dear Friends of the Royal Circle: This is my second
article on the benefits of the Order. Now remember your policy
is $350 face value and a $60.00 Burial, and a $30.00 monument
which amounts to $440.00. Now listen if you live in the Royal
Circle of Friends for ten years straight and keep absolutely finan-
cial, and at the end of ten years you become disabled to sup-
port yourself by the loss of hands, feet, eyes, dropsy or anything
that totally disables you, the Order will pay you One Hundred Dol-
lars while you are in this fix, and remember the One Hundred
Dollars paid you for this disability has nothing to do with the face
value of your policy.
Now again, there is in or will be in the course of erection just in
a short time, a Hospital for the sick Friends of the Royal Circle,
where they will receive medical and surgical treatment free of
charge, board and train-nurse service all absolutely free of cost to
the member. Now what other secret order has such a feature as
that ? So it is enough for us to be encouraged to go forward in
the Royal Circle of Friends of the World and see to it that we speak
out for the Order, and when you speak, speak the truth, for the
truth will stand.
NEGRO LIFE 219
Now let everybody subscribe for the Royal Messenger, you
should read it because it gives fresh and interesting news. Sub-
scribe for it.
Let all the members of the Royal Circle stand fast for the
time is coming when all Negroes will have to belong to a Negro
secret society. Of course those who are at the head of other orders
that are not originated by Negroes will tell you the above state-
ment is untrue, but you can see why he differs. He is at the head.
Royal Messenger, December 18, 1920.
A feeling of warmth and good cheer enhanced by the soft red
draperies, rugs and other embellishments of the home-like hall
pervaded the atmosphere of Auditorium hall Tuesday evening,
when about two hundred guests came in response to invitations sent
out by Excelsior Lodge of Masons, to meet and mingle with their
Grand Master and high churchman, Rev. J. H. Wilson, of Los
Angeles, Cal.
The Program for the evening was delightful and as follows:
Piano solo, Mrs. Charles H. Downing; invocation, Rev. A. R.
Fox, pastor of Bethel Church; welcome address, George W.
Kinney on behalf of the local order; O'Hara's "Deep River,"
sung very sweetly by Mrs. L. E. Johnson, and was enthusiastically
received by the audience; Tosti's "Good-Bye" was delightfully
and artistically sung by Miss Clifford Freeman, who was forced to
respond to an encore. John Guy was the Master of Ceremonies
and presided in a most efficient manner. The speaker and guest
of the evening, Rev. J. H. Wilson, after expressing his hearty appre-
ciation for the warm welcome extended to him on behalf of the
lodge and the people, through George Kinney, talked at length
to his audience upon practical, sensible things, the theme of which
was "Organization." Portland (Oregon) Advocate, February 4,
1920.
V. THE SCHOOL
Mr. Brownlow, the new City Manager of Petersburg, is asking
for suggestions from the citizens of Petersburg for civic betterment
generally. It is but natural to presume that Mr. Brownlow \\i\\
weigh carefully the recommendations submitted and make an effort
220 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
to remedy them in the order of their importance. We have dili-
gently sought to ascertain whether or not any suggestion had been
made pertaining to the needs of the colored people here, but were
unable to learn of any. Therefore, we shall take the initiative in
the matter and respectfully submit for the consideration of the
Honorable Mr. Brownlow, what, in our estimation, is the most
important and acute problem of the colored citizens of Petersburg
the Public School situation. Weekly Review (Petersburg,
Virginia), March 12, 1921.
The Sun has refrained for many months from discussing the
deplorable conditions existing in the Negro Schools of this city but
it is an indisputed fact that there never was a time in the history
of this city that the schools devoted to Negro youth were in a more
dilapidated, unkempt and unsanitary condition than they are
today.
The pleas of parents and teachers have apparently fallen upon
deaf ears and no one seems less concerned about the existing con-
ditions than does the present school board.
It is cowardly to cringe and whimper and beg for what properly,
fairly belongs to you, and as taxpayers and citizens who pay their
proportionate share of the taxation of this community according
to their holdings, we have a right to demand equal facilities that
are accorded under the damning and humiliating segregational
laws of this State to the white youth of this city. Kansas City Sun,
February 5, 1921.
An event of the past week was the closing exercises of Mt.
Nebo school, of which Mrs. Leila R. Williams is the efficient
teacher. In spite of the torrents of rain an appreciative audience
enjoyed the excellent program. The spacious auditorium was
beautifully decorated with smilax, vines, roses in profusion and
lovely dogwood blossoms; an improvised canvas decorated with
ferns and smilax formed a lovely background while a mound of
roses adorned the front of the stage. At the appointed hour a
march was played and the student body marched in to the seats
reserved for them. All of the girls wearing pure white. Samari-
tan Herald, April 22, 1921.
NEGRO LIFE 221
Allow me to let the many readers know that by the invitation
of Miss Nettie Williamson, teacher of the Oldfield Public School,
I made the closing address to the parents and friends of the said
school, Friday March i ith, 1921. I wended my way to the Oldfield
Baptist Church arriving there at i o'clock. There were a few
children at the church, and the way those children were romping
in the church I thought they had a big dance going on. The
teacher wasn 't present, she came in at i : 30 and the exercises began
at 2 o'clock. After a song the teacher read the Scripture lesson
and called upon the manager of the News Club School to lead in
prayer. After the song was sung, the manager was asked to
address the school and the parents.
I commenced my address by asking the teacher to call out one
of the pupils of the fifth grade. I told the little girl, who was 14
years old, to come up on the stage and to read an article in the
newspaper. She did so and read it very nicely. I asked the
students if the word schoolmaster was in the Bible. This little
girl quickly answered yes; I asked her what chapter it was found in
and she said she did not know. I told them all that I was going to
put 25 cents on the table and the boy or girl that finds it in the
Bible I will give them the 25 cents. None of them could find it.
Now the Bible is the chief text book I teach in the News
Club School. I am a daily reader of the Bible. I will now call
your attention to the chapter in Galatians, 3rd chapter and 25th
verse. We are no longer under a schoolmaster, boys and girls. I
want you all to continue your studies in your books until your
school opens next November and study the third chapter of Paul 's
letter to the Galatians. If you will obey the law I am sure grace
will save you.Charlottesville Messenger, March 19, 1921.
Among the prominent senior co-eds on the campus of the Uni-
versity of Chicago deserving particular mention for her scholastic
attainments, is Miss Mary E. Link. Miss Link hails from Kansas
City, Kan., where she graduated from Sumner High School in 1917.
A notable record in this institution prefaced her entrance and sub-
sequent achievements in the University of Chicago. She began
In r collegiate career on the Midway in the fall of 1917, holding
an honor entrance scholarship, and so high has been the standard
222 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
of her class work that she has been awarded the scholarship each
succeeding year. She has specialized in English and French.
Miss Link has the unusual distinction of winning the Phi Beta
Kappa key in three years. This is the more remarkable because
the honor is rarely conferred even in four years. She has been the
secretary of the local chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority for
the past three years Chicago Defender, May 17, 1921.
VI. POLITICS
In order more perfectly and completely to form and establish
a state-wide organization among our people for the better promo-
tion of our civic and political interests throughout the Common-
wealth, a call is hereby issued to every loyal and interested race
man and woman of the state to meet in session assembled at
Harrisburg, at high noon on June 8, 1921, when and where a
constitution and suitable by-laws will be adopted, and the purpose
and scope of the organization determined by the people. Every
district in the state is requested to send representation. ROBERT
L. VANN, State Chairman,
Public Journal (Philadelphia) May 7, 1921
RICHMOND, July 26. Acclaiming their candidate for chief
executive as the next Governor of Virginia, Negroes from every
part of the State in a convention held in True Reformers Hall
tonight nominated tentatively a full State Ticket for State Officers
at the general election to be held in November.
Barred from the Republican convention in Norfolk, Negroes
of Virginia led by Joseph R. Pollard, a Richmond attorney who
was a candidate for United States Senator at the last senatorial
election, met in the first convention of its kind here since "carpet-
bagger" days and put up their slate independent of the white
Republicans.
John Mitchell, editor of the Richmond Planet, president of the
Mechanics Savings Bank of Richmond and a committee chairman
of the American Bankers' Association, was nominated for Governor
of the tentative slate.
A full and final State convention will be held at Richmond
September 5. A preliminary convention will be held at Buckroe
NEGRO LIFE 223
Beach, August 6, to formulate a plan of organization designed to
reach every precinct in the State.
P. B. Young, of Norfolk, was nominated for Lieutenant Gover-
nor. Young is president of the Tidewater Bank and Trust Com-
pany and editor of the Journal and Guide. J. Thomas Newsome
of Xewport News and Joseph R. Pollard of Richmond were nomi-
nated for Attorney-General.
Mrs. Maggie L. Walker, president of St. Luke 's Savings Bank
of Richmond and president of the Independent Order of St. Luke,
said to represent 200,000 Negroes in the United States, was nom-
inated for superintendent of public instruction.
It was unanimously decided to nominate full State, city and
county tickets. It is expected that the September convention
will make the tentative nominations permanent. City and
county conventions will be held to nominate members of the House
of delegates, sheriffs, city sergeants, commonwealth attorneys and
others, after the September convention. Sixty-eight delegates were
present representing all parts of the State. Norfolk, Richmond,
Petersburg, Roanoke, Lynchburg, Newport News, Staunton,
Hampton, Bristol, Fredericksburg, Charlottesville and a few of
the counties were represented. Eight delegates from Tidewater,
Virginia were present. Washington Colored A merican, July 28, 1921.
The game of politics now being played in Philadelphia took a
sharp turn during the past week. The result of the ups and downs
proved a gain of one point for the colored brother.
It all came about in the following manner. First, the forces
of the Mayor sent a chill down the backs of colored citizens by dis-
charging Patterson Carter, a most efficient colored inspector in
the Highway Bureau. Mr. Patterson leaves a splendid record
behind and people interested in safeguarding worthy members of
the race will undoubtedly rally to his support.
After sending Carter out in the world to get a new start, the
administration came back strong to win favor with colored voters
by appointing a colored carpenter and a colored bricklayer to posi-
tions in City Hall.
In the little game of politic s this week, the colored politicians
are ahead by one. Philadelphia Tribune, July 23, 1921.
224 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
The largest and most important political organization in the
city is the Citizens' Republican Club, which has its own home.
The President of the Club is Edward W. Henry, a business man
and lawyer. But he is more, he is a natural born leader, with a
fine personality, and the confidence of the people. Mr. Henry is
even more, he is frank and independent, a good mixer and he sticks
to his friends. Edward W. Henry is one real big reason for the
Philadelphia awakening. His friends are urging him to be a
candidate for Magistrate, which he will probably consent to do.
Associated Negro Press, July 21, 1921.
VH. SOCIETY
NEW YORK, July 22. Probably the most unique social func-
tion the Liberian dignitaries now visiting in this country have ever
attended was the reception held in their honor by Mrs. Lela Walker
Wilson, wealthy daughter of the late Mrs. C. J. Walker, and one
of the East 's leading society matrons, in Villa Le Waro at Irving-
ton-on-the-Hudson.
Here in the greatest of all mansions of celebrities the country
over are resting the president of Liberia, his staff and other digni-
taries and prominent personages of the Race, 40 or more in number,
the guests of a woman whose wealth, composure and refinement
make it easy for her to play the hostess to such a distinguished and
large assemblage.
The prolonged stay in this country of President C. D. B. King
of Liberia has given him and the members of his cabinet an oppor-
tunity to see many of the natural beauties of America and some of
its magnificent homes and public buildings. All of these sights
have been pleasing and instructive to President King and his staff
and they so expressed themselves.
