Whither the Black Press?: Glorious Past, Uncertain Future

By Clint C. Wilson II

Those who have wondered whatever “happened” to the Black press will find answers in this informative and entertaining book that addresses the various issues that contributed to the decline of African American newspapers and examines whether new media platforms of the 21st century can fill the void.
Written by a recognized Black press scholar and professional journalist, the book explores the historic development of African American newspapers from their African roots to the founding of their first weekly journal and into the glory years as the communication foundation for the Civil Rights Movement. In the process the author reveals little known facts about the ways in which the Black press wove itself into the fabric of American culture among the White and Black populations. Along the way this easy-to-read volume brings to life interesting historical facts including:
-- The early development of literary and publishing endeavors among Black people in colonial America and what Thomas Jefferson wrote about them.
-- The ironic consequences that visited White publications following the U.S. Supreme Court’s racial segregation decision in Plessy vs. Ferguson.
-- The roles played by aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright in the launch of a Black newspaper published by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
-- How the Black press reacted to the controversial success of the Amos ‘N’ Andy radio show in the 1930s.
-- Why the Black press found itself at a disadvantage in reporting the Civil Rights Movement for which it had been largely responsible.



-- What factors led to the strained relationship between the Black press and African American journalists who work for White-owned news organizations.
Whither the Black Press? is a well written, interpretive historical account of African American newspapers and their struggle for survival against the backdrop of hegemonic White political, social and economic forces. It brings perspective and understanding of how a venerable African American institution journeyed through a glorious past into an uncertain future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664152632

Clint C. Wilson II

Clint C. Wilson II, Ed.D. is Graduate Professor Emeritous in the Howard University School of Communications where he teaches courses in communication, culture and media studies. He is a recipient of the Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism from the University of Missouri and the Lionel Barrow Award for Distinguished Achievement in Diversity Research and Education. He has lectured at academic symposia at colleges and universities throughout the United States and abroad at Oxford University. Dr. Wilson is widely regarded among the nation’s foremost scholars of the Black press and his book "A History of the Black Press," completed the unfinished work of the late African American journalism historian Dr. Armistead S. Pride. The book was cited as one of the 35 “most significant books of the 20th century” by Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. He has authored or co-authored seven other books including "Racism, Sexism and the Media: Multicultural Issues Into the New Communiations Age." The Society of Professional Journalists honored that work with its 2003 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Excellence in Journalism Research. Dr. Wilson’s professional journalism career includes work for various news media organizations including the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, St. Petersburg Times, USA Today.com and the Los Angeles Sentinel.

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Copyright © 2021 by Clint C. Wilson II.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 01/21/2021

Xlibris

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Contents

Preface to Second Edition

Chapter 1     Toward A Free Press For An Oppressed People

Historic Milestones: 1541-1827

Chapter 2     From Freedom’s Journal To Civil War

Historic Milestones: 1828-1865

Chapter 3     From Reconstruction To Renaissance

Historic Milestones: 1866-1918

Chapter 4     The New Negro Emerges

Historic Milestones: 1919-1949

Chapter 5     The Oncoming Train

Historic Milestones: 1950-1979

Chapter 6     A New Era Dawns

Historic Milestones: 1980-2010

Chapter 7     Whither The Black Press?

Epilogue: Arriving At Another Place

Bibliography

DEDICATION

To the memory of Clint C. Wilson, Sr. and A.S. Doc Young, two

inspirational mentors and stalwarts of the Black press.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

A S WE EMBARK on the third decade of the 21 st century while considering the historical journey of America’s Black press, I’m reminded of Omar Khayyam’s saying: The moving finger writes and having written moves on.

In context of this second edition of Whither the Black Press? the reader who explored the book’s first volume will find little variance from the original. This is because the passage of time does not alter the events and circumstances of the historical past. Thus, readers of the first edition will find few changes here beyond minor editorial and design enhancements. The major exception is the addition of a new epilogue. Thus, the moving finger writes on.

The epilogue addresses and brings clarity to the notions of the writer’s premise that the Black press is not dead, just gone to another place. Just as we have seen the rise of new African American journalistic voices, we see accompanying advances in communications technology. The epilogue briefly explores that phenomenon while harking back to the notion that the legitimacy of the Black press rests in the foundation laid by Freedom’s Journal nearly 200 years ago. That is, Black journalists and other thoughtful writers continue to plead our own cause.

