Black Press Scholarship: Where We Have Been, Where We Are, and Where We Need to Go

Abstract

Since the 1970s, the black press has been the topic of numerous television documentaries, books, scholarly and trade articles, and theses and dissertations. They have included biographies of the people who provided the content, as well as information on the way black newspapers covered civil rights, sports, wars, and other major events of the twentieth century. They have revealed a powerful institution that recognized, supported, and expressed the aspirations of a group marginalized by an oppressive, dominant society. While the information is rich, it has revealed other gaps in the knowledge of this institution. As the black press continues to be a topic for dissertations and theses and with digitization, the closing of these gaps looks promising.

The American civil rights movement led to changes that went beyond social and political equality. It spurred interests in the lives and experiences of people who had either been ignored, marginalized, or oppressed because of race, gender, or sexuality. Simultaneously, more scholarly and professional interests also emerged about the black press. This press is generally defined as black-owned and operated newspapers that focused on interests and concerns of African Americans. In recent years, the black press has been the topic of books, scholarly and trade articles, monographs, and television documentaries, as well as numerous theses and dissertations.

This study reviews scholarship on the black press since the early 1970s to see what it tells us and to identify gaps in the knowledge of this important institution. The review addresses the extent to which this scholarship has made progress based on the earlier recommendations of black press scholars and also offers recommendations for future research. In a chapter critiquing black press scholarship, John D. Stevens, noted that “blacks were as invisible in journalism history as in other history.”¹ The chapter pointed out that few books had been published on this topic and that it appeared in few scholarly articles. The black press also was barely mentioned in journalism history textbooks. Stevens noted there was still much to learn about this media institution and suggested that scholars learn more about the journalists who provided its content, as well as its relationship with the black church, its response to mainstream coverage of the race and its coverage of wars, sports, and civil rights.²

Patrick S. Washburn’s 1995 historiography suggested that scholars give attention to the influence of the press on domestic issues during World War II, focusing on the following areas: coverage of black workers and how employment opportunities led to interracial equality; responses to Communist infiltration claims on black newspaper staffs; descriptions and analyses of editorial cartoons; the relationship between protest content and advertising revenue; how the Negro Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), now called the National Newspaper Publishers Association, influenced the federal government; and columnists’ views about the country’s racial discriminatory practices while positioning itself as an international leader of democracy.³

Kim Gallon’s 2012 review urged scholars to study the contributions of female journalists and the way newspaper photographs portrayed females during World War II’s Double V campaign.⁴ Gallon also suggested studies on black newspapers’ use of sensationalism as a method for depicting class, gender, and sexual relationships and that scholars explore the connection between sensational depictions and restrictions on interracial marriages.⁵

The black press has also been a topic for documentaries. The 1999 PBS documentary, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords,” featured interviews with scholars and black press reporters, photographers, editors/publishers, and cartoonists who described how black newspapers crusaded and gave voice to the interests “that were in the hearts of Black people.”⁶ The documentary described how the press raised its voice during pivotal events of the twentieth century, and on its decline after the Civil Rights Movement. A second documentary that aired in 2009 focused on the history of the Pittsburgh Courier. Titled “Newspaper of Record: The Pittsburgh Courier (1907–1965),” the documentary traced the Courier’s history and national influence during the fifty-eight year time period. The documentary’s interviews with current and former Courier staff members provided behind-the-scenes information on the paper’s operations and showed this paper’s leadership in advocating for the integration of major league sports, the military and for fair housing and employment.⁷

This review includes scholarship found through the ProQuest and the EBSCO All Academic Complete and Communication & Mass Media Complete databases using key words that combined the terms African-American, Afro, colored, and Negro with the terms media, newspapers, periodicals, and press. The search also involved using the names of black newspapers and black press journalists and reviewing the contents and indices of communication, history, and race-focused journals.

Studies on the black press have been multi-disciplinary and have described and analyzed the institution’s presence in major historical events. A number of studies during the past four decades have been in the areas of biographies (especially women), sports, and visual messages. The biographies of black newspaper editors and writers not only described their life stories, but also revealed valuable information about the operations of their newspapers.

Black Press in Wartime

Patrick S. Washburn’s and Jerry Gershenhorn’s respective 1986 and 2006 studies on the Pittsburgh Courier and the Carolina Times focused on how these newspapers published editorials, articles, and cartoons urging victory against the enemies overseas and against black oppression at home during World War II. Additionally, Jinx Broussard and John Maxwell Hamilton’s 1994 analysis of editorials and articles found that the Norfolk (Va.) Journal and Guide and its war correspondents chronicled the black soldiers’ efforts to contribute to U.S. victory despite experiencing discrimination.⁸

Earnest Perry’s three studies published in 2002 and 2003 each looked at how a unified black press during World War II joined forces with civil rights organizations to advocate against the discriminatory treatment of blacks. The first study described how they exposed and responded to wartime discrimination incidents while also supporting America’s war efforts. It likened the black press’ role to W.E.B. DuBois’ double consciousness thesis that posited that blacks were expected to support American causes and values that their race prohibited them from enjoying. Perry’s second study described the 1940 establishment of the Negro Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA).⁹ It explained that the organization was formed to recognize the “common purpose” of black journalism and develop strategies for its viability and stability. Perry’s third study focused on the NNPA’s successful efforts to credential a black press journalist to cover the White House.¹⁰

Two studies examined government efforts to suppress black newspapers during both world wars. Because black newspapers criticized the U.S. for its racial discrimination, the government considered them to be in violation of laws prohibiting government and military criticism.¹¹ Theodore Kornweibel’s 1994 study looked at how the Defender’s “vigorous denunciations” of mob violence, disfranchisement, and segregation resulted in the federal government investigating the paper during World War I. Although the study focused on the Defender, it noted that the Department of Justice also investigated the Crisis and the Baltimore Afro-American for expressing opposition to the war. To keep from losing mail privileges, these periodicals pledged their loyalty to the American war effort. The justice department, however, continued to monitor the Defender. It had a large national circulation and citizens blamed the paper’s protests against discrimination for causing black disloyalty and inciting racial violence. Thus, the Defender pledged its loyalty to the war cause and softened its protest tone.¹²

