William G. Jordan - Black Newspapers and Americas War for Democracy, 1914-1920

2001
The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Set in New Baskerville and Block types
by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Publication of this work was aided by a generous grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jordan, William G.
Black newspapers and Americas war for democracy, 1914-1920/
by William G. Jordan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8078-2622 -7 (alk. paper)
ISBN 0-8078-4936 -7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Afro-American pressHistory20th century. 2. Afro-American
newspapersHistory20th century. 3. World War, 1914-1918
Press coverageUnited States. I. Title.

PN 4882.5.J67 2001
071.308996073dc21 00-052778

05 04 03 02 01 54321

THIS BOOK WAS DIGITALLY PRINTED.

INTRODUCTION
Getting America Told

CHAPTER 1
Abolitionists, Accommodationists, and the New Negro, 1827-1914

CHAPTER 2
Preparing America for War, 1914-1917

CHAPTER 3
Damnable Dilemmas, 1917-1918

CHAPTER 4
A Fine Philosophy of Democracy, 1917-1918

CHAPTER 5
The New Negros Message to America, 1918-1920

CONCLUSION
Toward a War for All the People, 1919-1945

W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter

James Weldon Johnson

RulerPro tem

To the Presidential Nominee

The Last Cat

A Snake in the Grass

Loyalty

Speak Out, Mr. President!

Contraband Goods

Virginias Black Star!

As We Bow Our Heads in Prayer

The Dawn of a New Day

Real Democracy

The Old Mob and the New Keeper

Black editors conference, Washington, June 1918

Wake Up Uncle or You Are Going to Fall

Will Uncle Sam Stand For This Cross?

The Worm Turns

The American Outlaw

And Take These with You!

A Tip from One Who Knows

The Mark of the American HunBlot It Out

Helpless!

Over the years during which this project took shape, I have relied on the help, encouragement, and guidance of many individuals. My graduate adviser, Harvard Sitkoff, read many drafts of the manuscript and offered incisive criticism and guidance. Others read all or part of the various drafts or supported me in other ways, from providing child care to helping me figure out my word-processing program. With apologies in advance for inadvertent omissions, I thank Marcia Carlisle, Charles Clark, Joyce Denning, Jeff Diefendorf, Les Fisher, Mike Foley, Raymond Gavins, Julie Graham, Bill Harris, Susan Herbst, Stacy Hogsett, Nancy Jerauld, Jennifer Jordan, Ryan Madden, Bob Mennel, Edith Murphy, Beth Nichols, David Richards, and Lucy Salyer.

Librarians, archivists, and others also helped me at numerous points along the way. They include Jane Boesch at the Phillips Exeter Academy Class of 1945 Library; librarians at the special collections departments at the W. E. B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Mugar Library, Boston University; and librarians at the reference and interlibrary loan departments at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Library. I also thank UNH History Department secretaries Jeanne Mitchell and Lee Szeliga and the Class of 1945 Library word-processing department. I received generous financial assistance from the UNH History Department, Graduate School, and Central Research Fund; the Colonial Dames of America; and the American Historical Associations Beveridge Grant. The PEA library provided office space (with air-conditioning) at a crucial moment in the life of this project.

Last but certainly not least, for her patience and support, I thank my wife, Wendy Aldrich Jordan.

America must be told. The time is at hand for the peopleall the peopleto know the truth, and the whole truth, about our condition and our aspirations and our demands.... AGAINST A SOLIDLY UNITED, GENERAL, NATIONAL, UNCEASING CAMPAIGN OF PUBLICITY IN ALL FIELDS AND DEPARTMENTS, PREJUDICE AND ITS KINDRED IMPS WILL RUN LIKE A SCARED HOUND. AMERICA MUST BE TOLD.

Nahum Daniel Brascher
Getting America Told, Chicago Defender, June 7, 1919

Yes, this man was fighting, fighting with words. He was using words as a weapon, using them as one would use a club. Could words be weapons? Well, yes for here they were. Then, maybe, perhaps, I could use them as a weapon?
RICHARD WRIGHT
Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth

Richard Wrights epiphany, after reading H. L. Menckens Book of Prefaces in 1927, started him on an illustrious career in which he used words to attack American racism in novels, short stories, and essays. One hundred years earlier, in 1827, two other black men embarked on a similar quest when they established the first African American newspaper, Freedoms Journal. John B. Russwurm and Samuel E. Cornish said they planned to defend free blacks by refuting the calumnies of our enemies ... by forceful arguments. Since that time, African American writers, editors, and publishers have used black newspapers to defend black people and attack racism.

To them, the black press has been a defender of the race, ever ready to counter attacks on African Americans in the mainstream white press, to make the case for black equality and civil rights, or to point out the injustices inherent in Americas race relations. As the Chicago Broad Ax put it, black newspapers have served African Americans by constantly struggling as best they can to fight their battles for them.

But the idea that the black press could fight for African Americans begs some fundamental questions. How and in what situations have African Americans used words in their newspapers as weapons of defense or offense? And how effective have these weapons been? This book seeks to answer these questions in the context of World War I and at the same time to develop insights into the black response to that war and the turmoil that followed it.

In the years from the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914 to the height of the Red Scare in 1920, African Americans needed a great deal of defending. A majority could not vote and were relegated to segregated and inferior public accommodations, and dozens were lynched every year. When America went to war, black soldiers served in poorly trained, segregated units, usually labor battalions, and after the war, several black veterans died at the hands of lynching parties in the South. Meanwhile, the mainstream American media not only largely excluded black opinions but also reflected and reinforced widely held racist assumptions and stereotypes. Faced with such dire circumstances, black journalists waged battle on behalf of the race by printing indictments of Americas racial injustices, monitoring and criticizing the white media and the statements of white leaders, praising messages complimentary to blacks, and condemning racist utterances. Sometimes they reprinted and rebutted articles, addressing white authors as you. Most important, they chose their words and shaped their arguments not simply with black readers in mind but to awaken the consciences of white readers as well.