 |
Episode # 2223
NC’s Black Press
Brown: Perhaps you have heard of the Charlotte Post, the Wilmington Journal and The Carolinian. What are they? Some of North Carolina’s historic and enduring African American newspapers. We’ll discuss the importance of the black press, from it’s beginnings until today, next on Black Issues Forum.
Voiceover: Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting UNC-TV.
Brown: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Black Issues Forum. I’m Natalie Bullock Brown. Since 1827, African Americans have enjoyed their own newspapers. The first African American newspapers focused on educating readers about Africa. As time passed, issues of the day, including slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, lynching and a host of other topics began to crowd the pages of black papers. Today’s black press seems no different than it’s earlier versions, yet as times have changed, so too has the focus and purpose of the African American newspaper.
During today’s program, we would like to investigate the historical journey of the black press, particularly in North Carolina, in an attempt to understand its original and current mission. And to help us in our investigation, we have an esteemed panel of guests. But before I introduce them, let’s take a look at an excerpt from a 1999 documentary, called The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, to help us place our discussion in context.
[VIDEO EXCERPT PLAYS] [MUSIC]
Jarrett: We didn’t exist in the other papers. We were neither born; we didn’t get married; we didn’t die; we didn’t fight any wars; we never participated in anything of a scientific achievement-we were truly invisible, unless we committed a crime. But in the black press, the negro press, we did get married. They showed us our babies being born. They showed us graduating. They showed our PhDs.
Garland: The black press never pretended to be objective because it didn’t see the white press being objective, and it often took a position. It had an attitude. This was a press of advocacy. There was news, but the news had an admitted and a deliberate slant.
[VIDEO EXCERPT ENDS]
Brown: And now I’d like to introduce our guests to you. First up, we have Cash Michaels, editor and chief reporter for the twice weekly paper, The Carolinian, and also staff writer for the Wilmington Journal. Cash recently won an award for outstanding journalism by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, so congratulations to you, Cash.
Michaels: Thank you.
Brown: I’d also like to welcome Peter Grear, who is CEO and co-publisher of Greater Diversity News, formerly The Challenger Newspaper. Welcome both of you to Black Issues Forum.
Grear: Thank you.
Michaels: Thank you.
Brown: Let’s just start talking about just the original mission of African American newspapers and maybe how it’s changed over the years, and we’ll start with you, Cash.
Michaels: Well, we were forged in advocacy, voice. We needed a voice at the table of power at the time. And, at the time, we needed a clarion call to those who could read. Keep in mind now, because there were black newspapers, it didn’t necessarily mean that the folks that we were advocating for could actually read us at the time. And that voice was needed to talk about freedom, to talk about starting again, that new life after slavery, to challenge the powers that be to deliver the freedom that was promised to us by virtue of Abraham Lincoln. So, the black press started as having a bias, but that bias was about having a voice to demand freedom, justice and equality.
Brown: Why did you begin your paper?
Grear: I was involved in community activities and community empowerment initiatives, and I saw a void in our ability to communicate our needs, our activities, our objectives, and so I thought that another black publication in North Carolina would add value to our struggle, and I decided that I ought to do it.
Brown: And you are based in Fayetteville?
Grear: No, I’m in Wilmington.
Brown: Oh, I apologize. That part was taken out of the script.
Grear: Well, now, we started our publication in Fayetteville, but I am a native Wilmingtonian, and we have a statewide publication. And so, I just relocated the office from Fayeteville to Wilmington.
Brown: To Wilmington. One of the things that interests me about the clip that we saw from The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords is how the interview subjects talked about we couldn’t see ourselves doing-you know, just living life, in the mainstream papers. I’m wondering how important is it to our community to be able to see ourselves reflected back through our newspapers, Cash?
Michaels: Well, keep in mind that African American newspapers are community newspapers. You know, when you purchase them and you open them up, you see the babies being born, you see who is first in their class, the valedictorians, the church news. You see the sports news from the high schools and what have you. You see the family news. So, indeed, it talks about the total spectrum of community. And the front page is usually your hard news, what makes people pick up the paper. If you picked up black newspapers in the old days, before television was really prominent, you had a lot of yellow journalism. You know, a man bites a dog, dog bites man back, stuff-that kind of stuff. We used to cram stuff on the front page, and crime was a big deal on the front page of a lot of black newspapers. But also, too, the issues of the day, what was happening in terms of civil rights legislation. If there was a lynching some place or a hanging or, indeed, if there was good news in black America, Jackie Robinson breaking the color line or what have you. Black newspapers, really, was the clarion call for all of that.
