Inside the Negro World -What They Are Reading and Thinking
SCHUYLER, GEORGE S.
Inside the Negro World —What They Are Reading and Thinking George S. Schuyler Tells the Story of the Huge Negro Press By GEORGE S. SCHUYLER IN view of the social gulf separating: the two...
...Organisers used these article* to get Negroes to sign up...
...AND everywhere it was the same story...
...JViap^^aith** ej, T^Ne More...
...Now that we have been yanked out of our Jab* and have been forced to crawl into holes and go dirty and thirsty and hungry like * kit of bums, we intend to finish this job and Berlin and Rome paper* please copy!' But aa...
...You and I can each add to the list from personal observation .and experience...
...The Associated Negro Press and a half dozen other agencies, including a Negro marketing survey, serve these newspapers...
...The work is too small new," they said, "for any one ef us to live all by himself...
...The Children's Bureau is vitally interested in these Victory Farm Volunteers, from the standpoint of seeing thst they ere safe . . . safe from accidents, from disease, from bad environment, discouragement, exploitation...
...The ^™ Russians and the Poles were supposed to be allies in their common fight on Hitler...
...An...
...This is understandable since the words "democracy" and "freedom" coming from white editors and statesmen make the average Negro cynical...
...In 1870, Sell* Martin, * colored man, was a. delegate from the all-Negro National Labor Union of the United State* (which js not to be confused with the National ¦ Labor .Union) to the World Labor Congress'in farie...
...aeon a* Hitter and Mussolini shall have been hung, it is goodbye...
...Aside from the aforementioned Cornish and Inaswnrto, soma outstanding editors were Frederick Douglsss, the great abolitionist and later minister to SantoDomingo...
...more cash in many a family pocket-book...
...They still liked the French from "the last war and they remembered that...
...The New York Amsterdam News, The Chicago Defender, The Norfolk Journal and Guide, the Kaaeee City Call and the St Louis Argus...
...Like the papers thai followed it, Freedom'» Journal was small ami had little circulation, but it wielded influence far out of proportion to its sis...
...Forthcoming art p*s> ph let* on welding and the operation of men* working machines...
...They will be called the Victory Farm Volunteers, and will be one important arm of the U. S. Crop Corp...
...All of them arc* their readers to join unions and all supported the big labor organization drive in 1937...
...overwork and strain, health and accident and moral hazards to youths who have not reached their full maturity of body and mind...
...They frequently use friendly .white reporters...
...Those papers fortified and sharpened the cynicism naturally engendered by the Negro's socio-economic status and which makes the intelligent colored American the least gullible of ourcitrzens...
...color caste system which smears every facet of American life aad casmea Hegroes to smirk or flbjsh.at the sssgrips af democracy When this coftr cast* system ¦ sbenslrd...
...Less than three per cent of all the returning soldiers will ever want to see the OH World again...
...Women's pages are abuse with photographs of brown and high yellow belles and matrons, and social notes unparalleled for extravagant flattery...
...While unanimously supporting the current World War, it does not soft pedal the evils from which colored people suffer here and abroad at the hands of those allegedly fighting for freedom...
...The Bureau hopes to line up the sesfst to every community . . . parents, tsafhsrs, etmr rauaity leaders aad lawmakers, private yo*«| aervtag agencies, churches, employers . • • •* who ear* vitally about the well-betof m boys and girls...
...Not only did they discuss slavery and freedom, but they debated the advisability of emigrating to Africa or the West Indies, how to extricate themselves from the "cold pogrom" to wkfch/tite*vwera, everywhere subjected, and how to cope with the social and political restrictions hampering their development In the main these newspapers were as well edited as the j * - * * IN this period prior to the Rebellion, there were 1 shout thirty Negro-owned newspapers located in New York City, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland and Cincinnati...
...Of coufle the French were ,dlre*ent from ourselves and perhaps a little funny but they were alright and it wee a shame the way they had been treated by thee* Goddam Nazis and glad to .oblige and kick the "Hitler murderers ent^llta* once they had been kicked out, what had they found...
