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CHAPTER 42
THE NEGRO PRESS
I. An Organ for the Negro Protest
Most white people in America are entirely unaware of the bitter and
relentless criticism of themselves; of their policies in domestic or inter-
national affairs; their legal and political practices; their business enter-
prises; their churches, schools, and other institutions; their social customs,
their opinions and prejudices; and almost everything else in white Amer-
ican civilization. Week in and week out these are presented to the Negro
people in their own press. It is a fighting press.
Negro papers arc first of all race papers. They are first and foremost Interested in
the advancement of the race. A large percentage of the editorials are concerned with
justice to the race, with equal privileges, with facts of race progress, or with com-
plaint against conditions as they are. Of course there occur from time to time well
written editorials on topics of general interest, such as world peace, better political
adjustment, or the progress of civilization; but it still remains true that most of the
editorials are distinctly racial. The articles in these papers are usually propaganda
—
that is, they follow the line of the editorials. A great many are genuinely inflamma-
tory.’
The Negro papers offer something not found in the white press:
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 American newspaper.
Members of this group want to learn about each other, they want the stories of their
success, conflicts, and issues told, and they want to express themselves in public.^
The purpose of the press is clearly conceived. P. B. Young, the editor of
one of the best Negro papers, the Norfolk Journal and Guide^ expresses
it thus:
Traditionally our press is a special pleader; it is an advocate of human rights.®
There are at present about 210 Negro weekly, semi-weekly, or bi-weekly
newspapers.® Some of these are for the general Negro public; others are
* Florence Murray (editor), The Negro Handbook (1942), p. 201. (The figures are taken
from a U. S. Bureau of the Census report for 1940.) There have been repeated attempts to
launch Negro dailies but they have regularly failed. (See G. James Fleming, “The Negro
Press,” unpublished manuscript prepared for this study [1940], Chapter IX.) The Atlanta
908
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