Brown: And Peter, with your paper, especially since it’s statewide, what sort of response do you get? I mean, do you still-does it still seem that black people have a need, you know, to see themselves reflected back in the way that a black paper only can?
Grear: Well, there is no doubt about that. And our response, the response of what we are doing, has been tremendous. What we have done is pretty much focus on community empowerment issues: housing, education, voting, law and order, economic development. And those are our basics that every family, every community, everyone, has to be involved in to survive. And so, we found quite an active audience of readers.
Brown: How has the mission of papers changed? I mean, there was certainly a void at the beginning of, I guess, the existence of black papers. But now, you know, we can find stories about ourselves in the mainstream press. So, what is the difference now? Why, what is the need now?
Michaels: Perspective. If you take many of the prominent new stories today, for instance of immigration, what is the black perspective on immigration as Congress debates this business of immigration law and how that impacts the Hispanic community for instance, how does that impact the African American community? No one in the mainstream press is going to pick that up. But it’s imperative to African American because we know that part of the influx of the Hispanic population, for instance, coming into North Carolina, many of the neighborhoods they’ve moved into were traditionally African American, and there have been some tensions. So, clearly, there are issues there that we certainly have providence over that the mainstream press would not pick up on.
Brown: Cash, I’m going to stay with you for a moment. Talk a little bit about some of the issues, you know, like immigration, that you have seen as very important to lend perspective to for our community.
Michaels: Well, for instance, you know, it goes without saying, and I’m pretty sure Peter would agree with this, when elections come about and the politicians come, and they come to get the black vote, and they talk about jobs and empowerment and what have you, it’s up to the black press to really parse what they are saying, to see if someone is really telling us either what they want us to hear or what they actually will do. It is also important for the black press to keep these politicians once they get into office, not to play favorites. You know, our job is not to be in bed with the powerbrokers; our job is to advocate for the community. When we talk with-the recent Duke lacrosse case, for instance, where a black woman had alleged that she had been raped by three prominent white athletes, the black press played a roll in that in making sure that the community had a voice in that. And while we know now that those were false allegations, the racial aspect of that whole situation was something that we had to take head-on.
Brown: And, Peter, what kind of things do you deal with? I mean, you have talked about the general categories, but talk about some of the topics that you’ve taken on in your paper.
Grear: Well, I think one of the main topics that we have taken on is predatory lending. And off-I was comparing predatory lending, not necessarily comparing it, but making a point that it is just one of the worst things that has happened to black folks since they have been out of slavery. And a lot of people don’t have the same kind of emotional tie to that type of subject as does a black publisher. But our families are at risk; our communities are at risk. For someone, it’s just maybe an investment, but oftentimes, when it comes to the black community, it’s the number one asset that they have that is being taken away from them. And, you know, we use our resources to go out in business, to educate our kids, to sustain us when we are out of work. And, you know, so we have issues: voting rights, housing, everything that-it may be an issue in the black press, but oftentimes it’s a critical need in the black community. It might be an issue in the white press, but it’s a critical need in the black community. And so, a lot of generic topics may be marginal in some views, but to the empowerment of our communities and the survival of our families, they’re pretty vicious.
Brown: It seems like the black press offers an opportunity to zoom in on issues that may come up, may be addressed in mainstream press, but they are not going to be dealt with in-depth; they are really going to kind of skim the surface.
Michaels: Well, what does the candidacy for Senator Barack Obama actually mean for the African American community? Does his running for the presidency of the Untied States actually mean anything to us? What do we get out of his being out there right now? That is a question that you will not find asked in the mainstream press. We are responsible for looking into that and delving into that for our readers.
Grear: Sure, and if I’m right, if you look at what goes on, on televisions, with all the commentators, they are little white-I mean, every now and then you might find a black commentator speaking to issues that are uniquely impacting our communities, but, by and large, they aren’t there. And if we don’t have some tools of advocacy, then our legitimate concerns are unaddressed, and they just fall by the boards.
Brown: Right. Well, we want to go back to the documentary, The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords, which talks about a certain social climate that began to develop in post-Reconstruction America that impacted the ability of the black press to publish freely. Let’s take a look at the clip from the documentary, which will help us to understand what happened with the black-owned press in our own state, in Wilmington, in 1898.