...It taught them much about the contemporary world and enabled them to see through the hypocritical pretences of the condoners of chattel shivery and many Who pretended to view it with Christian loathing...
...Half of this total comes from •bout 12 papers...
...t • v . ._ , ^ - Negroes Were associated with American newspapers item the earliest times...
...Its editor* and columnists are educated men, many of them widely traveled...
...The Jugoslavs in America, too, and the Ha*, garians end the Greeks...
...Their circulations leaped with the bitterness and disillusionment of Negroes arising from their shameful treatment in the Army at home and abroad, and the epidemic of race riots that followed the "peace...
...Sports psges are among the best in journalism...
...Theatrical pages show evidence of much unashamed logrolling and press agentry, but they do cover the entertainment world...
...We shall take the first boat that has ten square inches of free space and after that we mean to stay here and to stay her* for good...
...The . Negro press could and did...
...The' free Negroes were, in the main, forced into a degraded economic status by white labor w^^'rhrelyl "tolerated them in industrial, mechanical or'clerical occupations, North or South, and often forced enactment of legislation which froze them in menial jobs...
...Richard T. Greener, a Harvard graduate who edited the New National, Era, and David Walker of Walker's Appeal...
...The N. Y. Amsterdam New* had a man covering the Berlin Olympic Games...
...France had helped us during our own revolu-"• ¦" ' v . ' . tion...
...But here' is en important point we must not overlook: While we are so engaged our children are being born, are taking their* first steps, are learning, playing, thinking, growing up and geing- to work at jobs important to war, or preparing themselve* ,for the fighting front 'total' dedication to the cause for which we fight has certain positive things to contribute to their lives: A sense of direction snd purpose, replacing the futility that engulfed so many family groups in depression days...
...are just a little too much...
...With few exceptions national advertisers "brush off" the Negro newspapers regardless of circulation...
...in seps^atajnaitory unttj...
...At every point, sif every, age, total war is affecting the lives, of our children for good and for ill...
...Youth in Emergency Growing Up in Wartime By KATHARINE F. LENROOT Chief, Children'* Bureau, V. S. Department of Labor...
...The most widely circulated is The Pittsburgh Courier which sells 235,000 copies weekly to this country and 15,000 abroad, the Afro-Americ.n with about 150,000 circulation and the Chicago Defender with 125.000...
...This problem was frequently discussed in the Negro newspapers and doubtless helped to strengthen the understandable antagonism to white labor which has by no means disappeared with time...
...They viotoaar denied that they were isolationists...
...Reports from all parts of the Unites State indicate a great exodus ef youth from sebwi to lucrative job* in the war industries, tags are even artssssitiag to carry * full bisk nmi course aad do a full-time job to • thahef besides...
...Greatest difficulty is encountered in advertising...
...Such is the United States today...
...a vicious system of chatter "slavery...
...I 1NLIKE the white press, leading Negro ^ newspapers have Indian, Chinese, Japanese-American and white columnists...
...the Negro prSSs wlff hcliyiii istajy...
...reporter covered the coronation of George VI...
...While it is understandably critical of organised labor, there is no anti- Labor newspaper...
...Known as freedom's SentfftIt was financed by Rev...
...One major recommendation of the ''Gmeef is for leadership of youth engaged is fens work, by pares** who understssd boys sM girls and who understand the farmers' reqomv mente for weaker...
...The advice contained in this samphht represents the best experience snd thought ef men and women throughout the Nsties wfei dealt with the problem of youth on tto farm last year...
...The pressman of the first newspaper printed in New Hampshire was a Negro slave, named Prince Fowle, while the slave of Joan Campbell of Boston aided him in printing the first permanent newspaper in the English colonies...
...apd " k$^W tae^esspfc What Do They Read %VS9nM9^*l4teLER, be of " the dyspeptic grin, woke e*awesrtheNogrepre...