To this magnificent Italian villa, the "home of homes," located
right in the midst of America 's most wealthy and exclusive social
group of the other race, President King and his attaches were
whirled by the most luxurious cars of the Wilson garage. The
approaches to Villa Le Waro, so named by Enrico Caruso, the
famous Italian tenor, on his visit to this beautiful palace, are on all
sides so picturesque and commanding that President King gave
audible expression to his admiration for all that he saw. As his
NEGRO LIFE 225
car drew up to the wonderful palace, where he was to be the guest
of honor, and where 40 of America's most representative citizens
were along with himself to be the house guests for a whole week of
the country 's wealthiest and one of the most refined and cultured
women of the Race, the president realized that he was confronting
a condition he little dreamed existed anywhere under the possession
of any member of his Race.
During his visit the president's joy enhanced as it was by a
relaxation from his arduous duties, knew no bounds. He loved to
walk with members of the household or the special guests, or to
roam along through the beautiful groves, or to angle in the well
stocked fish pond on the estate, or to accompany his hostess on
delightful trips around the wonderful country surrounding the
beautiful villa and sloping banks of the Hudson river.
A special feature of the Wilson estate which called forth appre-
ciative comment from the president and others of the party was
the splendid conduct of the well groomed servant body found
everywhere on the estate and always courteous in their desire to
attend to the every want of the guests of their employer. Chicago
Defender, July 23, 1921.
The marriage Monday night at St. Stephen 's Episcopal church
of Miss Jenette Eloise Branham to Hazel Lee Skipper was a beauti-
ful affair and was witnessed by a large crowd.
Just prior to the entrance of the wedding party to the church
the choir with Miss Alice M. Ellis at the organ sang "To Thee,
O Father" and then the doors of the church were swung open and
the ushers, Earl A. Ashton and Nathaniel B. Branham, the latter
a brother of the bride, entered, the choir rendering softly "The
Voice that Breathes O'er Eden." Following the ushers came the
little flower girls, Talulah King and Louise Butler. Next came
the little ring bearer, Richard Des Verney, who was followed by
the matron of honor, Mrs. Charles P. McClane, of Charleston, S.C.
The bride, leaning on the arm of her father, came next. She was
met at the altar by the groom and his best man, Benjamin Boozer,
of Columbia, S.C., his cousin.
Beneath an arch formed by beautiful palms, the ceremony was
performed in a most impressive manner by Archdeacon J. Henry
Brown.
226 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
The party filed down the aisle of the church to the strains of
Mendelssohn's Wedding March, played by Miss Ellis.
The bride wore a gown of white charmeuse with a waist made
of silk lace with an overblouse of the material. The skirt, with
double puffs on the side from which hung panels of the silk lace,
was also paneled in front with the same. The train from the
shoulder, looped at the waist, fell to the floor about one and a half
yards. The front panel and train were hand-embroidered. Her
veil was of tulle with a wreath of orange blossoms, and she wore a
corsage bouquet of bridal roses. She carried a white prayer-book
used by her mother at her wedding.
Mrs. McClane, matron of honor, wore a jade green pussy
willow taffeta, touched with pink. She carried a shower bouquet
of pink roses.
The little flower girls wore dresses of green organdy with sashes
of pink tulle and carried baskets of sweet peas which they strew in
the pathway of the bride as she left the altar.
The little ring bearer wore a white suit and carried an Easter
lily, to the piston of which was tied the wedding ring.
The bride's mother, Mrs. Mack B. Branham, wore black lace
over black. Savannah Tribune, April 23, 1921.
VIII. MUSIC
PARIS, May 14. In a special to the World, it is said that all
Paris is turning out to hear the Negro American Southern Synco-
pated Orchestra which has just opened at the Theatre Champs
Elysees.
Serious critics declare that the concerts strike a new note in
the music world. Crowds stand for hours in the lines for seats
which sell at 30 francs each. Washington Colored American, May
17,1921.
LONDON, ENGLAND, May 12. Roland W. Hayes, the cele-
brated Negro tenor, has had fine recognition during his visit to
London where he has been giving a series of recitals in the best
concert halls. His accompanist, Mr. Brown, has been equally
praised for his fine playing. Last November he was selected from
among a group of American artists in London to sing the "Star
NEGRO LIFE 227
Spangled Banner" at the Thanksgiving Celebration by Americans
in London.
Mr. Hayes left New York for Europe last year. The remark-
able success he has enjoyed since coming to England culminated in
an invitation from King George to sing before the Royal family at
Buckingham Palace. Mr. Hayes sang some beautiful numbers,
among them some Negro Spirituals to the delight of the Royal
family. The King took occasion to compliment him on the excel-
lence of his voice, its range and firmness and the skill displayed in
the rendition of his songs. The King observed how different the
Negro Spirituals were from what the English people have been
taught to believe were the characteristic Negro melodies. Mr.
Hayes was presented with a diamond pin by King George.
Houston Observer, May 14, 1921.
Last Sunday at the Bethel Baptist Church here the colored
people held what will go down in history as perhaps the greatest
public meeting in the history of Troy. Surrounded by hundreds
of white people from this and adjoining counties, their singing was
the best ever heard here, and possibly in any part of the State. At
2:10 the meeting was opened with the following program: ....
In response to the many requests from white people and with
due regard to two choirs who were unable to obtain entrance to
the church on account of the crowd, another contest will be held
on the fifth Sunday in May, under more auspicious weather con-
ditions and at a larger church, the First Baptist (colored) with
more and bigger prizes.
There will be some difference in the manner of distribution of
the prizes.
In the next contest prizes will be given for the following:
First and second prizes for best of seven shape singing.
First and second prizes for best of Sacred Harp singing.
First and second prizes for best negro melodies.
First and second prizes for best solos.
No musical accompaniment will be allowed in this contest.
The contest will be given under the auspices of the Pike County
News and the proceeds will be for the benefit of the colored school
building fund.
228 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Both contests are given in the interests of the advertisers in
the Pike County News
The following letter was received from Mr. Clarence L. Mc-
Cartha:
TROY, ALA., April 10, 1921.
Dr. S. B. Innis.
Troy, Alabama.
Doctor:
I have just returned from the great singing contest at Bethel
Church in this city and as I am leaving town and didn't want to
leave without thanking you for the invitation, I do so in this way.
In sincerity I say that I have never enjoyed a program more, nor
have I heard better singing. The singing was typical and charac-
teristic, harmonious and inspiring, and the program makes me
feel like a better man. Please invite me again. I had my entire
family out, and we were all delighted. I forgot to tell that fine
audience what I had in my mind that there are no better singers
in the South than we had this afternoon. Pike County News and
Troy Record (Alabama), April 21, 1921.
It has been learned through Prof. H. B. Johnson of Nashville,
Tenn., the chairman of the local committee of arrangements, that
all things are now in readiness for the coming of the National
Association of Negro Musicians which is to meet in the city of
Nashville, July 26 to 28. The first day's session will be held in
the spacious auditorium of the Mount Olive Baptist Church.
Other meetings will be held on the campus of Fisk University, the
insitution which has done so much for the musical development of
the race. Washington Tribune, July 9, 1921.
NEW YORK, N.Y., Jan. 9. Announcement has just been made
of a new departure in music and business on the part of the race. A
corporation with a capital of $100,000 has just been formed for
the purpose of making phonograph records using exclusively the
voices and talent of colored people. It has long been a subject
of comment that although colored people are very large buyers of
phonograph records, our best voices and high class musicians have
had no recognition from the large white companies who furnish all
the records that are supplied.
NEGRO LIFE 229
While not deprecating the commercial values of comic songs,
"blues," and ragtime songs, the new corporation proposes to fur-
nish every type of race music, including sacred and spiritual songs,
the popular music of the day, and the high class ballads and opera-
tic selections. It proposes to use some of the most famous quar-
tetts, concert artists, church and school choirs and glee clubs,
together with many colored vaudeville acts, for which contracts
are being prepared and sent out.
The organization of the company is in charge of Mr. Harry
H. Pace, who has been identified with the establishment of some of
the largest and most successful business ventures of the race,
including the Million Dollar Solvent Savings Bank and Trust Com-
pany, of Memphis, Tenn., the Standard Life Insurance Company
of Atlanta, Georgia, and the Pace and Handy Music Company of
New York, N.Y. Mr. Pace is desirous of getting in touch with
singers and musicians of the race who have talent along this line
and with race merchants and dealers who are interested in handling
such records. Baltimore Herald and Commonwealth, January 21,
1921.
Our folks have started a music roll company in New York, and
they will make their first releases on June i. These will be word
rolls and will fit any player piano. Luckeyth Roberts will be one
of the players making these records. It is understood that all the
Mamie Smith songs will be recorded. The Black Swan Music
Co., 1547 Broadway, is the name of the firm. Chicago Defender,
May 7, 1921.
DC. THEATER
The Billboard, commenting on its appointment of J. A. Jackson
on its editorial staff, prints the following: "When the publisher of
the Billboard inaugurated Jackson's page in the interest of the
Colored artist and his employer, many regarded the move as being
visionary, as entering the field devoid of possibilities."
This seemed true, because few even in the amusement business
were aware of the tremendous artistic and financial strides that had
been made in this particular field in the last decade.
The first six months of cultivation in this phase of theatrical
enterprises has disclosed the following interesting facts. Already
230 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
there is listed on the desk of the Editor: 87 picture houses, nine
of which are equipped for shows, 112 theaters, playing vaudeville,
road shows and pictures.
112 are owned by white persons, five of these managed by
Negro managers.
74 are owned by Negroes. In 14 the race of the management
has not been ascertained.
Of a total of 200, 81 are connected with organized circuits.
In addition to these interests there has come to the attention
of the Billboard:
14 film companies, producing pictures with Negro casts.
Seven of these are owned by Negroes.
9 parks in five different states have communicated with the
editor of the page, as have four fair associations.
47 theatrical companies and 12 companies with carnivals are
listed on the desk.
39 bands and orchestras, 12 booking agencies and 3 professional
clubs are listed in the files; so are 5 circus groups. Medicine men,
scene painters, composers, authors, modistes, advance agents and
singers are among these folks.
170 vaudeville and burlesque actors have approved the page
by letter or personal calls. These represented more than 500 part-
ners or associations in their respective acts.
On a recent trip across seven states, going as far south as
Chattanooga and as far west as Chicago, 377 Colored performers
and 857 musicians of the race were encountered Wichita
Star, May 27, 1921 (by the Associated Negro Press).
For six years the Lafayette Players, the only legitimate Negro
dramatic organization, have been interpreting plays For
six years, the Lafayette Players have been attending the university
of dramatic art stock. For six years the Lafayette Players have
been developing that dramatic talent so long lying dormant,
developing a dramatic standard for the future generations. ....
Now is the time for every Negro to be up and doing! Not
tomorrow, for "Tomorrow is but the yesterday of today 1"
The church must take its sermons from life as it is A
beautiful and glorious life after death is a cherished hope of every
one, but life as it is is an undenying [sic] reality!
NEGRO LIFE 231
The press, with flowing words and blazing head lines, must
carry this message into every Negro home, "Now is the time for
every Negro to get right with himself!"
The Negro stage must cast aside the frayed and tattered
cloak of imitation and garb itself in the new and spotless robe of
origination. We want a real Negro drama now! We want to
give vent to our smothered emotions that have been stifled these
300 years! We want the whole world to know our aspirations, our
achievements, our grievances!
O stage, awaken from your lethargy! Tear from your sight-
less eyes the hood of imitation that is binding you! Create a
standard truly your own ! Give our Tolstoys and Ibsens an oppor-
tunity to send their messages unto the world so that the entire
universe might hear, and hearing, listen to our distressful plea!
With your aid, O stage, we will depict our lives as we have been
forced to live them ! And how patient we have been ! Who knows,
O stage, but that humanity, viewing the hideous, though truthful
pictures we so vividly and artistically paint, might not take com-
passion upon us as it did upon our Jewish brethren, when you, O
stage, brought to the world the true conditions existing in Russia
through the medium of that great dramatic masterpiece, "The
Resurrection!" Amen! Public Journal (Philadelphia), Febru-
ary 26, 1921.