Washburn’s 1986 study focused on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation scrutinized and attempted to censor newspapers considered to be a national security threat during World War II. As in the first world war, the government considered black newspapers’ discrimination complaints a national security threat. The study found that FBI agents personally visited black newspaper facilities and interrogated journalists about alleged contacts with the enemy. The black press eventually pledged its loyalty, but requested access to high government officials and press conferences. Despite this agreement, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover unsuccessfully continued to call for the indictment of black periodical publishers. Washburn concluded that while racism was the basis for Hoover’s efforts, there was evidence of contacts between Communists and black journalists and that President Roosevelt had given the agency wide investigatory powers.¹³

Broussard and Hamilton’s analysis of the Journal and Guide’s war correspondents found that they chronicled African Americans’ contributions to the war effort while also describing the racism on the home and the war fronts. The study concluded that the Guide’s ability to show the accomplishments of black military personnel highlighted the value of information coming from non-mainstream journalists especially during wartime.¹⁴

Stevens’ 1972 Journal of Negro History article and 1973 Journalism Monograph also focused on the activities of black press war correspondents. The Journal of Negro History article described how the correspondents covered black soldiers constructing strategic routes for military activities. Because of military censorship, the correspondents’ stories tended to be soft news such as describing life in an all-black bakery unit. Stories included interviews with black truckers and descriptions of the interactions between black soldiers and President Roosevelt when he visited the Aleutian Islands. Stevens’ monograph added to the information in the Journal of Negro History article. It described the contributions and experiences of the twenty-seven accredited black war correspondents. As with Broussard and Hamilton’s study and Stevens’ previous study, the monograph detailed the correspondents’ reporting on the discrimination against the black troops while also reporting on the soldiers’ loyalty and contributions. Stevens’ monograph also described how the correspondents covered the black troops at the different war fronts and included excerpts of the correspondents’ stories.¹⁵

The studies about the black press and Vietnam focused on how the press responded to the war with respect to civil rights activities. One study found that the Pittsburgh Courier initially gave little attention to the war and declined to criticize it so it would not look unpatriotic and jeopardize blacks’ civil rights gains. The Courier did publish articles about the achievements of black G.I.s, as well as the domestic racial discrimination that they faced. The study suggested that the Courier’s treatment of the war was not in line with the radical positions of younger blacks and reflected black newspapers’ post-civil rights challenges. A 2002 dissertation analyzing commentaries from black newspapers and magazines found that they viewed the integrated troops as models of interracial progress. However, the publications opposed the war as it became a higher priority than civil rights.¹⁶

Role in “The Great Migration”

Scholars have described the Chicago Defender’s role in promoting “The Great Migration.”¹⁷ This was the movement of blacks leaving the brutal racism and limited economic opportunities of the South to take advantage of labor opportunities in the North caused by declining immigration. Carolyn Stroman’s 1981 study noted that this migration coincided with how the Defender and other black newspapers changed from appealing to the educated black elite to appealing to the general masses of black readers. The Defender also provided instructions to migrants on ways to adjust to their new location by urging them to seek free advice from the paper’s legal and health editors. The population increase from the migrants also increased the Defender’s readership. The study concluded that although the campaign benefitted the Defender as a newspaper business, the Defender’s motives were to uplift the race.¹⁸

Alan DeSantis’ study used the “American Dream” myth framework to analyze the Defender’s articles, advertisements, and political cartoons. The study showed that the Defender juxtaposed Chicago’s quality of life against the South’s oppressive conditions to suggest that blacks could achieve the “American Dream” by moving to Chicago. DeSantis concluded that scholars should strongly consider the Defender’s rhetoric as a major factor in inspiring the migration.¹⁹

Several studies focused on the Defender’s messages to blacks after they arrived in the North. Mark K. Dolan’s essay described how the Defender’s music recording advertisements depicted nostalgia about the South. Dolan concluded that these songs, called “race records” or “the blues,” were emotional outlets for the migrants and provided them with collective memories of a place that the Defender had just urged them to leave. Joel L. Black’s study described how the Defender’s “Legal Helps” column answered questions on matters concerning residential conditions, civil rights, and commercial practices. Black focused on how the column promoted responsible citizenship, racial equality, and knowledge of individual legal rights. According to Black, the newspaper expanded the theory of citizenship from individual rights to rights for the race.²⁰

The Defender eventually reported on how the large number of migrants strained housing and race relations. By the Great Depression, the Defender had reversed its position and started discouraging southern blacks from moving to Chicago. A study that focused on this changed position found that the Defender’s editorials encouraged blacks to stay in the South and fight for better treatment. Rather than tout Chicago as a “Promised Land,” the study described editorials and articles that focused on Chicago’s overcrowded conditions, diminished employment opportunities, and racial discrimination. Despite the Defender’s changed position on the migration, it did advocate for affordable housing. Loren Saxton Coleman and Elli Lester Roushanzamir analyzed the Defender’s coverage of the construction and opening of a public housing project named for journalist and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells. They found that while expressing support for the project, the Defender also provided a space for the community to resist the discriminatory practices that occurred during the construction process.²¹

Scholars have noted that the Defender was not the only black newspaper to report and comment on the movement of blacks from the South. Mary M. Cronin’s 2000 study described four black newspaper editors’ tactics to persuade blacks to leave the South for Oklahoma. Cronin found that after the Civil War black newspapers encouraged blacks to go to the Great Plains and the Dakotas. Called the “Great Black March Westward,” the Oklahoma editors “boosted” their respective communities as conducive places for black uplift and self-determination. Their tactics included fear, idealism, and paradise imagery. Some of the editors were also land speculators who financially benefitted from this movement. Despite such ulterior motives, the study concluded, these newspapers’ boosterism serves as a record of blacks’ striving to overcome a system determined to keep them oppressed.