...All leading papers own their buildings, presses and engraving plants...
...I base these conclusions exclusively ..u**» the remarks I have heard from those boys who have already been on the other side and who, fer one reason or another, are' now' back home...
...Every boy sad gm should have a thorough physical ex*ann*tae before going to * job...
...f ¦¦aajj for crimemrejs...
...Along with the indignation will be found wit, humor and sarcasm...
...W«IM su This press was a great educational influence among the half million depressed, voteless, economically disadvantaged and...
...The Boston Atop* Letter...
...teeausc the Children's Bureau of the U. S. Labor Department Is the agency of Federal gov-eT*n*»nt primarily concerned with the health and:' well-hgfHg of children, the Bureau, since long before' Pearl Harbor, has been exerting its 1 •a^JetshitttOward establishing measures needed for oteTwMue' and protection of children in every region of the country and in every aspect of life in which.boys and girls are adversely affected by wsr dangers or the waf effort...
...little children entrusted to near-strangers, or left at borne alone, while mothers go to war-factory jobs...
...It ha* been the most consistent champion of liberty, equality and democracy to this country...
...These early Negro newspapers constituted the only press which, consistently and sincerely fought for the ideals expressed, in the Declaration of lDitop*ndence and the Constitution of the United States but not yet realised...
...as Matthew W-hha wawhtd him — poked around aad came up with hi* tendteM of^otUte which he Ss^P^at^^nTmttS^U in his ¦mrt >MSsiaM.j,iall|ls1iiii, **tuV-f*r«i*-*er, ¦teMfcjdtonMjls Iteer stories circuit, Peg SSiijS} JSaJdrilall to the story is .4***>faasa|W*w**ly a* few pes pie realised Jhj^*ijWea^*4e^t^re *t*s*,^toi^*eo*o Jtogtoi 'jaaa* to^Tsorttot e story now to the toremost writerTin the Negro world...
...There were several magazines, the most outstanding being The Anglo-African of New York which was described as having standards "dear cut and high, the articles scholarly and superior...
...They wanted to get their trm-?3 beat and the* go to work to repair**-aauatege and Hve Wtoi decent civilised eiOases...
...Training is new tank* way throughout the country, by many of tat interested agonal**, to prepare leaders for fH summer's Victory Farm Volunteers...
...The New National Era editorially discussed such topics as, "Industrial Partnership," "True Labor Reform," "The Eight-Hour Movement...
...Come to think of it, I can't say that lbs soldiers and sailors were very far wrong, .la-rope had its chane* and Europe is once more doing its beat to throw th»t chance away...
...tha waRn pay tergag hrmyas^egToca^jQno wouhf COs^^^PBjj datisfifCtj pr%}teee%ttB&0^ B »^H*t©d t9UemssQtf0oPn9aVa llpfrpea" sw to'sMemag churches, moat to separate schools, rsgn tV separate coaches, sad -rawa^_serve...
...school-age children coming home to empty living quarters, or running the streets while both parents are employed...
...he :^e»jji^^a^'^fm^^ j^'^^r^^ magazine and business manager of The Crisis...
...However, the first Negro-owned newspaper came into existence in 1827...
...it is not surprising that most Americans were unaware until recently that there existed a powerful Negro press which for more -than a century had been shaping and expressing- the thought of colored people...
...which wfll he sea te anyone on request They represent ***** laboration of the Bureau's own safety eagres* with safety engineers in major industries sss they list very clearly the ssfe snd the dsarsr-on* jobs for young people in most were**1 occupations...
...THERE is something dramatic, even breathtaking about the *fe* of 136,000,000 people mobilising all their resources to win » war for 'the right to live as free citizens of s free nation...
...The Pittsburgh Courier devoted a page weekly for three month* to a special correspond eat'* report of the drive as it affected Negroes in 40 in-rustrial communities...
...for us and we never expect to go back...