Frank Montgomery, Blondi Robinson, Henry Jines, Frank
"Chinese" Walker and graceful Florence McClain, surrounded by
a strong company including a real beauty chorus, are offering what
Montgomery calls a "Hodgepodge of Nonsense" at the Booker
Washington Theatre this week. The ingredients are song, dance
and fun, compounded purely to amuse in a quick succession of big
doses. Frequent changes of scenery are required and at times the
limited stage space allotted is not sufficient to fully display the
artistry of certain song and dance numbers.
There are a number of good features, the most laughable being
a cafe scene in which the patrons are kept so constantly rising in
response to patriotic orchestral selections that they miss all the
courses served at their table.
Montgomery and Robinson pull off a safe blowing burlesque,
followed by Montgomery singing "That's All I Remember"; Vigel
232 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
and the girls in "Good Bye Broadway"; and the comely Miss
McClain in a reflector song, "Sweet Daddy." After the cafe
scene the show closes with a novel " Shimmie and Jazz " done before
the curtain. It is a big show by a big company and is making a
big hit. St. Louis Argus, February 25, 1921.
The remarkable growth and development of moving pictures,
and their hold upon the public is attested by two announcements
that have come directly from New York within a week. Through
Lester Walton, now the general manager of the Quality Amuse-
ment Corporation, .... announcement has been made that the
Lafayette theatre in New York will henceforth show first run pic-
tures, instead of having drama, which has made that house famous.
At the same tune, Robert Levy, former president of the
Quality Corporation, has issued an announcement of "Regular
monthly release of super-features," with Colored artists. There
are now more than 500 theatres throughout the country catering
almost exclusively to Colored patrons in pictures. Only a small
percentage of them are owned and controlled by Negro capital.
.... Detroit Leader, February n, 1921.
J. Williams Clifford, president of the Monumental Picture
Corporation, recently made the announcement that his organiza-
tion was now releasing each month a Negro News Reel, picturizing
the achievements of the American Negro in this country and the
progress of the darker races of the world.
"The educational and inspirational news that this News Reel
will give to the masses of colored people in this country is beyond
estimation. Each month you will have an opportunity to see on
the screen members of our own race that have achieved success
along all lines of endeavor, and there will be an opportunity for
propaganda in the interest of my people," Lieutenant Clifford
said Progressive Citizen (Texarkana) March 26, 1921.
X. SPORT
Another Colored athlete has come forward to follow in the
footsteps of men like Jackson, the hurdler; Cable, the hammer
thrower; Matthews, the crack baseball player, and Lewis, the
NEGRO LIFE 233
greatest center of his day, in the person of Ned Gourdin, the star
sprinter and broad jumper
Harvard has now taken part in two dual meets, and in each
one, Gourdin was her bright star and highest individual point
scorer. Perm State was her first opponent on April i6th, and Gour-
din won both the 100 yard dash and the running broad jump. He
was clocked in 9! seconds for the hundred, a remarkable per-
formance, that stamps him as one of the greatest of present day
sprinters. Last Saturday, the 23rd, Harvard met the University
of Pennsylvania, and here again the great Colored athlete won
the ioo-yard dash, got second in the 220 yard dash, and won the
running broad jump. Brooklyn and Long Island Informer, April
30, 1921-
It appears that Dempsey wants to fight Willard on Labor Day,
and Tex Rickard is reported as already making arrangements for
another championship bout on that date. Several writers have
again voiced the sentiment that Harry Wills should be given a
chance for the title. In reply to this sentiment Dempsey states
that he will give Wills a chance for the title if the public wants the
fight. Whether he means that part of the public that is interested
in boxing or the public in general, he does not say. But if he
means the boxing fans, there will be no question about a fight
between Dempsey and Wills, for they have on numerous occasions
expressed a desire to see those fighters meet.
Although the newspaper men as a whole do not like Dempsey,
and would like to see him defeated, many of them take the stand
that a mixed bout for the championship would be against public
policy, as it would tend to increase race prejudice. For this
reason few of them are advocating a Dempsey-Wills fight. Hugh
Fullerton, a noted authority on sports who opposed the Carpentier-
Dempsey fight on the grounds that it was an uneven match, has
stated on several occasions that Wills was a logical contender for
the championship, and should be given a chance.
The best opinion available now is that Dempsey can defeat all
of the white contenders, and although they may not get first
chance for the title, the public will eventually turn to Wills as the
most formidable opponent of Dempsey, which will bring on this
234 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
fight. How soon this will be remains to be seen. New York Age,
July 9, 1921.
Hail to the Continental League,
The Champions of a nobler plan,
Whose motto is "Democracy"
Whose aims are true American.
For they would save the nation 's game
And free it from a selfish few;
Who have dishonored it for gain
And barred the men of darker hue.
The Baseball Park is soon to be
A place where players, white and tan,
Shall demonstrate pure sportsmanship
And man will love his fellow man.
Where grandstand, box and bleacher crowds
Will feel a new and greater thrill;
When pale and dusky Ruths and Cobbs
Will match their fleetness, nerve and skill.
Proclaim the news from coast to coast,
Let every true, red-blooded fan;
Support the worthy enterprise
Of Andy Lawson and his clan!
ANDREA RAZAFKERIEFO in New York News, April 21, 1921.
CHAPTER IX
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE
Negroes are greatly interested in appraising their own
social life. The old and the new are coming into juxta-
position and frequent conflicts of standards result. Just
when the church is in a position to assert and exemplify
the Puritanism of nineteenth-century Christianity, the
pleasures and vices of the city come in with their allure-
ments. Rural recklessness of personal appearance con-
fronts the city clothes and manners now coming into
fashion. Then, too, there are as many different sorts of
people included within the Negro group as among white
people; and, with the increasing intra-group contacts,
the process of criticism is bound to be more and more in
evidence.
Besides this there is a tendency to ask whether
Negroes may not have some things that are just as good
as what white people have or even better. It may once
have been orthodox to consider the white man's com-
plexion and culture as superior and to approximate this
as far as possible. But the present-day criticism is set-
ting these values over against a new pride in Negro art,
literature, sport, and even skin color.
The process of appraising his own life will lead the
Negro also to take particular interest in outstanding
individuals, who come thus to represent certain desirable
or undesirable types. A few of these "interesting
people" are described in this chapter.
236 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
But whatever the inquiries are that colored people
make into their own condition, they can never get away
from the underlying feeling of tension or friction arising
out of relations with the other race. The friction may
exhibit itself in comparatively trivial incidents. And
again it may be so interpreted as to add a pathetic and
romantic glamor to life such, at any rate, is the burden
of the closing quotation.
I. MORAL AND AESTHETIC ATTITUDES
Our hope as a race cannot be found in characters like "Ala-
bama Joe." It is a sad commentary on the press leaders in racial
progress and moulders of public thought to find some local contem-
poraries devoting columns of space to and even extolling the
virtues of this unfortunate man, rather than those of the brave
officer who, in performance of his duty as a sworn officer of the law,
entered the building where this notorious character had barricaded
himself, and while his white brother officers found a sate refuge
from a hail of bullets, entered the house and after a two-hour wait
killed him and thus rid the community of a character destined, if
permitted to go his way, to bring reproach upon a whole race of
people.
It is claimed by man that our race is in its infancy; that it is
a child race. The danger, therefore, in overlooking the bravery
of our colored policeman, who was, after all, the real hero, to ferret
out whatever virtues the victim may have had lay in the fact that
the maudlin sentimentality of the illiterate and uneducated among
us might be led from a false sense of proportion to unduly exalt
and make a hero out of a villain. Public Journal (Philadelphia),
February 26, 1921.
It was a great relief to the colored residents of this place when
the trial of one of their race, George Washington Knight, for the
murder of the pretty white organist in Perth Amboy March 12,
came to a close last week. The crime had aroused so much feeling
against colored persons by the whites that a race riot seemed
immediate almost any moment.
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 237
Knight, 22, was found guilty of first degree murder in connec-
tion with the death of Mrs. Edith Wilson, a church organist, near
her home at Perth Amboy, March 12, and was sentenced to die
during the week of May 2.
The jury was out only fifteen minutes.
When the verdict was announced Knight showed no emo-
tion
The colored citizens of this part of the state are rejoiced to be
rid of Knight and his degraded pals. An investigation of the
blind tigers where Knight got his maddening liquor has begun.
New York News, March 31, 1921.
The city of Charleston .... has a popular club called the
"Blue Goose," which the police visit with regularity and from
which they take seldom less than 15 members caught indulging in
dominoes with cubical pieces and mystic moans and words or
"skin."
Last Saturday was the occasion for one of these visits.
"The American" sees in so many of these illegal and foolishly
expensive luxuries, the expenditure of energy which lacks an outlet.
The curse of segregation is that it throws men and women back
upon their limited avenues of expression. Who will find a way ?
Washington Colored American, May 23, 1921.
New Orleans is noted for its hospitality, cheerfulness, and the
friendly feeling exhibited by the inhabitants therein to home folks
as well as to strangers. Carnival in New Orleans is an institution
and no one in these parts hopes for its discontinuance. However,
the carnival spirit among the colored population is very much
stretched. Our city has been mockingly, through abuse, often
referred to as the Carnival City, the city in which the people
indulge in revelry to the exclusion of other things. This is not
true but the Sunday parades given by numerous .social clubs,
among which are the "Joy Givers," "Merry Makers," "Swells,"
"Money Wasters," etc., some truly significant titles, besides a
lot of others representative of the animal kingdom, will force the
above impression among visitors. There are, however, a few
dubs that parade annually usually celebrating a holiday at that
time. The parade is inaugurated for the purpose of securing new
238 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
members. These clubs have comfortable quarters for the recrea-
tion of their members, and they are not organized for pleasure only,
while the Sunday Serenaders seem to be organized for pleasure
only. The Serenaders, with gorgeous uniforms, silk shirts, vari-
colored caps and ties, tinsel decorated automobiles and a truck full
of Jazz, speed through the city every Sunday with clock-like
regularity and offer the tired public a free entertainment on the
street corners.
These Sunday parades have grown so monotonous that every-
body speaks of them in the most derisive terms. Aside from the
desecration of the Sabbath Day, these clubs, from an economic
point of view, are engaged in a dangerous practice. Prices of food,
clothing, etc., are falling with them the reduction in wages is
inevitable. Are the members of these clubs making too much
money ? Will the reaction from this abnormal state find us pre-
pared ? In other words, what will be done when the bottom falls
out ? The capitalists are watching. The practice of those clubs
that parade on Sunday under the guise of advertising a forthcoming
ball serves no good purpose and it should be discontinued. New
Orleans Searchlight, December n, 1920.
Two WASHINGTON STREETS
Ralph W. Tyler
I. S STREET
Out along a tree-lined boulevard
I have wandered often.
She my Heloise and I her Abelard
Naught our love could coffin.
And again on Sunday morn
Solemnly to church,
Wond 'ring how so fine a world
Could a soul besmirch.
Your homes I've wondered at
Their domes, their colors flat,
Their blinds that never looked a bit forlorn,
Like gay, bright banners in procession borne.
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 239
H. SEVENTH STREET
Street of divers things, e'en "Uncles"
And his motley pawn-shop crew
The festering carbuncles
Of a town that healthy grew.
Past your cat-shops, with their smells,
Past your pool-shops, gambling hells,
I have hurried many a time
You the mingling of two races,
You the jangled bells o ' chime,
Street of white, black, yellow faces.
Washington Bee
Not long since, I saw a statement made by a large employer of
laborers of color: that daily, ninety per cent of his employees were
from ten minutes to one hour late. There are those in our race who
without investigating will rashly denounce this as a falsehood
whether absolutely true or not ; it at least indicates a possible tend-
ency and lamentable tendency it is.