[VIDEO EXCERPT PLAYS]
Voiceover: The white South called it “redemption,” but for African Americans, the post-Reconstruction period was a reign of terror. Mob violence directed at black Americans was ignored by the federal government and condoned by Southern white newspapers.
[MUSIC PLAYS]
Voiceover: “There is nothing which so fills the soul with horror, loathing and fury as the outraging of a white woman by a negro. It is the race questions in the ugliest, vilest, most dangerous aspect. The negro, as a political factor, can be controlled, but neither laws nor lynchings can subdue his lust.” Memphis Commercial, May 17, 1892.
Voiceover: The 29-year-old editor of another Memphis newspaper, The Free Speech, traveled the South to investigate cases of lynching. The editor was Ida B. Wells [ph]. What she found and put into print caused an uproar among white Southerners.
[END OF VIDEO EXCERPT]
Brown: All right. So, let’s talk a little bit about Wilmington because it seems to be, you know, one of the instances in North Carolina history where we had a thriving black community, a thriving black newspaper, and then, of course, what happened in 1898. I know that the Wilmington Record, which was, I guess, the first black newspaper in Wilmington, was published from 1890 until 1899, or, I guess, even 1898. But let’s talk a little bit about, you know, what the black newspaper means to the white establishment. How does it support and maybe how does it threaten what-I guess the sort of messages that are brought through mainstream press. And, Cash, let me go with you.
Michaels: Well, Alexander Manley was the publisher and editor of The Daily Record, which was, I think, one of the first daily African American newspapers in this nation. He had written an editorial in response to something dealing-at the time, there was this concern about black men and white women and what have you at the time. In this state, rape was a crime you could actually be executed for, and a lot of black men were executed for allegedly raping white women. He wrote an editorial responding to the allegation of black men raping white women, and that was used as the fuse for the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot, where white supremacists, “white shirts” as they were called, actually went throughout the town, shooting African Americans, knocking on doors, pulling people away from their families and what have you, literally taking over the government. It was the only coup d’etat in recorded American history. The black press, at that time, was a powerful instrument because black people, at that time, after Reconstruction, had some power. We had elected officials. We had business people. We had influential folks. Wilmington was the largest city in North Carolina at that time. And what happened in Wilmington, the destruction of Wilmington for all intent and purposes, was the trigger for Jim Crow. And it sent the signal throughout the South that this is what you do to suppress black power and the black press, and we literally have been suffering from that for the past 100 years as the 1898 Race Riot recommendation per the panel, the report that was given to the legislature, has proven.
Brown: Peter, since you are based in Wilmington, and you have your papers coming out of that part of our state, do you feel any of the-well, actually, a better question, I guess, would be, you know, what sort of courage does it take to deal with black issues in this current climate? And I guess compare it to what it might have taken back in the day.
[OVERLAPPING COMMENTS]
Grear: Surely, it’s like night and day. But it really wasn’t so long ago that we began to learn the story of 1898. And when I learned it-I’m a lawyer, and I was involved in lots and lots of community advocacy kinds of issues. And part of the story of 1898 was that the professionals that were progressive and challenging the status quo were round up, killed and otherwise run out of town. And so, as we began to learn that, we were-had our eyes on the white press because it was the white press that led the charge against black folk in 1898, and a lot of us felt that they would do it again. And so, we’ve always been a little bit skeptical, a little bit concerned. And it has been by the grace of the black press that our issues have continued to come forth. And I guess in an environment that was receptive because I know that the white media in Wilmington-I would say for the last 30 years-to me, appears to be hostile toward the legitimate aspirations of black folk. And so there was the black press. And that wasn’t isolated in Wilmington, that was the nature of the beast statewide, and I’m sure across the country. And it still is. So, we’ve always operated with a little bit of skepticism and a little fear because most of us, financially, we are marginal in a lot of ways. And the business people that don’t support what you are doing try to impact you on your bottom line.
Brown: We are going to talk a little bit more about how advertising and the financial aspects of black press, what role that plays and whether or not you survive. But I want to come back to you, Cash, and just ask you when you were dealing with the Duke lacrosse situation, you know, given the high tension that came from that whole incident, what sort of reception did you receive, just in general, in how you had to not only represent the black voice, you know, but cover the whole issue? You know, what sort of courage did it take on your part?