...Bet-tee expeditionary forces in less than two dssen years are enough...
...NEVERTHELESS, some of these papers were * pro-labor, especially after the slaveocracy's rebellion had been crushed at Appommatox, thank* to the additional Union armed might of 200^)00 black soldiers...
...Today it ia a real power net only hi this country bet in Central and South America, the West Indies and Africa...
...It is editorially critical, often suspicious, sarcastic, cynical...
...All the larger papers hare staff cartoonists, staff photographers, staff correspondents in Washington, D. C, all other important centers, New York and London...
...But what did they do...
...Editorially the papers are not inferior to the white papers...
...However, most of the Negro newspapers prior to the first World War for democracy were either church organs (many of them pro-labor), politic*] sheets or mouthpieces of fraternal organizations...
...The ignorance of moat American white people about this proscribed tenth of the population is a tribute to the efficacy of our coior caste system...
...Hundred of thousands of young per*** between the ages of 16 and 18 act steady employed to id us try The Children's Bursas a greatly concerned for the health aad safety at these 16 and 17 years old, as well as for key of the education that they may require to toW their own in a post-war competitive later market It is important to bear in mtod test boys and girls under 18 have not imehaf thaw full physical development, are more nh*ly » be injured by strain and overwork tea* auto one* are, and may have unsuspected J***V nesses such as latent tuberculosis or heart a» ease, which makes them totally unfitted t* certain strenuous jobs...
...The Negro proas is • ma** press...
...The girls we have ever here and our wine is getting just a* good or even better every year...
...H« sjs insure that peonage**!* *re not used' 0* waif-that involves a high degree of physical dsaf or under working conditions detrimental » health...
...Our records fcom last year, when a smaller bat important number of city young people were used on farms, shows that more organization, better leadership, and more definite standards of protection are required...
...Leber in Iron Manufactories," "Labor and Tariff" and "Labor Unions and the Working-man...
...During the fall and wrote" the Bureau has held many conferences wait interested groups...
...About 20 pspers sell mot* theVTJUW eoojto weekly There is oae dai^The AUsmta^World, eh.ee vvm The Negro" p*rms exists becs'C of AnTrriea...
...That of course, is Europe's good right...
...farm families uprooted, moving to areas of farm-labor shortage...
...Several big papers have Negro war correspondents accredited to the war fronts...
...It became national and then international in circulation...
...Now, if they could not be friends with each other while the ruins of their homes were still smoking snd before their dead had been buried, what would they do to each other the moment the Americans were gone...
...But from 1880 onwayd there were full-fledged newspapers concentrating on collecting news about colored people (which the white press ignored—except to the ease of crime) and shaping opinion on public questions...
...THE period just before the World War * when there was * lynching every other day, saw the growth of the meat widely circulated and modern Negro newspapers , each aa The Pittsburgh Courier, The Afro-American...
...a feeling of person...
...It would have compared favorably with Harper'* or the Athu*m Monthly...
...Today there are 210 Negro newspapers with combined weekly circulation of about 2.000,000...
...The Pittsburgh Courier sent special correspondents to cover the Ethiopian-Italian War and to interview Haile Selassie in London...
...The money was part of that which we administer under the Social Security Act for maternal and child health...
...With the recent action of Congress, In appropriating $1,200,000 to the Bureau to carry this program to the end of the fiscal year, and good prospects for an appropriation for next year, such aid to wives of service men will be available throughout the Nation...
...Without exception they have spoken about a* follows: - "We have got a job to do and we intend to daUttjand pfeSty damn thoroughly, toe...
...Von Loon's Diary America's Round-Trip to Europe By HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON f AM very much afraid tent toss than nothing 1 will come of all those delightful plans that are now being worked out for the greet Union of Nations which will aria* from the ashes of the Old World with its hopeless diffusion of jgto*^^ we^ld'haU S^S^Tttt^Ju^A^S wheiLf the Ainejihen people wfll be found t^wll any extra policing once the war is over or til take an active interest in any kind of European venture...