To any person who has observed our race it is all too apparent
that we are not as prompt, punctual, regular, systematic and
methodical as we should be
The lack of these essential qualities means disaster for the
race, both for the present and the future. The workers of today
are not only deciding their own fate, but they are shaping the out-
look of the man of tomorrow: for no man lives to himself alone.
The man who habitually drags to his work late, not only hurts
himself, he hurts his brother in black, who labors by his side. He
is laying the foundation for dissatisfaction. He is opening the
door for his own discharge. He is joining himself to the great idle
class, who can and will be no more merciful to him than they were
to the Prodigal son. Unmarked clipping.
People we can do without:
The fellow, who, for reasons known only to himself, thinks he is
too good to work.
The cabaret hounds who think of nothing hut bright lights, jazz
bands and the merry tinkle of wine glasses.
240 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
The slouchy fellow who, through lack of pride, makes himself a
nuisance with his unkempt appearance in public places.
Women who haven 't self-respect enough to put on proper clothing
before going to market.
Those who think an open window facing on the street is the proper
place for airing one 's feet.
Scantily attired women who lean out windows and engage in idle
gossip.
(Cartoon) Chicago Defender, July 9, 1921
Many concerns whose stock is being peddled in Harlem have
never paid a dividend and the chances are they never will. Quota-
tions as to the value of their stock are hard to obtain and at best
unreliable. Others that have paid dividends have only been able
to do so by using money obtained from sales of stock, in order to
boost further sales. Their balance sheets, when they are honest
enough and frank enough to submit any, often show but a slim
margin of surplus, arrived at by the transparent expedient of pad-
ding the values of office furniture and buildings.
If the intending investor would recognize these risks before
putting up his cash, well and good. He would be taking a gamble,
even if the enterprise was conducted on a legitimate business basis.
But too often he puts his money into a game, which is stacked
against him from the start. In such a case it would be far better
to keep his money in the savings bank or buy some more Liberty
bonds at the low market price prevailing.
Blowing stock bubbles is an expensive game. New York Age,
May 28, 1921.
In entering into business it was intimated recently through
the columns of this newspaper to those who have had no pre-
vious experience, that nerve and a few dollars are not the only
requisites. The unappealing names that describe so many of the
new undertakings prove that the advice of expert advertisers is
sadly needed. We observe the "Easter Lily Barber Shop," the
"Tin Can Grocery Store," the "One for All Co-operative Society,"
the "Arctic School of Beauty Culture. ' ' These crude names repel
rather than attract customers and the idea of window decoration
is absolutely foreign. In some windows a gay-colored bottle will
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 241
be seen resting upon a strip of common calico and for a background
will be seen a multi-colored circus poster. It is hoped that those
entering into business pursuits will consult those who know how to
make their trade names appealing and their places of business
attractive. Chicago Whip.
I am afraid that there is not much wonder that so many
beautiful homes of the Race are being bombed. Let us not fail
by any means to give it a good trial through your greatest Race
paper of the world in keeping all sorts of dirty paper and cans from
the front way and sweep daily from the pavement through to the
alley to see if it will stop this unmerciful bombing. It might be
that the other race are bombing us to get us out of the way of
turning their magnificent boulevards and broad avenues into slums.
Once Wabash avenue was like the Lake Shore drive. Now, it is
getting to be one of the filthiest streets in the city of Chicago. We
don't want to be judged by filth and dirt. Let us make a better
showing in neighborhood pride. It might stop all kinds of ill feel-
ings toward the race. I am ashamed to be seen in some of our dis-
tricts, so you may know the other race of pride is bound to be.
Cleanliness goes a long way and it is neither impossible or too late
to cooperate to make the once beautiful streets and neighborhoods
beautiful and sanitary again. My sole object in this is to see if it
will stop this bombing. If not, the color of our skin will solve the
mystery, but we must not let this discourage us in race pride.
Letter to the editor, Chicago Defender, April 16, 1921.
At the Sacrament the pastor and officers had prepared two
large beautiful cut glass bowls full of clean water and towels, where
each minister that was to assist in administering the holy and con-
secrated elements of the Lord's Supper, would publicly clean their
hands before approaching the table or handling the elements. This
is a good example worthy of all emulation. It is such a desecration
for any minister or person to handle the bread and wine with
unclean hands and some preachers do persist in handling the small
pieces of bread after broken for each communicant. Some even
want to put it in the mouth and lips of each person. This is
unsanitary, unclean it is so much better to pass the plate with
the bits of consecrated bread and let the communicant take from
242 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
the plate the bread and here is where we see the delight in the
individual communion set. Every church ought to strive to get
and use the individual communion set. Dallas Express, April 16,
1921.
For many years we have observed with painful regret the
(unintentional) disposition of certain of our fraternity leaders to
develop their societies at the expense of grief stricken relatives
while their hearts are still bleeding and their souls are yet crushed
under the heavy load of indescribable grief.
We have seen the poor widow gowned in deep black urged, in
spite of her weakness, and her indisposition to parade her sorrow
before the vulgar world, to " come to hall and get your check." To
a deeply sensitive nature this is nothing less than revolting. And
the only purpose such a proceeding can accomplish is to incite
some witness to join the order, by harrowing the already broken
spirit of the beneficiary.
But lately this advertisement, emboldened by the success of
the past, has moved us up several notches. In fact this last move
has capped the climax. We recently witnessed two rival orders at
the ceremony over the dead vicing with each other as to the priority
of paying the claim. They seem to have anticipated each other,
for they both were there with the goods. After a most impressive
service the representatives of these orders obtained permission to,
and proceeded then and there to speak in favor of their respective
orders, and to hand over the checks to the sorrowing widow in the
presence of the hundreds assembled. One of the speakers averred,
"The deceased has been hi our order five months, and in this other
order five years. We pay him three hundred and fifty dollars
for five months; they pay him five hundred dollars for five years."
This was using the sacredness of the hour for speculation with a
vengeance. It was naught else but the commercialization of the
dead.
How much more impressive it would have been for the proper
authorities to have gone to the widow in a quiet manner, either
before or after the funeral services, and as men in deep sympathy
for a woman bereft of her all to have offered words of genuine
sympathy, and in the execution of their official duty, to have
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 243
reverently and tenderly put into her hands the pledge of the
fraternity. Progressive Citizen, November 27, 1920.
Parents should go to school at least two or three times a month
and see about their children. Both in the grammar and the high
school the parents should see the teachers about their children.
See that your child obeys the teacher, is not saucy and does not
talk back when the teacher tries to correct it for its wrongdoings.
The trouble with the colored parents, they do not take an
interest in their children, paying no attention to them when they
are "in bad" while at school. The children should be made to do
the right thing whether in or out of the school. See that they
are not rowdy and rough in the streets and all public places.
Do not allow your girls to run the streets with boys hanging
onto their clothes.
It is a disgrace to see some of the children in the black belt.
Their actions are really their parents' fault, as they do not take
the proper interest in their children. Always see that your chil-
dren's report cards are brought home, see that no one but yourself
signs the card, and that the card is not signed by the child herself.
Stop the rough boys from carrying knives and rocks in their
pockets, as in some cases the teachers are almost afraid of the half
grown boys who carry these things around in their pockets.
Above all things, send your children to school clean. We
know you cannot dress them in fine clothes, but you can keep them
clean, as soap and water are plentiful. Keep their clothing in
repair. Do not wrap her hair with strings, but comb it out, or
else your child will be made a laughing stock for the whole school.
Here's Hoping You Parents Will Take More Interest in Your
Children. Chicago Advocate, February 26, 1921.
II ATTITUDES TOWARD RACIAL VALUES 1
It was .... at Southern Drum that, calling on Reverend
Williams, I happened upon this singular conversation:
"Now, isn't it absurd for us to have white angels?"
1 Under this heading are set down indications of interest in the race
itself and racial possessions, including even the matter of skin color as
something that is able to evoke interest. What the Negro may think of
244 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
"You surely would not like them black?"
"We give Sunday School cards to our children with white
angels on them. It's wrong."
"Black angels would be ugly."
"No more ugly than white."
I thought the whiteness of the angels was as the whiteness of
white light which contained all color. That, however, was lost on
the reverend, who happened to be a realist.
" Christ himself was not white. He would have had to travel
in a Jim Crow car," said he. "But put it to yourself: isn't it
absurd for us to be taught that the good are all white, and that sin
itself is black?"
"It does seem to leave you in the shade," said I.
"Expressions such as 'black as sin' ought to be deleted from
the language. One might as well say, 'white as sin.'"
I ransacked my brain rapidly
"Then Adam and Eve in the Garden," he went on, "are
always shown as beautifully white creatures, whereas, considering
the climate, they may well have been as dark-skinned as any Negro
couple in Alabama. Babylon was built by Negroes." ....
This struck me as rather diverting, but it was quite serious.
Later, in New York one night at Liberty Hall .... I heard an
orator say: "Why, I ask you, is God always shown as white?
his own racial heritage Robert R. Moton shows in his autobiography
called, Finding a Way Out, Garden City, New York, 1920, pp. 57-61.
"A few Sunday evenings later, when General Armstrong returned to
the Institute, he spoke in his own forceful manner to the students about
respecting themselves, their race, their history, their traditions, their
songs, and folk lore in general. He referred them to the Negro songs as
'a priceless legacy,' which he hoped every Negro student would always
cherish. I was impressed with him and with his address, but I was not
entirely convinced. However, I was led to think along a little different
line regarding my race. The truth is it was the first time I had ever given
any serious thought to anything distinctively Negro. This also was the
first time in my life that I had begun to think that there was anything
that the Negro had that was deserving of particular consideration. This
meant a readjustment of values that was not particularly easy for a raw
country lad."
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 245
It is because he is the white man's God. It is the God of our
masters (Yes, brothers, that's it). It's the God of those who
persecute and despise the colored people. Brothers, we've got
to knock that white God down and put up a black God "
A fro- American, February 25, 1921, quoting Stephen Graham, The
Soid of John Brown.
This past Christmas I noticed, with delight and satisfaction,
that many of our children had been presented with dolls having
colored faces, some black, some brown, some yellow. At last we
have come to recognize merit in things typical and representative
of our own race. Other races teach their children to admire and
adore their own. Why should we not do likewise? We have
many beautiful specimens in our race, worthy of as much admira-
tion as those of any other race. No longer do we need to hang up
on the walls in our homes pictures of the white race, or even works
of art created by them, when we can use pictures of our own people
and art works produced by their hands. This spirit of race pride
it is well to instill and cultivate, not only in the hearts and minds
of the young, but in the hearts and minds of us all, old and young
alike. Letter to New York Dispatch} January 7, 1921.
Negro Pictures for Negro Homes
Now on sale, just off the press, "Contentment" a beautiful
lithograph picture, size 10 by 12 inches. Reproduced from photo-
graph of young Negro mother with a nursing babe in her arms as
she sits by the window with every expression of comfort and con-
ic ntment. A picture that should be in every Negro home. By
mail, post paid, 40 cents each, 3 copies $1.10, $4.00 per dozen.
... New York Age, April 23, 1921.
Dear Aunt Pat:
I hear so much about using face powder, some say our women
should never straighten tlu-ir hair nor powder their faces. It
denotes a lack of race pride and aping after other people.
Yours,
CARRIE
246 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
My dear Carrie:
It is an inherent part of woman to wish to be charming and
the condition of her complexion, hair and costume have each an
important role and [sic] in the accomplishment of her wish.
We should study our complexion and try to use those shades of
powder which harmonize with our national color. I heartily
endorse the use of any cosmetic which will give the face a smooth,
clear surface. The market offers powders in the brunette and pink
shades which blend beautifully with our brown complexions.
If one uses a cosmetic with the express purpose of "getting
white" I feel that she shows a serious lack of self respect and race
pride. I believe very few women guilty of this offense.
Now, as to the care of the hair, this has been the greatest
blessing that women have received since Freedom "Hair Cul-
ture." How much better she looks with clean, smooth hair, how
easily it can be arranged. It is really shocking to meet a woman
who does not care for her hair.
