African American Newspapers and Censorship

Definition: Newspapers specifically intended for African American communities

Significance: African American newspapers have been targeted for censorship; they have also published news that other newspapers have neglected

Freedom’s Journal (edited and published by Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm beginning in 1827) is commemorated as the first newspaper issued by African Americans in the United States. The journal established a medium of expression for news about activities among African Americans and as editorial defense against attacks made by the Daily Press of New York City against free blacks. The journal was a mechanism to combat the censoring of African American experience. The African American press printed racial news that generally was left out of white newspapers. Black press censorship has included various schemes for screening either who may publish or what may be published.

The Mirror of Liberty was the first African American periodical published in New York (July, 1838). The North Star, the newspaper of the celebrated abolitionist Frederick Douglass, appeared in Rochester, New York, on December 3, 1847. African American newspapers evoked severe reactions from whites. Several cities tried to prevent the distribution of black newspapers. Representative of African American journalism’s long tradition of protest, the Defender, an Arkansas paper, printed the daily review of brutality and outrage against African American expression. The Defender argued strenuously against the Black Codes of 1865. The codes were enacted to regulate the status and conduct of newly freed slaves. An Arkansas judge issued an injunction restraining circulation of the Defender, and two distributors of the paper were attacked and killed, although black newspapers in Arkansas were not sensational and declined to endorse radicalism. The black press in Arkansas in the decades following the Civil War advocated a philosophy of self-help and called upon the black community to prove itself worthy of advancement.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was encouraged to indict some black editors for sedition, in order to curb the black press. Warren Brown was troubled by the aggressive tone of the black press. Brown’s attack on the black press was published in December, 1942, in the Saturday Review of Literature. In his article, “A Negro Looks at the Negro Press,” Brown did not advocate muzzling the black press, but he felt that the black press should not be encouraged in promoting hatred. Brown served Roosevelt as director of Negro Relations for the Council for Democracy.

The publication of a black newspaper in the South was a hazardous occupation. Black editors were threatened, assaulted, spat upon, inundated with vituperative remarks, and stymied by vicious gossip. Black editors complained not only of harassment from hostile whites but of mistreatment from blacks. Peddlers of black newspapers in the South were the objects of mob violence, and during World War II peddlers of black newspapers were forbidden access to army camps.

Historical Overview

African American newspapers published before emancipation include the Weekly Advocate: The Spirit of the Times, published in New York City from 1836 to 1842, and The National Reformer in Philadelphia. The Colored American, originally named the Weekly Advocate, was founded by Phillip A. Bell in 1837. Black editors of the era, including W. M. Trotter, editor of the Boston Guardian and T. T. Fortune of the New York Age, championed the freedom of the black press. The Washington Bee, the Indianapolis World, the Philadelphia Tribune, The Cleveland Gazette, and the New York Age experienced publication problems.

In 1940 200 black newspapers were in publication. In 1942 the Justice Department threatened about twenty editors with sedition charges, and many black papers found it difficult to obtain newsprint. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People negotiated an unofficial settlement in which black papers tamed their criticism and were able to obtain essential supplies. Sengstacke Enterprises, the largest black newspaper chain in the nation, entered the newspaper business in the 1930’s and resurged in the 1970’s. Sengstacke’s group made $5 million in overall sales in 1973. An older black paper, the Baltimore Afro-American, expanded from Baltimore to include editions catering to Newark, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Richmond. During the 1990’s the paper was run by John H. Murphy III, grandson of John Murphy, Sr., who founded the paper in 1892. Approximately one hundred black newspapers were in existence in 1975, and thirty-five of those had a circulation exceeding twenty thousand copies per issue. In the Southern white press, “colored news” was run in special editions. Such editions were marked with a star or red banner. These editions were never distributed in the white community, thus censoring by restricting dissemination. African Americans assumed that they were reading and purchasing the regular white newspaper.

Discriminatory voting requirements for blacks indirectly led to the creation of the New York City newspaper, The Ram’s Horn. One of the more notable editorials was directed to enslaved blacks in the South and voiced outspoken opposition to slavery. Frederick Douglass’ paper, The North Star, followed the death of The Ram’s Horn. In his role as editor of The North Star, Douglass made special effort to increase his contact with blacks and their daily problems. His most severe editorials were directed toward blacks who passively accepted discrimination.

Since the 1970’s, more than two hundred black newspapers ceased publication. In 1975, there remained only one major black daily, The Chicago Defender. In the late 1980’s, there were more than 170 African American weekly newspapers being published in thirty-four states and the District of Columbia. Many black newspapers that once published national editions, such as The Journal and Guide of Norfolk, Virginia, The Pittsburgh Courier, and others, had to cease national distribution. Decreasing advertising revenue, poor circulation, and low subscription sales contributed to the decline of black newspapers.

Bibliography

Penelope Bullock’s The Afro-American Periodical Press 1838-1909 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981) records the historical development of black periodicals in the United States. Harry H. Ploski and James D. Williams’ The Negro Almanac: A Reference Work on the African American (Detroit: Gale Research, 1989) serves as a guide to the newspapers, periodicals, broadcasters, and leaders of the African American media. Henry Lewis Suggs’s The Black Press in the South, 1865-1979 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983) discusses significant contributions of editors state by state. Bernell Tripp’s Origins of the Black Press: New York, 1827-1847 (Northport, Alaska: Vision Press, 1992) describes the history of black newspapers and how these newspapers became a voice for African Americans.