...Ih 1871 The Sew Orleans Tribune, a daily and weekly labor paper managed and edited by Negroes, hafl a circulation of 10,000...
...The work, will be under the direction of the Department of Health in «ach State, to which any eligible woman may apply at this time...
...The French inside Biserte had welcomed them with the flag of de Gaulle and at once the two had started squabbling with each other...
...Two of our major concerns for the coming year are the provision of safeguards for the health and safety of teen-age boys and girls who are helping in agriculture and for those who are working in war industries...
...So, why bother...
...It forever wars against disfranchisement, lynching, residential segregation and educational inequality : based on "race...
...A very little prompting would thereupon explain this rather unexpected attitude...
...Interestingly enough there" were many Negroes in the German union in New York City which did not practice color discrimination, and it is said that these men were'familiar with Marxian theories and other radical questions...
...The health of these young workers, is tory ar on the farm, in this wsr year of to so important that it was chosen sb J» National Child-Health Day theme far *W Day...
...The white press would not and could not do this...
...Safeguarding youth in industry is a job thw the industrialist must carry forward...
...They called each other murderers and cut off all diplomatic relations According to the papers, we were supposed to have an Austrian battalion over in America to help that little Archduke Otto get back u> **> throne...
...That one part of the population was whooping it up for Giraud and the other for de GauUe...
...what anyone may have by writing to the Chitdrari Bureau...
...The need for child care has risen enormously in the past year in many cities, and is rising all the time...
...A* a matter of fact, the...
...We could neverhive hoped to live in peace a* long a* those two craay fellows in Germany and Italy were allowed to have everything their owb way...
...older boys and girls dropping out of high school because they can make good money at ail sorts of jobs...
...Total war is likewise building a huge account on the debit side fer our children: Babies being born under emergency conditions in congested areas, often after the father has been shipped overseas...
...An A.N.P...
...It is noteworthy thst while'emancipation intensified competition between black and white labor, at the second, session of the National Labor Union in 1869 at Philadelphia, nine out of the 142 labor representatives We're Negroes...
...They have all features to be found elsewhere, -even to crossword puzzles...
...Peg" —of "old Sewery...
...to help see the* •** to*ap) to propel them physicslbf, J*#»X aad emotionally from unwholesome f**tsff » wartime world abet can wreck their t*m Bee* to e wartime undertaking taat sbte**: ^jjaasgge every adult citizen...
...And so, white mr statesmen will continue to talk solemnly ot our desire to remain in Europe as a sort of stabilizing force, I realise that quite a different current has set in which will make all these lovely plans * mere waste of time and effort, For who will do the policing when nobody br willing to take the job...
...lead and lead-using htoastraa, employ merit involving exposure to nrto** phide, aad employment involving e*pes*re chlorinated solvents...
...carrying hews- of free colored pa If Is and making them conscious of the need of solidarity in an extremely hostile environment, they were organs of opinion and "human interest...
...They came to northern Africa to set the French free...
...That little Hitler man and the Big Noise in Italy will have to go and that is all •here hi to it No separate peace, either,, if you please...
...Inside the Negro World —What They Are Reading and Thinking George S. Schuyler Tells the Story of the Huge Negro Press By GEORGE S. SCHUYLER IN view of the social gulf separating: the two so-called races in the United States...
...worth, as everyone is called on to contribute to the national war effort in ways suited to his age and capacities...
...Every community should be prepared by surveying its prospective need for women in the labor force, aad by making adequate plans for children of all ages whose mothers may be needed in essential occupation...
...n •"-;g For the plant manager who is eager to saM guard his yecmg workers, the Bur*** ***g issuing i series of pamphlets called "wit* Jobs for Young Workers...
...Wherever they, had gone, they bad found themselves in a row...
...And so, if the Europeans ws*Jt toj experiment with a United States of their cwa, we wish them all the rock in the world, baluW United States ef America is not going hfgtt itself mixed up with Oat sort of tiling.' At least, not if w* can help it...