If to these we will add the care of our teeth and keep them
white and shining we will be truly charming and "Brown" will
continue to be the leading shade, "African Brown," "Velvet
Brown," et cetera. From "Aunt Pat's Forum," Dallas Express,
March 26, 1921.
The Annual Intercollegiate concert proposition or whatever
it is, we do not know is a striking illustration of the failure of
education and religion to develop in the Negro manhood, self-
respect and racial consciousness. These people could have pulled
off their concert in the Odd Fellows' Auditorium, Big Bethel
A.M.E. Church, or in other racial houses, for either of these places
will hold the crowds they always have. But they cannot get away
from that racial weakness that a thing belonging to or used by
white men is better than an article belonging to or used by
Negroes.
Then these misguided creatures flock to these white places with
a view of exhibiting their talent to white people instead of catering
to their own race, with a view of building a place large enough to
accommodate their entertainments in the event that the Negro
places are too small.
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 247
Another example of jim-crowing self is the great crowds of
educated and cultured Negroes who crowd the "peanut" galleries
in the white theatres trying to see a good picture when in fact the
same pictures are seen on the screen in Odd Fellows ' Theatre.
Still another example is the dances given in Taft Hall instead
of on the Odd Fellows' Roof Garden, as a rule, by cultured Negroes.
These Negroes are so intelligent that they actually believe that it is
reverence and service to God to dance in Taft Hall, but a sin and
a curse to dance on the Odd Fellows ' Roof Garden. They are just
that ignorant and blind.
Still another example of acknowledged inferiority on the part
of cultured Negroes is the position of the Atlanta University
students and athletic authorities take, insisting upon white officials
in intercollegiate football, basketball and baseball games. They
insist that no Negro is competent, but any white man will do.
The motto of this school seems to be that any white man is able,
which we regard as a disgrace to the lamented founders of this old
institution Presidents Ware, Bumstead, Francis and Chase.
But the race, like the boy who cannot rise above his home, will
never rise in the estimation of the white man any higher than the
force of his race pride and racial consciousness lifts it in the estima-
tion of the people who control our community and national life.
Atlanta Independent, March 31, 1921.
Two WHITES AT THE SHOW
(During the Act)
Those actors are not colored,
Look for yourself and see
Here, take my opera glasses;
They 're just as white as me.
You say that they're mulattoes?
Go on! You've lost your sight I!
Why any fool can look at them
And see that they are white!
(On the Street)
What man ? Those are the players
We've just been looking at ?
248 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Why these are colored people
Say you're talking through your hat!
By Jove! You're right the joke's on me
But what a funny race!
If I were doing such great work
I'd never hide my face!
A. RAZAFKERIEFO, Crusader, April, 1921
The Philadelphia Protector is a newsy race organ of that city
whose managing editor is Mr. W. H. Wright. The Protector is a
weekly organ devoted to the interest of colored citizens, and takes
a strong stand for a larger democracy, for which our boys fought.
In its issue of the 2oth of last month the Protector carries an editorial
headed, "Colored Theaters Draw Color Line." Among other
things said, this editorial wants to know why the black face is used
to portray the servant and the fool and why this type is always
used to humiliate the race. Florida Sentinel, December 4, 1920.
THE MULATTO TO His CRITICS
Ashamed of my race ?
And of what race am I ?
I am many in one.
Of Red Man, Black Man, Briton, Celt, and Scot.
Through my veins there flows the blood
In warring clash and tumultuous riot.
I welcome all,
But love the blood of the kindly race
That swarths my skin, crinkles my hair,
And puts sweet music into my soul.
JOSEPH S. COTTER, Jr., from Hampton Bulletin, February, 1921
(Kerlin).
THE OCTOROON
One drop of midnight in the dawn of life's pulsating stream
Marks her an alien from her kind, a shade amid its gleam.
Forevermore her step she bends, insular, strange, apart
And none can read the riddle of her strangely warring heart.
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 249
The stormy current of her blood beats like a mighty sea.
Against the man-wrought iron bars of her captivity.
For refuge, succor, peace and rest, she seeks that humble fold
Whose every breath is kindliness, whose hearts are purest gold I
GEORGIA DOUGLASS JOHNSON in Kerlin, The Voice of the Negro,
pp. 1 86 f.
We all do it. The writer of this article is black, and he has
passed for white a thousand times. When we " Call up over the
phone" to make a reservation from Baltimore to Richmond instead
of going in person to the ticket office, we are "passing"; because
we know by experience that white people are more polite and just to
the colorless phone than they are to our colored faces. The Negro
may get "lower six" over the phone, whereas he usually gets
" upper one " at the window. Once upon a time the writer wanted
to charter a freight car to carry his goods from Alabama to Texas
and he went down in person to ask the price. The agent looked
up at him and said with a hiss: "One hundred and twenty-five
dollars!" But something looked wrong and crooked in that
agent's eyes. We therefore went back home and let the matter
rest for a few days until memories should pass away, and then we
sat down to our Remington and wrote a letter requesting full
information about the chartering of a car from Talladega to Mar-
shall, and there came an immediate, courteous and honest reply ;
which began, "My dear Mr. ", and concluded "Respectfully
yours," and mentioned in between that the cost of such service
would be eighty-five dollars! We passed for white and saved forty
dollars. In other words, our typewriter and letter were colorless
in fact, but were white in the consciousness of the freight agent.
We allowed his own conceit to cheat him to keep him from cheating
us. Every colored adult in the United States has done the same
thing in numberless different ways: they have gotten better service
by keeping their color out of the consciousness of the color-maniac
with whom they had to deal. Pullman reservations, seats in the
middle of the car, staterooms not located over the throbbing
engines, theatre tickets in the first five rows, first-class goods by
mail order, guns and ammunition by express, and patience and
courtesy over the telephone.
250 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
That is, the black Negro passes for white in his personal ab-
sence, while the white Negro may pass in his personal presence
but both of them for the same purpose and usually in the same
spirit. We are not talking about those people who "pass for
white" for the mere sake of being white and because unnatural
conditions in America have builded into their morbid minds an
idea that there is some virtue in whiteness as whiteness. There are
very few such abnormal people. But there are some, just as there
are some idiots, maniacs and deaf-mutes. And we are not talking
about those who may prefer whiteness, not as something better,
but just as a mere matter of taste in color, without any thought of
virtue in his choice. One may prefer a black coat or a white coat
without any idea that the other color is "inferior." Other people
may not admire his taste, they must allow it, or they themselves
become color-maniacs. But we are talking about the great All-
of-Us who pass every day for mere conveniences.
We know colored people who are thus passing, in person, all
the way from office clerks and salesgirls to professors and deans
in great universities in America. And I agree with them. They
are entirely within their human rights. They are doing only what
they should be permitted to do even if they were coal-black and
had the fitness which they have. The littlest human I can think
of is another colored person who would betray one of these. If I
had any contempt for them, I should have still more contempt for
those whose irrational prejudice makes it necessary for these white
Negroes to "pass." And I could not betray those for whom I had
less contempt to those for whom I had more. But there is nothing
essentially contemptuous about the position of these people who
cheat unreason or better stated, who allow unreason to cheat
itself. By stratagems and decoys man leads the wild beast to
cheat itself out of its undeserved prey and the beast of race
prejudice is no better
White-colored people are in high places in almost every large
city of the Union especially in the North and West. Many have
gone from the South to the Pacific Coast and engaged in various
enterprises. Sometimes when the Negro who can not pass on his
face, is visiting the Coast, he is greatly surprised at the number of
his friends in exile, who may come to see him by night, as Nico-
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 251
demus came to Christ. There are many divided families, some
individuals having gone over to the white race and others remain-
ing colored. They often write each other but seldom visit. What
would the poor maniac do if he knew that his sister-in-law with
whom his wife corresponds in the far South, is colored and married
to an unmistakably colored man ? Some of these girls have been
wise enough to tell the man and his family before marriage that
they are colored, so as to avoid giving him the advantage which is
often taken in American courts, to plead deception, when it may
be for other reasons that he wants to get a divorce Many
colored men are in prominent places in business and education,
filling positions which they could not possibly have the "ability"
or "capacity" to fill if they were only known to be colored. One
is among the highest officers in one of the most prominent state
universities and has been repeatedly honored above all his asso-
ciates.
These people naturally have a genuine contempt for the idea of
"racial superiority," for they know what a humbug it is. They
are intimately acquainted with both white people and black people,
and they are a competent authority. They testify in general that
white people are not to be discredited intellectually as a group,
but that many of them counterfeit their individual insignificance
with the stamp of "race" superiority. They are sure that the
variegated colored American group is the more interesting and
likable. There is one testimony that is absolutely uniform from
all these sources: that white people have no moral superiority.
These people have really lived in two worlds, and they may
ultimately destroy many illusions and expose many lies. WILLIAM
PICKENS, in Houston Observer, June 18, 1921.
The faculty of the Julia Richmond High School, West ijth
street, has been arranging in accordance with a city-wide program,
for the presentation of a pageant, symbolizing "America's Mak-
ing," in which the various peoples making up this country 's popula-
tion shall be represented, through the pupils attending the school,
in some distinctive rendition which will show the race contribution
to America's development. Each pupil to be assigned a place
on the program will be called upon to contribute a number that
252 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
would typify some element of progress made by the pupil's race.
This pageant is to be presented in October, and in the meantime,
as a preliminary presentment, a May Party was arranged for in
which the pupils would be given a try-out.
One of the pupils attending this school is Miss Lucille Handy,
of 232 West i3Qth street, eldest daughter of W. C. Handy, the
originator in modern music of what is known as the "Blues" type
of composition. Mr. Handy is head of the firm of Handy Bros.,
music publishers, at 232 West 46th street. When her teachers
spoke of the character of the program to be arranged for the May
Party and the "America's Making" pageant, Miss Handy in-
formed her instructors of the work of her father along musical lines,
and they quickly agreed that such a distinctive development
deserved recognition. The composer's daughter was asked to
prepare for rendition such of her father's compositions as would
best show the character and style of his work.
Other colored girls attending Julia Richmond High heard of
this arrangement and did not approve of it. One of them spoke to
Miss Handy in person Miss Handy received through the
U.S. mail a letter from an alleged "Colored Girls' Circle" ....
"Dear Miss Handy:
As members of the colored girls circle we have investigated
and found out that you are making a fool out of yourself in school.
It is not appropriate for you to sing and dance the blues (jazz) at
the May Party. If you do, it will be under the peril of death and
great danger to yourself. Therefore we warn you to watch your
step. In case you do dance (which we doubt very much) pin
your curls ? in tight and beware of rotten eggs.
Beware. The Colored Girls Circle "
Of course, this note is as ridiculous as it reads, and Miss
Handy 's mother was written to by instructors in the Julia Rich-
mond High, who told of the high regard which is entertained for
her daughter, and who characterized the writing of the letter as
ignorant, stupid and maliciously devoid of intelligent comprehen-
sion. So far as I am able to learn, the program will be arranged as
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 253
intended and Miss Handy will exemplify the compositions of
her father in accordance with the original plans.
This leads up to a discussion of the "Blues" type of music in
its relation to other forms
It will not be surprising if the "Blues" music is eventually
placed in the same category as the Spiritual. I mean the real
thing, not the perverted and distorted product of the vaudevillian
who seeks through low comedy to gain plaudits of the amusement-
seeking public, and who does not hesitate to change words and
phrases or make additions of his own which carry a double entendre
or innuendoes which appeal to a vitiated taste. The composer nor
the music should be blamed for the performer's vulgarity
One who has heard the workers of the Southern states in the fields
and on the roads, with a singing leader whose clear musical voice
rings out in a strain, always melodious but usually in a minor key,
which is taken up and harmonized by his fellow workers, recog-
nizes in Mr. Handy 's "Blues" many of the same melodic themes,
amplified, of course. This comment does not apply to the words,
which are usually much more modern than the musical idiom.