However, that being said (and written) the author is compelled to issue a warning: In this era of pervasive dis-information and mal-communication Black Americans must take care to identify news and information sources to ascertain their legitimacy. The practice of others disseminating information targeted at African Americans for nefarious purposes dates back to the Reconstruction era when White publishers hired Black front men as editors of Black newspapers.

The moving finger now pauses to reprise the first edition’s preface to provide background, context and rationale for the body of work at hand.

Preface to First Edition

I N EARLY MARCH of 2002 the phone rang in my office at Howard University. The call was from a newspaper reporter who worked for one of the nation’s largest dailies. He wanted to interview me for a story on the African American press, one of the most important institutions in American history.

The occasion was the 175th anniversary of the Black press that was founded in 1827. The reporter, who was White, was only one of several print and broadcast journalists who had contacted me over the span of about six weeks as their media organizations sought to assess the 21st century status of Black newspapers. Conveniently the founding date of the first African American newspaper falls in mid-March, a couple of weeks after the February recognition of Black History Month.

Not surprisingly, the reporter’s first question was Is the Black press dying? It was a variant of queries I had received numerous times since the 1997 publication of a book I co-authored on the history of the Black press. These include Are Black newspapers still relevant in view of gains made by Black people during and since the Civil Rights Movement? And Is there really a need for the Black press today?

As one whose career in journalism and mass communication education began as a reporter in the Black press, it disturbs me to hear such questions. But, there is no denying the fact that they are legitimate questions to ask even more so now, a decade past the 180th anniversary of the medium.

One devastating piece of circumstantial evidence of the waning influence of the Black press is the response I have received from journalism students in my virtually all Black Howard University classes over the past decade. When asked whether they have either read—or have knowledge of—a Black newspaper in their home communities only about 20 per cent say they have. Among those who are aware of the papers, almost none say they read them with any regularity. Let me emphasize, these are journalism students.

During my interviews with general audience newspaper and broadcast journalists, however, I have emphasized the positives:

1. The National Newspaper Publishers Association (the Black press trade association) has maintained a membership of more than 200 newspapers across the United States for nearly two decades.

2. I contended that although they are almost all weeklies, several are very profitable and innovative publications attuned to the pulse of their communities.

3. I asserted that despite the challenges of new technology information platforms, the high cost of newsprint, declining advertising dollars and the dissipation of their once homogenous audience, the Black newspaper press is still viable.

4. In the wake of the election of the first Black President of the United States it is possible the Black press won the war for social equality it waged for more than 185 years.

As this is written, however, it is becoming more difficult to make such positive declarations, or at least without acknowledging the serious nature of problems besetting the Black press.

This book examines the glorious past of the Black press and traces its evolution in the fabric of American—not just African American—life. It does so by placing that evolution in context of historical circumstances in which African Americans and their newspaper press existed at the time. For example, some may have wondered why most Black newspapers devote such a large amount of editorial space to religion and church coverage. This volume provides context by noting the relationship between religion and communication in ancient sub-Saharan Africa. The Black press has never existed in a vacuum wherein it was not affected by the social moment.

Several questions abound.

Of central importance is whether the evolution of the Black press indicates the natural decline of a vital need in the lives of 21st century African Americans, or rather is symptomatic that their journalistic advocate has lost its way.

More optimistically, has the Black press accomplished its mission and therefore deserves to rest in peace as an anachronistic relic of years past?

If the need still exists, should the functions of advocacy and community building among Black people in the United States be left only to newspapers?

Might the 21st century technological advances in communication become new vehicles for filling the roles once played by Black newspapers?

Additionally, have the hegemonic media industries in the United States succeeded in conditioning the minds of some African Americans to the extent they have no concerns for continued self-determinism beyond the limitations of imposed stereotypical identity?

As the year 2014 dawns—and with another anniversary of the Black press approaching—I am aware of increasingly fewer journalistic inquiries concerning the fate of African American newspapers. It seems its time to take stock of the venerable institution from a historical interpretive perspective.

Langston Hughes, the brilliant Harlem Renaissance literary icon and a contributor to the Black press, once wrote in another context about a dream deferred. Similarly this volume asks whether the Black newspaper in its roles as advocate, facilitator of the Black community bond and transmitter of cultural heritage has completed its task, or has the task been deferred?