Another study focused on the city of Cleveland as a migration destination and described how the city’s competing black papers’ reactions to the movement reflected their race relations philosophies. One newspaper, the Cleveland Gazette, represented the experiences and expectations of the small number of black residents who lived in Cleveland well before the twentieth century. These residents had experienced interacting with whites on an equal basis. While the Gazette encouraged the migrants to leave the South, it did express concern that their “unsophisticated ways” would disrupt what the paper perceived to be the city’s racially egalitarian climate. Another newspaper, the Cleveland Advocate, represented the interests of the newer black residents, the ones who arrived closer to the twentieth century. The study described Booker T. Washington’s “accommodationist” approach that discouraged civil rights protests and migration. Although the Advocate did not agree with Washington’s migration position, the paper did espouse his beliefs in self-help, racial unity, and black entrepreneurship.

Henry Lewis Suggs’ biography of Norfolk Va. Journal and Guide publisher, Bernard Young, found that some black newspapers did not support the migration. The Guide, according to the biography, used its editorial columns to oppose the migration. Young, like Washington, believed that the opportunities in the North were temporary and blacks would likely lose their jobs after World War I ended.²²

Civil Rights Movement and Post-Civil Rights

Studies dealing with the modern Civil Rights movement included comparing coverage of civil rights-related events and describing how local newspapers reported on the ones occurring in their communities. One study compared and analyzed the way the Chicago Defender and mainstream newspapers covered the 1955 Emmett Till case. Till, a black teenager from Chicago visiting relatives in Mississippi, was abducted and murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The study analyzed how the Defender and three mainstream dailies depicted Till’s murder and subsequent trial. It found that the Defender used Till’s family, friends, and supporters as sources significantly more than the mainstream papers and connected Till’s murder to the larger issue of civil rights. In contrast, the mainstream newspapers used Mississippi law enforcement officials and the defendants as sources and treated the murder as an isolated crime story. The findings thus underscored the black press’ function as an alternative voice to the mainstream media’s interpretation of the black experience. A study by Jinx Broussard compared how three Mississippi black newspapers covered the 1964 Freedom Summer. Broussard found that one paper wanted to continue the current status of race relations, another one ignored the movement and the third paper fully supported the movement by advocating for racial and social equality.²³

In two separate studies, Julian Williams looked at the reaction of black Mississippi newspapers to the civil rights activities occurring in their communities. His study on the Mississippi Free Press described how the newspaper, established by the martyred NAACP officer Medger Evers, advocated for racial and social justice in Jackson, Mississippi. In another study, Williams looked into the relationship between Jackson Advocate editor Percy Greene and the pro-segregationist Mississippi Sovereignty Commission. Greene, who became a paid informant for the Commission, allowed the commission to use the Advocate to denounce the civil rights activities that were burgeoning at the time. Williams concluded that Greene’s accommodationist philosophy and financial needs motivated this relationship.²⁴ The studies of Broussard and Williams showed that black newspapers were not monolithic regarding civil rights and that editors’ attitudes ranged from maintaining the segregationist system for personal profits to having full advocacy for black civil rights.

Another study that focused on local press reaction to a civil rights event involved the Arkansas State Press during the 1957 Little Rock Nine episode. This nationally publicized case involved federal troops having to guard the safety of nine black students attempting to integrate Central High School. An analysis of the newspaper from 1957 to 1959 described how it managed to balance the Little Rock black community’s different approaches to school integration. The study concluded that the Arkansas State Press’ treatment of school integration reflected the black press’ role as a tool for creating support and unity for the black and non-black communities.²⁵

After the Civil Rights movement, the future of black newspapers increasingly came into question. Scholars have suggested that with mainstream newspapers hiring black journalists and giving more attention to black subjects, the black press became a victim of its own success.²⁶ Yet, black newspapers have continued publishing and scholars have sought to study their treatment of events affecting blacks since the Civil Rights movement.

One study sought to find out how the black press covered the case of Allan Bakke, a white male who blamed reverse discrimination for being rejected admission to medical school.⁴¹ In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bakke’s favor and ordered the University of California, Davis to admit him. The study examined the news and editorial content of four black newspapers to see what their coverage of this case revealed about the black press’ functions during the late 1970s. It found that most of the content focused on specific events related to the case and did not interpret or explain how a ruling in favor of Bakke would affect blacks’ civil rights progress. Because these newspapers provided such low-key coverage and waged no campaign protesting the decision, the study questioned the black press’ functions.²⁷

The relevancy of the post-Civil Rights black press was also explored in a study of black newspaper coverage of Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. If confirmed, Thomas would become the second black associate justice in the court’s history. His nomination was controversial because of his opposition to civil rights and allegations of sexual harassment. The study found that despite the newspapers’ negative reactions, the black community did not oppose Thomas’ nomination and concluded that the black press consider the non-monolithic nature of its readers for future sustainability.²⁸ Mark K. Dolan, John H. Sonnett, and Kirk A. Johnson studied three black newspapers’ coverage of Hurricane Katrina. The study concluded that these papers reflected the historic mission of the black press when they criticized the government for its inadequate relief efforts and the mainstream media for negatively portraying the black hurricane victims.²⁹

Biographies

Biographies of black press journalists have included well-known figures such as Chicago Defender publisher Robert Abbott, North Star publisher Frederick Douglass, and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells Barnett. Scholars have also written about the contributions of lesser-known figures such as Portland, Oregon New Age publisher A.D. Griffin and the Houston Informer’s publisher C.F. Richardson.