New York Age, April 23, 1921.
Have you seen the new year books of the East Side Culture
Club, under the caption of Who's Who in the Negro Race? The
club will study the life and works of the following Negro leaders
during the coming year: Henry O. Tanner, artist ; Edmonia Lewis,
sculptress; Chas. W. Chesnut, author; Kelly Miller, educator;
Stanley G. Braithwaite, poet; W. S. Scarborough, educator; Lucy
Laney and Mary McLeod Bethune, educators; Robert Moton
and Emmett Jay Scott, educators; R. R. Wright and John Hope,
educators; Drs. Dan Williams and C. V. Roman, physicians;
Harry T. Burleigh and Marion Cook, musicians; Anita Patti
Brown, Prima Donna; Mrs. Joseph St. I'u-rn Ruffin, club worker;
Major Chas. Young, U.S. Army; T. Thos. I ortuiu , Bishop Hurst,
and Bishop R. E. Jones, churchmen; Granville F. Woods, inven-
tor; William A. Sinclair, historian; Mrs. Maggie L. Walker, Negro
woman banker, and Mrs. Aaron E. M alone, millionaire business
woman. Black Dispatch, February 25, 1921.
254 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
The history and literature of any race are the credentials on
which that race is admitted to the family of civilized man and are
the indications of its future possibilities. Through all ages and
in all nations civilized man has justified his existence by pointing
to his history and literature not only as his proofs of development,
but as evidence of his contribution to the total sum of human
betterment and of the torch he has lent to light the path of man's
onward march. The Jew, the Greek, the Roman, the Hindu, the
peoples of China and the people of Western Europe are known and
esteemed for what history and literature reveal of them and for
the contribution they have made to man 's knowledge and welfare.
The descendants of these races may well study with pride and profit
the history of their fathers and justly look with confidence towards
the future.
The ancient history and literature of Negroes in Africa have
not been emphasized by other races which have dominated the
world with their language and civilization, and therefore the
modern Negroes, enjoying the civilization of other nations and
races, know little of the ancient civilization and customs which
still find expression in native tribes of the mother land. It is
entirely possible that the destruction of the great Alexandrian
library deprived the world of much of the history and literature of
ancient Africa.
The campaign for the study of Negro history and literature
conducted by the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity during the week of
April 24 should meet the approval and secure the co-operation
of all Negro men and women who are interested in the intellectual
growth of the race and its future achievements. Negro World,
April 30, 1921.
Saturday, May 7, marks the opening of the Negro National
League for the season of 1921 in Detroit. Behind this opening
should be the concentrated support of every race man in Detroit.
In this support should be good-will, finance, influence and presence
of every race-loving man. The league should be considered your
personal league; if it succeeds you should feel that you have suc-
ceeded; if it fails, you should consider it a personal failure. Your
heart should vibrate sympathetically with the heart of the league.
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 255
If the league succeeds, the race succeeds; if the league fails, the
race fails.
You should realize that this is one of the largest organized
movements ever advanced by our group, and that our ability to
put over large projects will be measured largely by the way we
handle this one.
Last season 's baseball was prosperous because of abnormal con-
ditions, but this season it will be given the acid test. If you
are reluctant in giving of your support, you are lending aid to its
failure. Now, attention, fans! Forward march! Eyes right!
While we pass in review the opening of the Negro National League.
Detroit Contender, May 7, 1921.
m. INTERESTING PEOPLE
We first stop and weep with the family and friends of Mr.
Rube Johnston, who lived in this world 103 years and eight months*
born a slave, but with no mind of a slave and given a chance'
bought his own freedom and married his 13 year old bride 88 years
ago. Separate only three years during the war and as soon as the
chance presented itself returned to his wife. They were blessed
with 6 boys and 4 girls, all full of pep and determination to do
business. He was born in Virginia and picked his changes through
Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas to Kansas where he spent a
busy life until death, never in bed sick a half day in his life until
an injury by his frightened horse some weeks ago. He was
faithful to his vow to Nancy until death, leaving her a home at
1010 N. Washington Ave. They were proud of the success of
16 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren.
He was a proud and ambitious old man until death, not the
character by any means that the Wichita Eagle wishes you to see
in their write-up.
This faithful life demanded that they say something, but
there was enough prejudice in the write-up to show that he was
a long liver, but a southern type of something funny with a bad
appearance. We stop here to wonder if there is a white man in
America who could go through what he went through and live
and make a living at the age of 103. Then we wonder again,
256 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
could he have bought himself and then served in the war for another
man (a coward) then have sense enough to make his way from one
disgraceful state to another, looking for safety for himself and his
family, using diplomacy that would suit the condition, though
ambition ran high, not be in direct support of the State. We
wonder again how can our people read the Eagle, which has such
desire to picture the dark side of the Negro race, which could not
have been of any asset to a citizen who has lived a pure life in
their midst since 1893.
His funeral was attended last Thursday from the St. Paul
A.M.E. Church by pastor J. R. Ransom, with Mrs. J. E. Lewis,
James R. Johnston, George Johnston, W. E. Johnston, A. F.
Johnston and Rev. Reuben Johnston of Philadelphia. We bow
in humble submission to the will of God and especially with Mrs.
Nancy Johnston, who has been so faithful for so long with this
noble husband, father and Christian. Negro Star (Wichita,
Kansas), April 15, 1921.
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 15. Taking with him to the grave
the secret of the whereabouts of the great seal of the Confederacy,
which he hid when Jefferson Davis was captured, James Jones, the
colored bodyguard of the president of the Confederacy, died here.
Jones was born in North Carolina, and his body will be taken
to Raleigh for burial. The man had been failing for some time,
but even as death approached he kept silent about the Confederate
seal.
Throughout his long life, with his latter years spent in the
government service in Washington, James Jones would never
reveal what became of the Confederate seal. "Marse Jeff" had
bidden that he never tell and he never did. Veterans of the
Union and Confederate armies, newspaper writers, curiosity seekers
and curio hunters from time to time urged Jones to reveal where
he buried the great seal. They argued that the Civil War was far
in the past and the seal should be produced for the inspection of
the younger generation of today and the generations that are to
follow in a reunited country. Always James Jones shook his head,
and to the end he maintained his silence. Pittsburgh American,
April 15, 1921.
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 257
In last Sunday's Times-Dispatch Doctor C. A Bryce has an
interesting article on "Dusky Fiddlers" a part of which follows:
"The name Scott was a prominent one in colored musical
circles, nor was it monopolized by the Charlottesville Scotts
previously mentioned, for there lived in Richmond, more than a
half-century ago, a noted violinist by the name of Joseph C. Scott,
who played for the wealthiest and most aristocratic people of
Richmond, and at many of the watering places during the summer
seasons. He was bright-skinned, dignified, middle-aged, and
gentlemanly in his address.
"He showed in every way that he had been thrown with the
cultured people of Virginia, was used to the best and knew how
to accept nice treatment without embarrassing his white friends
by forgetting his color. He was an educated musician, as far as
it went in those days, which meant that he could play a piece
'at sight.' He had seen service in the Mexican war, and, if I
mistake not, was bugler for some command from Richmond."
In all probability the writer meant no insult to the colored
audience of the Times-Dispatch. That is the pity of the whole
affair. He felt that he was saying things that his white and
colored readers would be pleased to read. Yet how galling
it is to read these lines: "He knew how to accept nice treatment
uithout embarrassing his white friends by forgetting his color" Ye
gods, when will the day come when the colored man may deal
with the peoples of the World without ever remembering the color
of his face! A Negro artist even, to this day, must necessarily
embarrass his white friends if he forgets his color. How unspeak-
ably damnable! St. Luke Herald, May 28, 1921.
GALVESTON, TEX., Feb. 19. Inspired by a desire to bring
about a bettering of the conditions of the negroes of Liberia,
Africa, William Gales, a well-to-do negro farmer of Florida, sold
out his holdings in that State eight years ago and migrated thither
with his son and family. A few days ago, forlorn an<l penniless,
he and his son and eight grandchildren arrived here on the steam-
ship Cushnet, from Barcelona, Spain. He now has a dim-rent view
of the people of his race in Africa than that which caused him
to undertake the work of their uplift eight years ago. He said
258 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
that his main purpose in going to Liberia was to demonstrate to
the natives modern American methods of farming.
He found that they were indolent and not at all concerned
about their material condition. The negroes there, he declared,
manage to get enough to eat without working, and when he sought
to show them how they could produce abundant crops by manual
labor and modem farm implements, they looked upon him as an
interloper, and he and the other members of his family were
ostracized by the natives.
Things went from bad to worse, and finally, with what little
money he and his son had left, they set out toward the United
States. They made their way to the northern part of Africa,
where they found a small steamship that would take them as far
as Barcelona on their way home. When they arrived at Barcelona
they were in tatters and without money. They appealed to the
American Consul there and he arranged for their passage to
Calves ton. On the way over the members of the party worked
about the ship as a means of helping to meet the cost of the
voyage.
The first thing the old negro did when the Cushnet was docked
was to kneel upon the deck and offer a fervent prayer of thanks-
giving that he and his progeny had been permitted to return to
the land of liberty. From here they were sent to the farm of a
relative in Oklahoma. Louisville News, February 26, 1921.
RED OAK, GA., March 31 Farmers and others in College
Park and Red Park and vicinity are expressing great interest in
a boll weevil preparation invented by Jasper Arnold, a Negro
farming tenant of W. W. Sigman of College Park, who has "the
papers" to show he raised eight bales of cotton on twelve acres last
year, in a "boll weevil year," with not a trace of the pest to be
seen on the plants or at the gin.
"I made it myself, " says Jasper, "and I spray it on the plants
with a machine I made myself. I was a blacksmith for a long time,
and I can make almost anything."
"This preparation is remarkable," stated B. E. Dewberry of
Red Oak, a prosperous planter. "I tested it out first to see if it
injured vegetation. It did not, so I had it used on my place. I
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 259
am frank to say I wouldn't have got my rent if it hand't been for
this preparation and its effective stopping of the boll weevil. I have
seen it stop army worms in com overnight." J. W. Tumlin and
J. F. Lamber of College Park, the latter a minister, signed testimo-
nials of their own observation that Arnold's preparation was
surprisingly effective. Homer Thanes of Red Oak, who ginned
most of Arnold's cotton, also signed a statement that he saw no
evidences of the weevil in it. "I buy the stuff at the store, " says
Jasper, with a grin, "and make it up at my own house, and shoot
the weevil with a gun I made myself and he sure does die."
Buffalo American, March 31, 1921.
ATTLEBORO, Dec. 10. Mrs. Annie J. Evans, colored, who has
the distinction of being the first woman in this city to receive a
police appointment, was 60 last August, looks about 40, and says
the pay does not interest her as much as the chance offered for
her to do good. Like Mrs. Eliza G. Daggett, who is a candidate
for mayor, Mrs. Evans severely criticizes dancing as carried on
these days and is for reform. "My ideas on this subject are
based on what I have observed in this city and elsewhere. The
dances of today are the most vulgar things I ever saw. I thought
there ought to be something done here, talked the matter over
with Mayor Brady and he appointed me. I expect to be sent
out to dean up the halls."
Mrs. Evans desired it made plain that her appointment did
not come because of complaints of the organizations of colored
people in the city. There are over 2,500 women registered as
voters in the city, and she feels highly honored that from among
this number she should be selected to be the first woman to be
vested with the authority of a police officer. She says she is in no
way afraid of the size of the job, and, having been given the right
to carry a revolver, will carry one also a billy.
As she resides only a short distance from the police station,
she will probably be called to attend to women prisoners. This
city is without a police matron, and the fact that female prisoners
have been kept at the station without a woman being present
has been the cause of much adverse comment. St. Luke Herald,
February 5, 1921.