This book raises these questions and in essence considers the overriding question: whither the Black press?

Acknowledgements and Limitations

This work could not have attained its final form without the generous assistance of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) at Howard University and its curator Joellen Elbashir. The MSRC and its collection of images, documents and artifacts were invaluable in compiling this volume. My heartfelt gratitude is extended to the center’s staff for their assistance.

Finally, as a work of interpretive historical analysis, the Black newspapers and publishers addressed in this book are not intended to be all-inclusive of the many contributors to the history of the medium. Rather, the intent is to provide general trends and overviews of key contributors to the development and maturation of the Black press and culture in the United States. The reader may easily find other bibliographic sources for greater detail and scope, many of which are listed in the bibliography or noted in the chronological milestones of African American media history that follow each chapter, with exception of the final chapter.

—Clint C. Wilson II

CHAPTER 1 – TOWARD A FREE PRESS

FOR AN OPPRESSED PEOPLE

". . . The Black man had found that the ideals of freedom and equality declared by the founding fathers were being widely flouted."

—Armistead S. Pride

M ANY CASUAL OBSERVERS of African American history believe the Black press began in 1827 with the founding of Freedom’s Journal . But, merely to focus on the establishment of their first newspaper as the beginning of mass communication among African Americans is to overlook the context and social conditions that spawned the Journal and its antecedents as chroniclers and partners in one of the most remarkable social developments in American history.

To study the history of the Black press is to acquire a fuller grasp and understanding of American history into the 21st century.

Perhaps the beginning can be traced to the 17th century arrival of enslaved Africans to the new world because among the vestiges of the slave trade was the mingling of African tribesmen who had come from various cultural and linguistic heritages along a 3,000-mile area along the west African coast. The effect was to limit their ability to communicate, a by-product that was favorable to slave traders and plantation owners alike in British colonial America.

Over time, of course, the enslaved Africans came to construct their version of the English language and to develop their own cultural traditions in what was to become the United States. This was in keeping with what social scientists and communications scholars have determined to be fundamental to the sustenance of all cultural groups: without an effective communication system, a group cannot function or survive as a social entity.

Communications in Pre-Slavery Africa

Africans who endured the brutal passage to America were products of cultures that had developed rich and sophisticated systems of communication over many centuries. Those who lived south of the Sahara Desert were principally divided into three major groups and numerous tribes, yet they developed systems for recording and transmitting information and cultural traditions.

Drums, for example, were used to pass information from village to village and communications media included dance, music and art. Languages were rhythmic as well as substantive and information was conveyed not only in what was communicated but also in how it was communicated. This phenomenon is reminiscent of the communications theory advanced by Marshall McLuhan in the mid-20th century who posited, the medium is the message.

Among Africans communication was vital to the maintenance of commerce between and among tribes that used land and water trade routes to enhance the development of social and cultural life. But, perhaps more important was the African connection between religion, music and communication, a connection that—as we shall see—became a cornerstone of communication among Black people in America. ¹

Music fulfilled an important role, particularly for Africans in slavery who lived under the repressive conditions of plantation life in the South. It was there that slaves developed a sophisticated double entendre system of songs that communicated both the despair of bondage and the hope of a better spiritual world in the afterlife. An example is the chorus of a popular religious slave song that was not formally published until 1917:

"Keep yo’ hand on the gospel plow,

      Hold on, hold on

Keep yo’ hand on the gospel plow,

      Hold on.

Didn’t come here to stay always,

Just came here to fill my place.

I got a mother in the promise land

Never rest till I shake her hand."²

Many of the Negro spirituals that have come down into the modern era exemplify in musical form the expression of slave despair and hope. The songs were sung in the presence of White masters and overseers who never suspected the true meaning of the lyrics. It is clear that songs such as Steal Away and Swing Low Sweet Chariot carried messages pertinent to plans for escape or to catch a passenger train on the Underground Railroad.

Newspapers in Colonial America

Two years after the 1636 founding of Harvard, the college obtained its first printing press. It became a valuable tool in promulgating religious material including prayer books and hymnals for the school that was established under auspices of the Congregational church. Thus, it is known that printing craftsmen were a part of the American experience from the earliest days of British colonialism. African slaves were likely tasked to work in print shops of the era.

The colonial newspaper