Douglass has been the subject of multiple articles reflecting different aspects of his journalism career. David T. Z. Mindich reviewed how historians have treated Douglass’ contributions and activities. While acknowledging that journalism history’s treatment had progressed from excluding Douglass to recognizing his contributions, Mindich suggested that historians explore Douglass’ motives for writing and compare him with the other journalists of his era.³⁰ In response to Mindich’s suggestion, Frank Fee’s study focused on how three daily Rochester newspapers reacted to the appearance of Douglass’ North Star. The study found that the newspapers’ positive comments represented the desire to appreciate the journalism profession as it was transitioning from partisanship to independence.³¹

Three articles about Douglass focused on his friendship and collaboration with Julia Griffiths, a British white woman who financially rescued the North Star and provided transatlantic anti-slavery support. One study described her fundraising strategies that included seeking private donations and using proceeds from bazaars and fairs. Another study described how Griffiths’ travel column was used to strengthen the alliance between U.S. and British anti-slavery efforts. The third study gave more details of Griffiths and Douglass’ relationship and the support she provided while in the U.S. and in Great Britain.³² In a different study, Rachelle Prioleau described how Douglass’ Monthly stressed the worthiness of blacks to have the same constitutional rights as other Americans. Prioleau concluded that the paper’s rhetoric can serve as a model for articulating the needs and concerns of marginalized communities.³³

Biographies by Rodger Streitmatter, Broussard, and Kimberley Mangun sought to fill the gap in the knowledge of African-American female journalists. They described how the journalists made contributions despite facing the barriers of racial, sexual, and class discrimination. The biographies included women who made groundbreaking contributions, those who expressed their activism through their journalism, and those who owned newspapers.

Streitmatter’s biographies of Alice Allison Dunnigan and Ethel Payne described how these women were historical firsts in the field of journalism. Dunnigan, a correspondent for the Associated Negro Press (ANP), was the first black female to be credentialed to cover Congress, the Supreme Court and the White House, Payne, a reporter with the Chicago Defender, was the first black female to become a national broadcast commentator. Broussard’s studies on Mary Church Terrell and Amy Jacques Garvey, and Streitmatter’s and Mindich’s works on Ida B. Wells Barnett brought recognition to women who used journalism to express their activism. Terrell’s columns and articles crusaded against lynchings and employment discrimination and advocated for voting rights for both men and women. Garvey, the wife of Black Nationalist advocate Marcus Garvey, promoted her husband’s “Back-to-Africa” movement, black self-help, hard work, and entrepreneurship. Barnett’s work revealed the true motivations behind lynchings and challenged mainstream journalists’ concept of objectivity. Mangun’s work on Beatrice Morrow Cannady, publisher of the Advocate, showed how Cannady used the paper’s anniversaries and sponsored contests to increase subscribers.³⁴

The biographies of black press journalists have provided additional information about black newspapers’ employment operations and responses to mainstream portrayals of blacks. Streitmatter’s biography of Gertrude Bustill Mossell showed that Mossell, who wrote advice columns for Philadelphia black newspapers in the late nineteenth century, earned $500 a year, a wage twice as high as the earnings of white women at that time in Pennsylvania. On the other hand, Streitmatter's biography of Dunnigan showed that she often worked sixteen-hour days, seven days a week and had to provide her own typewriter, paper, pens, stamps, and envelopes.³⁵

The biographies also showed how black newspapers responded to mainstream misrepresentations of the black community and the different ways they handled sensationalism. Broussard’s biography of Terrell described how her articles disputed the mainstream press’ depictions of World War I black soldiers as being disorganized. Alan DeSantis’ and Mary Cronin’s separate biographies of Chicago Defender publisher Robert Abbott and Houston Informer publisher C. F. Richardson showed the different perspectives on sensationalism.⁶² Abbott and his staff adopted the visual elements of banner headlines printed in red ink, various fonts, cartoons, and photographs to change the Defender from a gossip sheet to a national newspaper. Richardson declined to use sensationalism, yet his newspaper was the most widely circulated black newspaper in Texas.³⁶

Sports

Several studies have focused on black athletes participating in baseball before and after the sport’s integration. During the late nineteenth century, professional baseball featured a few integrated teams.³⁷ After the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision sanctioned segregation, professional team sports would not become integrated until the 1940s when Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Studies have also focused on the participation of black athletes in football, golf, the 1936 Olympics, and boxing. The 1936 Olympics are noteworthy because of the stellar performance of black athletes in the face of Nazi bigotry.

Ronald Bishop’s comparison of mainstream and black newspapers’ coverage of Kenny Washington’s re-integration of the National Football League found that the mainstream newspapers downplayed it, whereas black publications advocated for it. A study on the Masters Tournament found that black newspapers only covered it when black golfer Tiger Woods participated. The 1936 Olympics received heavy black press coverage that recognized the black athletes’ accomplishments while noting the similarities between Hitler’s bigotry and U.S. southern bigotry. Carrie Teresa’s analysis of black newspaper coverage of heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson showed the complications of celebrating Johnson’s athletic achievements while denouncing his out-of-ring activities that went against the moral standards that black newspapers promoted for the black community. The study also invited inquiry on how the black press connected the achievements of black celebrities to civil rights progress.³⁸

Brian Carroll’s studies described black newspapers’ coverage of blacks involved in baseball and on the sport’s relationship with the newspaper and the community. One study found that the black press and business owners were more concerned with the Negro League’s economic benefits than with Major League Baseball’s color barrier. Another study showed the shift in coverage over the decades. During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the coverage emphasized the owners, the players, then on Jackie Robinson.³⁹