...Gossip columns are racy...
...But the former members of hit as*#j pir* hated each other so sincerely that ail *}' them mad* haste to join the regular U.S...
...Negro newspapers reflect what Negroes are thinking...
...PHYSICAL fitness begins before birth, in the health,care the mother receives...
...half-grown youngsters seeking excitement in wartime honky-tonks...
...town families, uprooted, moving to overflowing production centers...
...A vocational-geisasw counselor ia the school should help hbk ikflP whether be ought to go to work, near if *> where/and under what conditions...
...Some of these papers like the Cleveland Gazette, the New York Ape, The Fhiladjsiphim Tribune and The Savannah Tribune are still going strong, i Most of the editors were dynamic personalities and several were brilliant writers...
...Recruitment has already begun in the schools for some 400,000 young people, ranging in age from 14 to 18, who this summer will go into the fie*** to help with harvesting...
...The Bureau has been deeply concerned with the plight of many servicemen's wives, who- face childbirth without funds, often in congested camp areas where medical facilities are lacking, and often after their husbands have gone overseas...
...In their columns appeared some of the finest writing in America, for here were abater* aad .brilliant men fighting for * great teas* Instead of a continent belonging to others and...
...THE result of these conferences has jetf been published in * little booklet estiuei "Guides to Successful Employment of N*> Fama Youth in Wartime Agriculture...
...These newspapers very closely resembled the white-owned papers in their towns...
...boys and girls interrupting their schooling for part-time work in the fields...
...Those boys were sick and tired of what they had seen and heard on the other side...
...fathers called to war...
...The sole survivor is The Christian Recorder, founded in 1845 in Philadelphia, Pa., and still an organ of...
...Aad of that I a*j sure...
...Ta.aawptipii to...
...Naturally it w*s strongly *nti-slavery, and with the inasaAaj jrf Jh* ¦fcfl***mrwW*w»* subscribers were largely free colored people, *o white paper more consistently fought fa* human freedom than these...
...Both in the -white aad Negro press it was the day of personal journalism...
...of emergency farm workers...
...And those three per cent wQ only care to go back because they liked the wine and the girls...
...In the prospectus of The Colored Citizen, its mission was stated aS follows: "It shall advocate labor reform, both in the adjustment of the relations between capital and labor, and in that the colored citizen shall have a fair chance in the mechanical industry of the country...
...The Negroes wanted news of themselves, they wanted events analysed and they wanted their feelings about these events expressed in forthright language...
...the African Methodist Episcopal Church...
...The Afro-American has sent correspondents to Cuba, Haiti and Brazil...
...S;her* are only a few millions of them ato are tucked away up somewhere ia tto s. Nobody ever see* or hears of tbtar and so what could they do even if they tries* Yes, that is what I beard from every ef the bop*- who came back...
...Those already off the press ecvsr shipbuilding...
...Samuel Cornish, a ajjSdereteTy well-to-do colored clergyman, and edited by John B. Russwurm, first colored graduate of Bowdoin College...
...All of them w«r* sash to be fighting among themselves Only a tern eour,trto.Mn the North teemed to know they wanted...
...Columnists say what they wish because the Negro press has a tradition of free expression...
...socially ostracised free colored people...
...But we intend to at Americans before anything else and the wan of the Old World and the New Workf an so hopelessly different thst we will never see eye to eye...
...The French that had helped them take Biserte had flown the flag of Giraud...
...The rising post-Civil War interest in labor organization was reflected in contemporary Negro newspapers, some of them being strictly labor papers...
...Last fall the Bureau granted limited fund* to 28 States to help them meet this growing emergency...
...The Bureau has actively collaborated with other Feder*l«Departments and with the States in helping communities set up proper facilities for the care of children whose mothers are employed...
...Of course none would dare print all of what the average Negro thinks...
Vol. 26 • June 1943 • No. 26