260 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Mamie Smith, the famous singer of "Crazy Blues" and other
popular hits, who will appear in Beaumont at the Community
Center Hall, Saturday night, March 27, is said to be one of the
most gorgeously dressed stars of the musical comedy world.
With the enormous royalties which Mamie received from her
phonograph recordings (and her income from this source is said
to rival Caruso's) and from the profits of her concert tours, the
popular young colored star is enabled to indulge her fancy in the
latest creations both from Paris and New York, and in each city
in which she has appeared a gasp of astonishment has greeted her
appearance, for her gowns are described as riots of color and beauty.
Each gown has been specially designed by Mme. Hammer her-
self for Mamie, with a view to fitting the individuality of the
star and the various songs which she sings on her program.
Beside her high powered car which the new star skillfully
drives herself, there is nothing in which Mamie takes more pride
and interest than her stage gowns, her favorite one being a crea-
tion of white silver trimmed with American Beauty rose, with
head dress and huge ostrich feather fan to match. This gown
Mamie has promised to wear at her concert here, as well as several
other of her latest creations. Beaumont Industrial Era, March 19,
1921.
Pretty soon Jack Johnson, the grand old man of many fights,
will leave Leavenworth where he has served a sentence imposed
by the courts of the land. Whatever the crime the ex-champion
may have committed, he has paid with full interest the price of
his folly. He will be turned back pretty soon to the world from
whence he fled, to start all over again to make good if he can.
He will come back to us with a clean slate, for Johnson owes
no man. He paid in Spain, France, and Mexico compound inter-
est for a simple investment in sin. While in exile he lost his
mother, wealth, and all that earth holds of cheer. But lest some
enemy should think that he is yet a debtor, he crossed the ocean,
walked into the prison doors, and offered this government the
pound of flesh nearest the heart He has paid; so let him
come back to us untaunted. If we can not breathe a word of
praise then let us close the book on the conqueror of Jim Jeffries.
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 261
Prize fighters are not supposed to be moralists. If they were
they would perhaps be following another trade. Johnson was a
fighter with the common faults and virtues of his profession. . . .
But he will soon be back, back to the old haunts and friends
we suppose are true. Back on State Street, and perhaps in the
ring again. Give him every encouragement for Johnson is staging
a "Come Back" which has not its counterpart in history.
We know not what the impression of the world may be but
here is hoping that his last days be his best days, and when the
little slip with its attendant horror is forgotten, may he yet be
remembered for his golden smile at Reno. Detroit Contender,
May 14, 1921.
LAKE CHARLES, LA. Joseph Barry, a Negro, who is to be
hanged here on May 6 for murder, has requested that the scaffold
in the jail yard for his execution be painted snow white in keeping
with the white suit, shoes, tie and socks he is to wear the day of
the hanging. He also asked that the executioner and attending
deputies be clothed in white. Detroit Leader, May 7, 1921.
BALTIMORE, MD., April 8. Doctors are examining with the
greatest interest a horn, five inches long, which was removed from
the head of Lee Wilson, Negro.
Doctors Kelly and Culverhouse, who performed the operation,
call the horn a " cornucornutum, " its medical name.
The horn looked like a large round fingernail and grew from
the scalp, not the skull.
It's a rare disease, say the doctors
Lee Wilson, prior to the operation, had followers who believed
he had voodoo powers. Detroit Leader, April 22, 1921.
AUGUSTA, GA. The Rev. Charles T. Walker, D.D., LL.D.,
founder of Tabernacle Baptist Institutional Church, and its pastor
for more than forty years, died here at his home, ion Gwinette
street, on Friday morning, July 29th, at 2 A.M., after having been
indisposed during a period of about two years. He was 63
years old.
Dr. Walker's reputation was international and his eloquence
in the pulpit had caused him to be designated as "The Black
This till.- mi u'lvrn to him in England during a visit
262 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
to that country when he preached in the church pastoredby that fam-
ous English Baptist divine, the Rev. Dr. Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
About twenty years ago Dr. Walker was called to the pastorate
of Mount Olivet Baptist Church, New York City, and he served
that congregation for five years He made frequent trips
from New York to Augusta during these years to serve Taber-
nacle's people under a mutually satisfactory agreement with the
New York congregation. He finally gave up the New York church
and returned permanently to his Augusta home and church.
While in New York City he established the Young Men's
Christian Association branch for colored men, located at that
time on West 5$rd street, but now occupying a costly modern
building of its own in the Harlem section, where the bulk of the
race is located Recognized as the ablest Negro pulpit
orator in America, he attracted to his audiences and congregations
men and women of all ranks of life. During the winter season,
when the resorts in and near Augusta were thronged with notables
from all sections of the world, Tabernacle Church congregations
were made up largely of the tourist visitors. Supreme Justice
William Howard Taft, .... was a frequent visitor .... and
he spoke to Tabernacle's congregations more than once. Other
notables included John D. Rockefeller, who was almost an every
Sunday worshipper, Lyman B. Goff of Providence, Augustus D-
Heinz of Cincinnati and F. T. Stanton
Dr. Walker made three trips to Europe, lecturing and preach-
ing hi the most famous churches and halls of England and the
Continent, and he has been heard by thousands in practically
every city in the United States.
Tributes have been paid to the dead minister by the entire
city and county, and the suggestion was made by several leading
white citizens that official Augusta show respect in some way.
The county officials and county police united in sending a hand-
some floral tribute to the home, and gave verbal expression at the
same tune to the esteem and respect which was felt for the colored
leader who had fallen New York Age, August 6, 1921.
His father and mother were both slaves in a backwoods county
in Georgia, and he himself was too young to comprehend when
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 263
Lincoln's famous edict removed the shackles from their shoulders
and proclaimed him a "free" child.
At 12 he had "hired out" and was working 14 hours a day
for a crust and a mattress.
The only money he saved was by surreptitiously selling
burnt pine tar for grease, making baskets for cotton pickers,
gathering black walnuts, which he held over until Winter and
sold at 10 cents a hundred; burning charcoal at night and carry-
ing it five miles to sell at five cents a bushel, cultivating and market-
ing the tiny crop of his Lilliputian cotton patch
His first job was the last chair in a barber shop, where his
smiling willingness, courtesy, industry and general bearing soon
won him a foreman ship. Later he was made manager. And
still later he had laid by enough to buy a barber shop of his own.
Today Alonzo Herndon owns and operates chain tonsoriai
shops on many of Atlanta's most fashionable streets. His biggest
establishment is worth $30,000. Some of his others are worth
$15,000 each. He himself is rated at $500,000; and he is one of
the richest members of his race in the South.
Herndon's career was brought to light by his recent purchase
and equipment of a magnificent house to be used as a day nursery
and kindergarten for Negro children. -Some years ago he founded
the Herndon Community Center, a group of orphanages and
hospitals. He has given large sums to the Y.M.C.A., and to
Atlanta University. His endowments, benefactions and charities
are statewide, and the character of many of them is such that they
do not get into print paying the rent for old, poor people; sending
sick children to the country and seashore; supplying medical aid
and food to those who are in need. Birmingham Times- Plain
Dealer, February 21, 1921.
IV. RACE FRICTION
G. Tom Taylor, long a big factor with the Negro vote in the
Republican party in Tennessee and who has been considered a
friendly Southerner by many of the Race, has been sued by a
Colored tenant, Pleasant H. Brown, due to the operation of one
of the Taylor plantations near Crenshaw, Miss. Brown charges
that his store account in the general store which Taylor owned,
264 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
for the crop of 1919 was $499.19, that he raised 10 bales of cotton;
that Mr. Taylor got that and the seed, but that he has never
been able to get a settlement out of Mr. Taylor. He sues also for
damages for being intimidated and for $1,000 as the value of his
household goods which were taken. This is a typical Southern
case but usually they do not get into court. Charleston New Era,
May 7, 1921.
The reading public has not so soon forgotten the big scare
headlines which appeared in the local daily papers a week or so
ago describing an alleged assault by a "burly Negro" on a "pretty
white woman" in one of The Dalles, Ore., hotels. One paper ran
the cut of the alleged "beautiful" victim and another paper said
editorially : " It's good for the Negro who attacked the white woman
of The Dalles that he was not in the South, or he would have been
lynched or burned at stake." The object of these papers was to
start a race riot or to have a "necktie" party; but the law-abiding
people of The Dalles were not swayed by such inflammatory
utterances of the newspapers and as a result the colored man was
arrested, placed in jail and a grand jury was called in to investigate,
and their finding was that the whole business was a "frame-up"
on the colored man in order to have him mobbed or sent to the
penitentiary. The colored man has been set free. Now, what
about this "pretty" white woman who helped to frame up on
this burly colored man and her coterie of conspirators? Why
didn't the daily papers give as much publicity to the vindication
of this colored man as they did in trying to have him murdered by
fastening the crime of rape upon him? And what about this
"pretty" woman, who is a perjurer and a would-be murderer?
Thousands of innocent colored men are lying in their graves today
through just such dirty frame-ups as the one in this case. Atlanta
Independent, December 9, 1920.
We had occasion on Sunday .... to be returning home from
one of our near-by points. When we got on the coach was crowded
by a number of women and children going to Charleston from the
near-by country .... to witness the .... parade. A seat
was vacant in the smoker; and though we do not smoke we cheer-
fully took the vacant seat.
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 265
At the next and succeeding station they kept crowding in
bent on the same mission. A man was stationed in the door of
the Negro coach, with his arm across the door and the surplus
passengers, after the aisles were crowded, were bidden go into the
baggage car, where our women had to either stand up during the
ride or else sit on the few trunks in the car.
In the mean time the "Brethren," who has no right on the
car except as a renter to sell his wares at twice the original price,
and whose place is in the baggage car, according to law, had
his wares spread over two seats which, ordinarily is supposed to
seat two passengers, but in a pinch three, a price thereby taken away
from at least four persons the seats they paid first class fare to
occupy. Some will ask why not report the matter to the proper
authority. So we did upon one occasion reporting to the state
Rail R. Commission, stating place, day and state of some indignity
which was practiced at the time, and is being practiced now,
after at least seven years. Did we even get an answer from the
commission elected by the white people to see that the white
people get what they pay for, but pass the treatment of the
Negroes by with silent contempt ? We got no more answer than
if we had addressed a letter to the bronze statue of Wade Hampton
on the grounds of the State Capitol. Columbia (South Carolina)
Standard, January 7, 1921.
NEWPORT NEWS, VA., Jan. 7. What is expected to be a
forerunner of similar movements throughout the South was taken
here recently in a protest of Colored citizens at the presence in
their section of houses of ill repute, voiced at a meeting of the
Inter-Racial Committee. The strenuous protests started the
committee delegates to work at once with the city authorities in
their anti-vice crusade of the city authorities.
Colored people of Newport News last night registered protest
of the presence of houses of ill repute in their section of the city.
.... Most of the houses, it was charged at the meeting, are
patronized by white men despite the fact that they are maintained
by Colored women. Colored people with the exception of the
inmates, are barred in most instances, the committee's informants
declared.
266 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
.... They further declared that nothing is quite so dis-
gusting to respectable Colored people as the sight of white men
skulking through the darkness to be in the company of Colored
women who often are social outcasts of their own race. New Era
(Charleston, South Carolina), January 8, 1921.
Commenting on the familiar form of address employed by
Atlanta store clerks in accosting colored customers, the editor of
the Texarkana Progressive Citizen said:
"We have no objection to those white folks who are of blood-
kin with us calling us according to the blood relationship we
sustain to them. But to be indiscriminately called 'Uncle George, '
'Auntie,' 'Boy,' is regarded by all Negroes as an insult. If it
will tend to lessen one's manhood by calling us by our own proper
names, then leave off all names, and merely say, 'What will you
have?'"
Well put. This one-sided relationship has been overworked,
without rhyme or reason. New York Age, April 16, 1921.