Scholars have examined the mainstream and black press’ treatment of Robinson’s experiences in integrating baseball. A 1976 study found that black newspapers celebrated and noted the historical significance of Robinson’s signing with Major League Baseball, whereas mainstream newspapers treated the occasion as a routine sports story. Another study revealed sportswriters’ different responses to Robinson. Chris Lamb and Glen Bleske’s study found that black sportswriters protested Robinson’s mistreatment, whereas mainstream sportswriters viewed Robinson’s participation as a publicity stunt and treated the civil rights aspect as another human-interest story. Although the black press campaigned to integrate Major League Baseball, the achievement of this integration strained its relationship with the Negro Leagues. Samuel Edward Gale’s study described how the black press worked closely with the Negro Leagues to make them quality, viable institutions. They publicized their games and some journalists advised league officials on ways to operate their businesses in a more ethical, profitable, and professional way. Upon the entry of Robinson and other players into the major leagues, black newspapers gave these players more attention than they did to the Negro Leagues. Negro League owners accused the black press of abandoning them. Gale suggested that the notion of achieving integration at the expense of black-owned institutions such as the Negro Leagues paralleled the struggles of other institutions such as banks, schools, and the black press.⁴⁰

Advocacy Press

An important historic function of the black press has been to uplift the image of blacks by portraying them with the dignity and respect that mainstream publications often denied them.⁴¹ Scholars have compared black and mainstream content on high-profile events as well as sports, crime, and political topics. Black newspapers were more likely to humanize and defend the black participants of events and to put them in context with societal issues. In the Emmett Till case, black papers defended Till’s reputation and put the case in context with the need to reform the racism that led to his murder. Instead of emphasizing the case’s civil rights aspects, the mainstream publications suggested that Till bore some responsibility for his murder.⁴² A study comparing the Chicago Defender’s and Chicago Tribune’s coverage of the police killing of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton found that the Defender emphasized Hampton’s and the Panthers’ positive impact on the community and used sources that described Hampton as a conscientious, talented young man. On the other hand, the Tribune used sources from law enforcement who justified the shooting because Hampton refused to comply with police orders to put down his weapon.⁴³

The black press’ role of representing the interests of blacks was also shown in a study comparing the Defender’s and two other Chicago newspapers’ coverage of the mayoral campaign between black candidate Harold Washington and white candidate Bernard Epton. This study found that the Defender emphasized the race issue and devoted significantly more space to Washington than it did to Epton, whereas the mainstream papers did not emphasize race and devoted no significant space differences between the two candidates.⁴⁴

Scholars have studied the black press’ representations of interethnic relationships between blacks and other oppressed groups of color. A study showed that between 1867 and 1933 black newspapers’ depiction of the Japanese changed from being backwards to being industrious after the 1905 Russo-Japanese War. The study further noted that at times, the press saw them as fellow sufferers in a society that devalued people of color, but some newspapers saw them as foreigners when they were allowed privileges denied to blacks such as the ability to attend schools with whites. Blacks’ relationships with Korean Americans were described in a 2011 study that found that the Los Angeles Sentinel’s coverage changed from focusing on the groups’ problems with each other to showing how they cooperated with each other.⁴⁵

Gregory Conerly’s study of how black publications depicted the black church’s response to same-sex sexuality addressed issues scholars have noted as being understudied: the black church and sexuality. The study which looked at black magazines and newspapers focused on how they represented relationships between gay individuals and the church during a time of heightened anti-gay sentiment. The study found that the black print media published content calling for broader understanding of sexuality, as well as profiles of individuals who transformed themselves to having more socially accepted sexual preferences. The study concluded that the black media offered readers different ways to think about same-sex sexuality as a societal issue.⁴⁶

Visual Elements

Scholars have examined how the black press used editorial cartoons to convey messages. A 2014 study of Indianapolis Freeman cartoonist Henry Jackson Lee described how Lee countered negative mainstream stereotypes by showing blacks as being well-dressed and by giving their faces and bodies human qualities. Another study focused on the work of Office of War Information cartoonist Charles Alston. Alston’s cartoons were distributed to black newspapers during World War II to soften the black press’ protest tone. Alston’s cartoons gave tributes to black war heroes and depicted examples of interracial cooperation.⁴⁷

The use of cartoons to express Afrocentrism was the focus of a study of Richmond Planet’s Ben Johnson’s editorial cartoons published between 1917 and 1920. The study used the concept of visual nommo to analyze how the cartoons used “sight, texture, color, irony, metaphor, narrative, and other visual strategies” to present Afrocentric messages.⁴⁸ It concluded that cartoons that employ such rhetoric can indirectly comment on African-American issues while in a white dominant system.⁴⁹

Amy Mooney’s 2014 study of cartoonist’s Jay Jackson’s work showed how the Defender’s cartoons depicted instructions on how migrants should and should not behave. Jackson’s weekly “As Others See Us” cartoon illustrated gambling and financial irresponsibility as examples of what not to do. John Stevens’ studies of comic strips showed that black press editorial cartoonists drew all of the newspaper’s visual elements including advertisements and comic strips. One study described the Chicago Defender’s, “Bungleton Green,” a forty-three year comic strip series drawn by four different creators. Stevens’ second study focused on the different ways black newspaper comic strips and drawings reflected black frustrations and aspirations. Both the Defender’s “Bungleton Green” and the Pittsburgh Courier’s “Sunny Boy Sam” strips featured “fall guys or schlemiels” who humorously commented on the issues of the day. There were also strips that entertained children and depicted biographies of contemporary and historical black figures.⁵⁰

Conclusions

More than four decades of scholarship on the black press has yielded a great deal of new information including biographies of black press journalists and its content in the areas of sports, illustrations, wars, civil rights, and depictions of other oppressed groups. The information these studies provided can spur further inquiry and perhaps lead to filling some of the gaps identified by previous scholars.

Most of the studies on sports coverage focused on the racial integration of baseball but not on the coverage of collegiate and professional athletes in basketball, football, golf and tennis. Most of the war coverage studies focused on World War II, but not on other wars that occurred in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. As for civil rights, there still needs to be more studies on the black press’ reaction to relevant U.S. Supreme Court decisions, voting rights efforts, marches, and sit-ins. How did the black press cover women’s suffrage? How did it react to the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X? There are studies of black newspapers’ political alliances and activities including the way they covered the election of the first black mayors of major cities. But blacks have also been elected to higher-level offices including the presidency. What were the black press’ responses to these historic milestones?