Michaels: Well, keep in mind, you know, looking back on it, you know, it was a learning experience. Keep in mind that the whole issue of a poor black woman alleging that three well-to-do white athletes had allegedly raped her was an issue that, quite frankly, is rarely dealt with. We rarely hear that kind of case. There have been a few of them, but rarely had they gotten that kind of attention. So, our approach was how can the criminal justice system handle that allegation? Will it cave in to the money, to the powers that be that will obviously be backing these young boys? Or will it, indeed, stand strong and decide whether there is evidence to prove these allegations?
So, in doing so, we had to, in effect, defend her, not to say that she was telling the truth or that there was validity to the allegations, but rather she deserved her day in court. It was very clear to us that the powers that be were trying to intimidate her, trying to scare her, so this way she would back off from the allegations. And so, we had to take what was happening during that whole 14 month period and redefine it from a black perspective for our readers and at the same token say “leave her alone.” If she is wrong, if she is lying, if she is breaking a law, then that will be addressed at the end of the process, but let the process go forward. And that’s what we did.
Brown: Got you. Well, when black newspapers first began to be published, one of their major challenges was cost of production. In this next clip, we’ll see how the early publishers dealt with the issue, and when we come back, we’ll talk about this concern for today’s black press.
[VIDEO EXCERPT PLAYS]
Robinson: My job was circulation, sports editing, society editing, crime reporter and janitor. And we did all of these things because they didn’t have any money. The salary that we made was like five dollars a week. We could count on five dollars a week.
Garland: Newspapers survived, in most part, on the basis of their advertising, the people who pay the bills, but the black newspapers couldn’t get those big ads from department stores and manufacturers, those trying to reach consumers. They had to take what they could get.
Voiceover: The absence of large revenue-generating ads forced black newspapers into a constant scramble to boos circulation. Many were in continual financial trouble, and hard-hitting journalism had to share space with outrageous ads. But the lack of large advertisers had its advantages.
Barbour: We had our freedom, as a newspaper, to report things as we saw it. The reason why is because we did not have any dependency on big advertisers, corporations, what have you. The ads we had were little ads about-skin ads, hair ads, if you’re impotent, you know, how to increase your-how to increase yourself as a man and so forth, like that. And these were small ads. We depended mainly on circulation. As a result, we could report and publish just what we saw as the truth.
[END OF VIDEO EXCERPT]
Brown: Peter, especially since you are a publisher, how dependent are you on advertising and major advertisers today, and how does that hamper what you are able to do?
Grear: Well, we are very dependent, but we are not dependent on major advertisers because we get very, very little. And it certainly impacts your ability to hire staff and to run a business in a profitable fashion and to actually do what you are charged with doing for the black community. We deal with a lot of small-not small ads, but companies that don’t have large advertising budgets. And so, oftentimes, we get what’s left over, which is something that our community should address because what we do we do for our community, and the community doesn’t respond by protecting the black press and making sure that when they are spending money with companies that those companies are also spending money with us.
Brown: Right. I wanted to read a statistic, which says that 87.6% of regular black newspaper readers don’t regularly read daily newspapers. So, I’m not sure how often black people are actually picking up a black newspaper and supporting it in a way that would be meaningful financially. Do you-I don’t know if it was recently, but you have your newspaper online, and how does that help you both with readership and also financially?
Grear: Well, it helps with readership because a lot more people are able to access us online today than historically. Well, obviously, 10 or 20 years ago, the internet was not nearly accessible as it is now. So, being online allows people all over the world, certainly all over the country, to read a black newspaper. And we have a full copy of our regular publication reproduced on the internet, and it helps with circulation tremendously; we are able to sell advertisers based upon our internet circulation. And so, it compliments what we do. It needs to grow, but it helps.
Brown: Well, unfortunately, we’ve got to wrap it up because we have lost all of our time. But I want to thank both of you for being with us today. I would like to formally thank Cash Michaels and Peter Grear for sharing their expertise with us. And if you would like to learn more about the work of our guests or obtain a transcript of today’s show, please visit the Black Issues Forum website at www.unctv.org/bif. We would also like to hear your feedback and suggestions, so send us an email, or you can call the BIFline at 919-549-7167. Be sure to meet us back here each Sunday afternoon at 4:30 for more compelling conversation. For Black Issues Forum, I’m Natalie Bullock Brown reminding you to be encouraged no matter what. Have a good one.
Voiceover: Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting UNC-TV.
[END OF RECORDING]
|