It is from the spiritual nostalgia that the American Negro
suffers most. He has been away so long from that mysterious
fatherland of his that like all the other descendants of voluntary
and involuntary immigrants of the seventeenth century, Puritan,
pioneer, adventurer, indentured servant, he feels himself Ameri-
can. The past is too far past for him to have memories. Very,
very rarely does he have a backward reaching bond, be it never
so tenuous.
Mr. Du Bois, indeed, in his "Darkwater" tells in a striking
passage in that striking book of a Bantu ancestress who hugged
her knees and swayed and sang:
" Do bana coba gene me, gene me!
Ben d'nuli, ben d'le
Who knows what scene of Afric sands and Afric freedom
those words may have conjured up ? How the bleakness of New
England and the harshness of captivity must have fostered her
homesickness!
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 267
In the main, the American Negro is without ties and the
traditions that throw back. Instead, he has built unconsciously
from his childhood a dream-country, and yet surely no dream-
country since it is founded on that document which most realizes
and sets forth the primal and unchanging needs of man the
Constitution of the United States.
Where the Greek dreams of his statues, he dreams of Justice;
where the Italian yearns for his opera, he yearns for Opportunity;
and where the Jewish visionary longs for freedom of sect, he cries
out for an escape from Peonage.
As a child in his readers, he learns of great principles in the
Declaration of Independence, in Fourth of July speeches, in
extracts from Daniel Webster, in Mr. Lincoln's Gettysburg address.
He grows up and finds them not here just beyond, always
beyond; in a country where all things are possible he has found
exactly what ought not to be possible.
He keeps on longing for these principles with an aching, voice-
less longing; with Chateaubriand's "Exile" he sighs:
" Their memory makes me sorry every day"
Is he mocking himself? The cold fear strikes him that
perhaps there is no such country. The Greek if he is lucky
will return to his island of the sea. He knows it is there. The
Italian will go back to Italy sometime. At least the Jews have
lived in Jerusalem. But the black American is something entirely
new under the sun. Shall he ever realize the land where he
would be?
"For thee, oh dear, dear country,
Mine eyes their vigil keep!"
The second lieutenant is doomed to know homesickness of
both body and spirit. In France he will want the comforts of
America; in America, he cries out for the rights of man which
he knew in Frai
A nostalgia of body and soul there is nothing harder to
bear. JESSIE FAUSET, in Crisis, August, 1921.
It is true that the foregoing scenes and criticisms of
Negro life present widely varying and somewhat con-
268 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
tradictory pictures. But those who know Negroes best
are the last to make easy generalizations about them.
The newspaper is too veracious to generalize.
Moreover, when we use the term "life" with reference
to any group, we must include the little things as well as
the big, all intimate passages between man and man that
throw their light and shade over human association.
"We speak," says John Dewey, "of the life of a savage
tribe, of the Athenian people, of the American 'nation.
'Life' covers customs, institutions, beliefs, victories and
defeats, recreations and occupations." 1 He goes on to
say that the process of communicating and sharing all
this is what makes society. If this be true, then the news-
paper, regarded simply as an agency of communication,
is a unique social instrument. Its motto is, "Now it can
be told." Through it, individual experiences are shared
over wide areas, and the group comes to know itself.
The press supported by the Negro comes in this way
to be a means for making his life significant to himself.
The long years of slavery resulted in the impression that
the black man did not count in the real world. But now,
on the printed page, not only does a man 's name appear
before his fellows, but the whole race seems to become
articulate to mankind.
Instead of merely reflecting "life" the newspaper, in
setting themes for discussion and suggesting the foci of
attention, helps powerfully to create that life. No part
of the Negro race in America is quite stagnant. It may
be that those who are on the frontiers of their world,
chiefly in the cities and the ranks of the educated, are
most sensitive to the new forces and new standards. But
1 Democracy and Education, New York, 1916, pp. 1-5.
NEGRO CRITICISM OF NEGRO LIFE 269
back in quiet rural areas, others are reading their news
and arguments, and the whole mass is responding to the
printed suggestion. A young Negro is sent to Annapolis :
through this press he becomes a symbol for all. The
Anti-Lynching Bill passes the House, and publicity
engraves it in Magna Carta. Even a street fight, if
the racial issue enters in, stiffens the whole line of con-
flict and sounds the call to a holy resistance. The adver-
tising pages play their part in influencing the standard
of living. And so the press, ephemeral as it is, keeps
moving on the main currents of interest, and helps to
bring into being the life that its pages report.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alice Dana Adams, The Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery in America
(1808-1821), Radcliffe College Monographs No. 14, Boston,
1908.
Associated Negro Press, Annual, Chicago, 1920.
N. W. Ayer and Son's American Newspaper Annual and Directory
for 1 920 and 1921, Philadelphia, 1920, 1921.
John S. Bassett, Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina, Baltimore,
1898.
Benjamin Brawley, The Negro in Literature and Art, New York,
1918.
, A Social History of the American Negro, New York, 1921.
Centennial Encyclopedia of the A.M.E. Church, Philadelphia, 1916.
Chicago Commission on Race Relations, Unpublished Notes.
D. W. Gulp, Twentieth Century Literature, etc., Relating to the
American Negro, Naperville, Illinois, 1902.
Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Hart-
ford, 1882.
W. E. Burghardt Du Bois, Darkwater, New York, 1920.
(ed.), Atlanta University Publications, Atlanta: No. 8,
The Negro Church, a Social Study, 1903. No. 12, Economic
Cooperation Among Negroes, 1907. No. 14, Efforts for Social
Betterment Among Negro Americans, 1909.
Alice Dunbar-Nelson, The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer, Naper-
ville, Illinois, 1920.
William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879, the Story of His Life Told by
His Children, New York, 1885.
George W. Gore, Negro Journalism, Journalism Press, Green-
castle, Indiana.
Stephen Graham, The Soul of John Brown, New York, 1920.
W. N. Hartshorn, An Era of Progress and Promise, Boston, 1910.
L. M. Hershaw, "The Negro Press in America," Charities, XV
(1905), No. i.
Frederic Hudson, Journalism in the United States, New York, 1873.
270
BIBLIOGRAPHY 271
Robert T. Kerlin, The Voice of the Negro, 1919, New York, 1920.
James Melvin Lee, History of American Journalism, Boston and
New York, 1916.
Samuel J. May, Some Recollections of Our Antislavery Conflict,
Boston, 1869.
Robert Russa Moton, Finding a Way Out, an Autobiography,
Garden City, 1920.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
Annual Reports, New York, 1921, 1922.
, An American Lynching, New York, 1921.
National Negro Press Association, Proceedings, etc., 1917-1919,
Nashville.
J. L. Nichols and W. H. Crogman, The New Progress of a Race,
Naperville, Illinois, 1920.
R. E. Park and H. A. Miller, Old World Traits Transplanted,
New York, 1921.
G. H. Payne, History of Journalism in the United States, New
York, 1920.
Irving G. Penn, The Afro-American Press and Its Editors, Spring.
field, Massachusetts, 1891.
Clement Richardson, The National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race,
Montgomery, Alabama, 1919.
Carl Sandburg, The Chicago Race Riots, New York, 1919.
Emmett J. Scott, Official History of the American Negro in the
World War, Washington (?), 1919.
, Negro Migration During the War, Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, New York, 1920.
Herbert J. Seligman, The Negro Faces America, New York, 1920.
United States Bureau of the Census, Bulletins, Washington,
1920, 1921.
, Department of Labor, Negro Migration in 1916-1?, Wash-
ington, 1919.
, Investigation Activities of the Department of Justice, 66th
Congress, First Session, Sen. Doc. 153, Washington, 1919.
Booker T. Washington, The Story of the Negro, 2 vols., New York,
1009.
, Frederick Douglass, Philadelphia, 1907.
, The Negro in Business, Chicago, 1907.
272 THE NEGRO PRESS IN THE UNITED STATES
George W. Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, 2 vols.,
New York, 1885.
J. B. Williams, A History of English Journalism to the Foundation
of the Gazette, London, 1908.
Carter G. Woodson, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, New
York, 1915.
Monroe N. Work, Negro Year Book, 1918-1919, Tuskegee
Institute, 1919.
INDEX
(Numbers refer to pages)
Advertising: agencies, 1 24 f. ; sub-
jects, ii3ff.
Africa, 09 f., 176 ff., 185, 187 f.,
266 f.
Americanism, 157 ff., 162 f.
Anti-slavery Negro press, 35 ff.
Attitudes in the press: moral,
etc., 236 ff.; toward racial
values, 243 ff.
Avoidance of conflict, 192 f.
Bolshevism, 159 ff., 169
Church news, 12, 103 ff.
241, 261 f.
213 ff.,
Church periodicals, 48 ff.
Circulation, 6, n ff., 15 ff., 22
Cities and the press, i2ff., 53,
204 ff.
Classes of periodicals, 4
Cosmetics, 1 13 ff., 245 f.
Country life of Negro, 205, 210 ff.
Crime: as news, 96 f.; treated
editorially, 236 f.
Dailies, 5, 59
Demands of the Negro, 141 ff.
Department of Justice, 21, 71,
i6off., 171
Disagreement among Negroes,
195 ff.
Editorials, 106 ff.
"Economic way out," 175
Economic radicalism, 167 ff.
Economic success of papers, 24-
27, 59, 64 f., 76
Editors and papers (their stories) ,
35 ff., 40 ff., 42 f., 48 ff., 53-59.
62 f., 63 f., 64 f., 76 f., 171
Foreign-language press, 22
Fraternal organs, 4, 50 f., 127
Frederick Douglass' Paper, 40 ff.
Freedom's Journal, 35 ff.
Hostility of whites, 19-21, 152 ff.
Interesting people, 255 ff.
Inter-Racial Committees, 147,
190 ff.
Labor organizations and the
Negro, 1 68, 171 ff.
Letters to papers, 8 ff., 66 f., 75 f.,
134, 139, 183, 187 f., 241
Literacy, n f., 51 f., 61
Literary work of Negroes (abo-
litionist), 37 ff.
Local news, 101 f.
Lodge, 50 f., 2i7ff., 242
Lynching, 20, 61, 84, 134, 151, 169
Magazines, 4, 60, 126 ff.
Migration, 14 f., 72 ff.
Mortality of papers, 24, 39, 45 f.,
59 f-
Music, 127 f., 226 ff., 251 ff.
Nationalism, 1766*.
Negro life and the press, 203 ff.,
267 ff.
News services, 28, 29
Pamphlet literature, 37 f., 47, ' 73 *
Passing for white, 249 ff.
373
274
INDEX
Press organizations, 28-30
Poetry: quoted, 32, inff., 128,
130, 169 ., 173!., 184 ff., 198 ff.,
201 f., 234, 238 ., 247 ff.; sig-
nificance of, 198
Policies of the press, 133
Politics, 98, 162 f., 222 ff.
Protest, 132 ff.
Race: clashes and wrongs, 835.,
chaps, vi, vii; friction, 263 ff.;
movements, 94 ff . ; progress, 87 ff.
Radicalism, 165 ff.
Reconciliation movement, 194 f.
Revolutionary periods and the
press, 47, 131
Riots, 61, 135 ff., 161; resistance,
137 f.; reinterpreted, 135 ff.
School, 127, 2i9ff.
Social equality, 141 ff.
Society news, 2245.
Special features, 109 ff.
Special pages, 105
Sport, 105, 232 ff.
Statistics of periodicals, if., 6 f.,
i if., 24, 27, 60, 80 ff.
Theater, 105, 119, 229 ff., 247 f.
United Negro Improvement As-
sociation, etc., 1765.
Walker's Appeal, 37 f.
War (the Great) and the press,
i, 675., 156 f., 161, 167, 181,
200
Washington, Booker T., 51, 62,
138, 147, 150, 175
Wheadey, Phillis, 34
White press and negroes, 18 f.,
79 f., 149 ff.
PN Detweiler, Frederick German
4-888 The Negro press in the
Unites States
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