The studies have not addressed all of the recommendations of earlier scholars. We still do not know much about the inner operations and finances of black newspapers. While studies have noted their struggles and strategies for generating revenue, there are still no studies on its relationship with labor unions.⁵¹ Because of their smaller staff sizes, were journalists also responsible for selling advertising and designing the layout of the paper? Was it typical for staffers to provide their own writing tools as they had to for the Associated Negro Press?

Scholars have not fully studied the sensationalism of the black press. What topics did the black press sensationalize other than mob violence, crimes of passion, and murder-suicides? What newspapers declined to use this tactic? There are also too few studies on the black church’s relationship with black newspapers. Other than the study on black press commentaries on the black church’s handling of gay sexuality issues, scholars have tended to focus on the Christian Recorder, the organ of the African Methodist Episcopal church, but this is not the only religious institution connected with black newspapers.⁵² Black churches have provided financial support and have relied on the press to publish sermons, Sunday school lessons, and church events.

In the midst of new media forms, mainstream newspapers are questioning their own viability. How are black newspapers faring? As mainstream newspapers continue to downsize, are laid-off journalists flocking to black newspapers? Are black newspapers going to digital formats? Only one study, a dissertation, focused on black news websites.⁵³

The black press has increasingly been studied as a dissertation or thesis topic. Black newspapers have been digitized through ProQuest Historical Newspapers-Black Newspapers and Readex-African-American Newspapers making them accessible for study. These are promising trends and important because the history of the black press is a rich one in that it not only tells the story of the black community, but also tells the story of the various ways journalists informs the public. It is important that we learn these different ways as the media landscape continues to change.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Felecia Jones Ross

Felecia Jones Ross is an associate professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University. She is the author of several articles on the black press.

Notes

1 John D. Stevens, “Black Journalism: Neglected No Longer,” in Mass Media and the National Experience: Essays in Communication History, edited by Ronald T. Farrar and John D. Stevens (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 97.

2 Ibid., 99–104, 110.

3 Patrick S. Washburn, “The Black Press: Homefront Clout Hits a Peak in World War II,” American Journalism 12, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 359–366.

4 Kim Gallon, “Silences Kept: The Absence of Gender and Sexuality in Black Press Historiography,” History Compass 10, no. 2 (2012): 208–209.

5 Ibid., 211.

6 Edward Abie Robinson, A Separate World, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords,” directed and produced by Stanley Nelson (San Francisco: California Newsreel, 1998), Kanopy, 42:50.

7 See transcript, “Newspaper of Record: The Pittsburgh Courier, 1907–1965,” http://mreplay.com/transcript/newspaper_of_record.

8 Patrick S. Washburn, “The Pittsburgh Courier’s Double V Campaign in 1942,” American Journalism 3, no. 2 (1986): 73–86; Jerry Gershenhorn, “Double V in Carolina,” Journalism History 32, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 156–167; Jinx Coleman Broussard and John Maxwell Hamilton, “Covering a Two-Front War: Three African-American Correspondents During World War II,” American Journalism 22, no. 3 (Summer 2005): 33–54.

9 The Negro Newspaper Publishers Association’s name changed to the National Newspaper Publishers Association in 1956.

10 Earnest L. Perry, Jr. “It’s Time to Force a Change: The African-American’s Press’ Campaign for a True Democracy During World War II,” Journalism History 28, no. 2 (Summer 2002): 85; Earnest L. Perry, Jr., “A Common Purpose: The Negro Newspaper Publishers Association’s Fight for Equality During World War II,” American Journalism 19, no. 2 (Spring 2002): 32; and Earnest L. Perry, Jr., “We Want In: The African American Press’s Negotiation for a White House Correspondent,” American Journalism 20, no. 3 (Summer 2003): 31–47.

11 The Espionage Act prohibited communication considered to be disloyal toward the U.S. Constitution, the government or the military. The Trading with the Enemy Act prohibited trade with any country considered to be hostile to the United States.

12 Theodore Kornweibel Jr., “‘The Most Dangerous of all Negro Journals’: Federal Efforts to Suppress the Chicago Defender During World War I,” American Journalism 11, no. 2 (Spring 1994): 168.

13 Patrick S. Washburn, “J. Edgar Hoover and the Black Press in World War II, “Journalism History 13, no. 1 (Spring 1986): 26–33.

14 Broussard and Hamilton, “Covering a Two-Front War.”

15 John Stevens, “Black Correspondents of World War II Cover the Supply Routes,” Journal of Negro History 57, no. 4 (October 1972): 395–397, 406; “From the Back of the Foxhole: Black Correspondents in World War II,” Journalism Monographs 27 (February 1973): 1–61.

16 See Nikolas Kozloff, “Vietnam, The African American Community, and the Pittsburgh New Courier,” Historian 63, no. 3 (Spring 2001): 522, 536–538; Lawrence Eldridge, “Chronicles of a Two-Front War: The African-American Press and the Vietnam War,” (PhD diss., University of Illinois at Chicago, 2002).

17 See Ethan Michaeli, The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America from the Age of the Pullman Porters to the Age of Obama (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016), 61–79; Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, Vol. I (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1944), 194; An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, Vol II (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1962), 914; Roi Ottley, The Lonely Warrior: The Life and Times of Robert S. Abbott (Chicago: Regnery, 1955), 162.

18 Carolyn A. Stroman, “The Chicago Defender and the Mass Migration of Blacks, 1916–1918,” Journal of Popular Culture 15, no. 2 (Fall 1981): 62–66.

19 Alan D. DeSantis, “Selling the American Dream Myth to Black Southerners: The Chicago Defender and the Great Migration of 1915–1919,” Western Journal of Communication 62, no. 4 (1998): 474–511.

20 See Mark K. Dolan, “Extra! Chicago Defender Race Records Ads Show South From Afar,” Southern Cultures 13, no. 3 (2007): 106–124; Joel E. Black, “A Theory of African-American Citizenship: Richard Westbrooks, The Great Migration, and the Chicago Defender’s ‘Legal Helps’ Column,” Journal of Social History 46, no. 4 (2013): 869–915.

21 Felecia J. Ross and Joseph P. McKerns, “Depression in the Promised Land: The Chicago Defender Discourages Migration,” American Journalism 21, no. 1 (2004): 55–73; Loren Saxton Coleman and Elli Lester Roushanzamir, “All is ‘Wells’ With My Soul: Analysis of Conditioned Agency via The Defender’s Coverage on the Construction and Opening of the Ida B. Wells Homes,” Howard Journal of Communications 29, no. 4 (2018): 368–386.

22 See Mary M. Cronin, “A Chance To Build For Our Selves: Black Press Boosterism in Oklahoma, 1891–1915,” Journalism History 26, no. 2 (2000): 71–80; Felecia G. Jones Ross, “Preserving the Community: Cleveland Black Papers’ Response to the Great Migration,” Journalism Quarterly 71, no. 3 (1994): 532–539; Henry Lewis Suggs, “P.B. Young of the Norfolk Journal and Guide: A Booker T. Washington Militant, 1904–1928,” Journal of Negro History 64, no. 4 (1979), 369–370.

23 See Margaret Spratt, Cathy Ferrand Bullock, Gerald Baldasty, Fiona Clark, Alex Halavais, Michael McCluskey, and Susan Schrenk, “News, Race, and the Status Quo: The Case of Emmett Louis Till,” Howard Journal of Communications 18 (2007): 169–192; Jinx Broussard, “Saviors or Scalawags: The Mississippi Black Press’ Contrasting Coverage of Civil Rights Workers and Freedom Summer, June–August 1964,” American Journalism 19, no. 3 (Summer 2002): 65–75.

24 Julian Williams, “The Truth Shall Make You Free: The Mississippi Free Press, 1961–1963,” Journalism History 32, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 107–112; Julian Williams, “Percy Green and the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission,” Journalism History 28, no. 2 (2002): 66–73.

25 Cathy Ferrand Bullock, “‘Freedom is a Job for All of Us’: The Arkansas State Press and Divisions in the Black Community During the 1957–59 School Crisis,” Howard Journal of Communications 22 (2011): 83–100.

26 Patrick S. Washburn, The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2006), 5.

27 Paula M. Poindexter and Carolyn A. Stroman, “The Black Press and the Bakke Case,” Journalism Quarterly 57, no. 2 (Summer 1980): 267–268.

28 Kathleen Fearn-Banks, “African-American Press Coverage of Clarence Thomas Nomination,” Newspaper Research Journal 15, no. 4 (Fall 1994): 103, 112.

29 Mark K. Dolan, John H. Sonnett, and Kirk A. Johnson, “Katrina Coverage in Black Newspapers Critical of Government, Mainstream Media,” Newspaper Research 30, no. 1 (Winter 2009): 38–40.

30 David T.Z. Mindich, “Understanding Frederick Douglass: Toward a New Synthesis Approach to the Birth of Modern American Journalism,” Journalism History 26, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 20–21.

31 See Frank E. Fee Jr.’s, “Intelligent Union of Black with White: Frederick Douglass and the Rochester Press, 1847–48,” Journalism History 31, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 41–42.

32 See Fee, “To No One More Indebted: Frederick Douglass and Julia Griffiths, 1849–63,” Journalism History 37, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 16; Sarah Meer, “Public and Personal Letters: Julia Griffiths and Frederick Douglass’ Paper,” Slavery & Abolition 33, no. 2 (June 2012): 253–257; Janet Douglass, “A Cherished Friendship: Julia Griffiths Crofts and Frederick Douglass,” Slavery & Abolition 33, no. 2 (June 2012): 265–274.

33 Rachelle C. Prioleau, “Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist and Humanist,” Howard Journal of Communication 14 (2003): 188–189.

34 See Rodger Streitmatter’s, “Alice Allison Dunnigan: An African-American Woman Journalist Who Broke the Double Barrier,” Journalism History 16, nos. 3–4 (Autumn–Winter 1989): 86–97; Rodger Streitmatter, “No Taste for Fluff: Ethel L. Payne, African-American Journalist,” Journalism Quarterly 68, no. 3 (Fall 1991): 528–540; Jinx C. Broussard, “Mary Church Terrell: A Black Woman Journalist and Activist Seeks to Elevate Her Race,” American Journalism 19, no. 4 (Fall 2002): 20–25; Jinx Coleman Broussard, “Exhortation to Action: The Writings of Amy Jacques Garvey, Journalist and Black Nationalist,” Journalism History 32, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 87–95; Streitmatter, Raising Her Voice: African-American Women Journalists Who Changed History (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1994), 50; David T. Z. Mindich, Just the Facts: How Objectivity Came to Define Journalism (New York: NYU Press, 1998), 117–124; Kimberly Mangun, “Boosting the Bottom Line: Beatrice Morrow Cannady’s Tactics to Promote The Advocate, 1923–1933,” American Journalism 25, no. 3 (Summer 2008): 38.

35 See Streitmatter, “Gertrude Bustill Mossell: Guiding Voice for Newly Freed Blacks,” Howard Journal of Communications 4, no. 4 (Summer 1993): 320; Raising Her Voice, 47. Neither Streitmatter’s article nor book explains why she earned such high wages. The article and book both note that the 1900 U.S. Census listed that the annual income of a white woman working in Pennsylvania was $275. The census did not list the incomes of black women; Streitmatter, “Alice Allison Dunnigan,” 92.

36 See Broussard, “Mary Church Terrell,” 13–35; DeSantis, “A Forgotten Leader,” Journalism History 23, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 63–72; Mary Cronin, “C. F. Richardson and the Houston Informer’s Fight for Racial Equality in the 1920’s,” American Journalism 23, no. 3 (Summer 2006): 85.

37 John W. “Bud” Fowler was the to be salaried in organized baseball when he signed with an all-white team in New Castle, Pennsylvania in 1872. In 1884, Moses Fleetwood “Fleet” Walker became the first black to play for the major leagues. See Renford Reese, “The Socio-Political Context of the Integration of Sport in America,” Journal of African American Men 3, no. 4 (Spring 1998): 5–22.

38 See Ronald Bishop, “A Nod From Destiny: How Sportswriters for White and African-American Newspapers Covered Kenny Washington’s Entry into the National Football League,” American Journalism 19, no. 1 (Winter 2002): 81–106; Mark James Sharman, “A Study of How Four Black Newspapers Covered the U.S. Masters Tournament 1994 Through 2001” (Master’s thesis, East Tennessee State University, 2007); Stevens, “Black Press and the 1936 Olympics,” American Journalism 14 (1997): 97–98; and David K. Wiggins, “The Olympic Games in Berlin (1936): The Response of America’s Black Press,” Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 54, no. 3 (1983): 278–292; Carrie Teresa, “‘We Needed a Booker T. Washington…and Certainly a Jack Johnson’: The Black Press, Johnson, and Issues of Representation, 1909–1915,” American Journalism 32, no. 1 (2015): 23–40.

39 See Brian Carroll, “From Fraternity to Fracture: Black Press Coverage of and Involvement in Negro League Baseball in the 1920s,” American Journalism 23, no. 2 (2006): 69–95; Carroll, “Early Twentieth-Century Heroes: Coverage of Negro League Baseball in the Pittsburgh Courier and Chicago Defender,” Journalism History 32, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 34–42.

40 See William Kelly, “Jackie Robinson and the Press,” Journalism Quarterly 53, no. 1 (1976): 138–139; and Chris Lamb and Glen Bleske, “Democracy on the Field: The Black Press Takes on White Baseball,” Journalism History 24, no. 2 (1998): 51–59; Samuel Edward Gale, “A Bitter Partnership: The Black Press’ Contentious Relationship with the Negro Leagues in the Struggle to Integrate Major League Baseball,” International Journal of the History of Sport 33, no. 16 (2016): 1885–1903.

41 Lauren Kessler, The Dissident Press: Alternative Journalism in American History (Newbury Park: Sage, 1984), 21–47.

42 Spratt et al., “News, Race, and the Status Quo,” 178–185.

43 See Todd Fraley and Elli Lester-Roushanzamir, “Revolutionary Leader or Deviant Thug? A Comparative Analysis of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Daily Defender’s Reporting on the Death of Fred Hampton,” Howard Journal of Communications 15 (2004): 162.

44 Timothy F. Grainey, Dennis R. Pollack, and Lori A. Kusmierek, “How Three Chicago Newspapers Covered the Washington-Epton Campaign,” Journalism Quarterly 61 (1984): 352–355, 363.

45 See Arnold Shankman, “‘Asiatic Ogre’ or ‘Desirable Citizen’? The Image of Japanese Americans in the Afro-American Press, 1867–1933,” Pacific Historical Review 46 (1977): 567–587; Michael C. Thornton, “Meaningful Dialogue? The Los Angeles Sentinel’s Depiction of Black and Asian American Relations, 1993–2000,” Journal of Black Studies 42, no. 8 (2011): 1292–1295.

46 Gregory Conerly, “Queering the Black Church: Notes from the Black Press, 1945–1960,” Journal of African American History 104, no. 2 (2019): 201–226.

47 Windy Y. Lawrence, Benjamin Bates, and Mark Cervenka, “Politics Drawn in Black and White: Henry J. Lewis’ Visual Rhetoric in Late-1800s Black Editorial Cartoons,” Journalism History 40 (2014): 138–147; Harry Amana, “The Art of Propaganda: Charles Alston’s World War II Editorial Cartoons for the Office of War Information and the Black Press,” American Journalism 21 (2004): 79–111.

48 Benjamin R. Bates, Windy Y. Lawrence, and Mark Cervenka, “Redrawing Afrocentrism: Visual Nommo in George H. Ben Johnson’s Editorial Cartoons,” Howard Journal of Communications 19 (2008): 279.

49 Bates, Lawrence, and Cervenka, “Politics Drawn in Black and White,” Journalism History 40 (2014): 292–294.

50 See Amy Mooney, “Seeing ‘As Others See Us’: The Chicago Defender Cartoonist Jay Jackson as Cultural Critic,” MELUS 39, no. 2 (Summer 2014): 115–116; Stevens, “‘Bungleton Green’: Black Comic Strip Ran 43 Years,” Journalism Quarterly 51, no. 1 (Spring 1974): 122–124; and Stevens, “Reflections in a Dark Mirror: Comic Strips in Black Newspapers,” Journal of Popular Culture 10, no. 1 (Summer 1976): 239.

51 See Stephen Lacy and Karyn A. Ramsey, “The Advertising Content of African-American Newspapers,” Journalism Quarterly 71, no. 3 (Autumn 1994): 521–530; Mary Alice Sentman and Patrick S. Washburn, “How Excess Profits Tax Brought Ads to Black Newspapers in World War II,” Journalism Quarterly 64 (1987): 769–867.

52 See Gilbert A. Williams, “The Role of the Christian Recorder in the African Emigration Movement, 1854–1902,” Journalism Monographs 111 (1989): 1–32; Eric Gardner, “Remembered (Black) Readers: Subscribers to the Christian Recorder, 1864–1865,” American Literary History 23, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 229–259; and Dianne Gordon-Lyles, “Early Black Religious Press: Christian Recorder,” Media History Digest 9, no. 1 (Spring–Summer 1989): 53–59.

53 Bakari Akil, II, “African American News Websites: Publishers’ Views, Perspectives and Experiences in Relation to the Social Construction of News, Online News and the Black Press,” (PhD diss., Florida State University, 2007).