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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 1978)
Portland Observer Section II Thursday. February 23, 1978 Page 13 gram attracts. In a nation that has been nurtured on the idea of the press as an independent force within our society, serving the public freely and without favor, there is reason to question whe ther this institution, which is growing increasingly monopolis tic, now serves the many or the few. A V oid to Be Filled But to return to the past. From the earliest days of the nation, the concept of a free press was meaningless to at least one group of Americans - the Blacks. The majority were slaves and the principal interest of the press in their condition was to support their continued enslavement. The colonial, post revolution and pre-Civil War press carried ad vertisements for their sale or their capture if they ran away from their masters. For those Blacks who were free, the press of that time ignored them, except when it found the opportunity or had the urge to villify them. 1' ifty years after America pro claimed herself a nation, the first faint rumblings of the abolition movement were being heard in the land although friends of the Black man, whether free or slave, were difficult to find. In deed, the animus toward Blacks frequently spilled over into print. The attitude of the worst practi tioners of the villification of Blacks was typified by the activi ties of the the editor of the New York Enquirer who seemed to take a perverse pleasure in launching vicious attacks against them, encouraging slavery and denouncing all thought of free dom for the enslaved. While the Enquirer was particularly racist, other newspapers were not far behind. But it was the Enquirer and its unwillingness to give Blacks a fair hearing in the "free press", that led directly to launching the first Black owned newspaper in America. The paper, appropriately titled Free dom's Journal, made its first appearance March 16, 1827. Its editor was John Kusswurm, America's first Black college gra duate. In his maiden editorial. Kusswurm set forth the principal reasons why the paper had come into being; reasons that seem as pertinent today in explaining the need for the Black press as they were in 1827. “We wish to plead our own cause," he wrote. “Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the public been deceived by" misrepresentations in things which concern us dearly, though in the estimation of some mere trifles; for though there are many in society who exercise toward us benevolent feelings; still (with sorrow we confess it) there are others who make it their business to enlarge upon the least trifle, which tends to the discredit of any person of colour; and pronounce anathe mas and denounce our whole body for the misconduct of the guilty one." There was no question that there was a void to be filled by the Journal and it was able to secure agents really salesmen - to distribute the paper through out New England, New York, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, and even Virginia and North Carolina, as well as Haiti, Canada and England. One of its original subscribers was David Walker, who later became an agent for the paper in Boston. Walker contributed occasional articles and regularly advertised his clothing store in its pages. Two years after the Journal first appeared, Walker was to assure his own place in history by the writing and publication of his "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World,” the first sustained assault on the institution of slav ery by an American of African descent and one that caused slaveowners to quake at its pos sible impact on Blacks. The life of Freedom’s Journal, however, was not to be a long one, or even a smooth one. A difference of opinion quickly de veloped between Russwurm and his partner in the venture, Sam uel E. Cornish. Russwurm favor ed the return of Blacks to Africa, and Cornish opposed the idea. Six months after the beginning of the paper, Cornish quit because of the dispute. Russwurm con tinued to publish for another year and then left America per manently for Liberia. Cornish returned to the paper, changed its name to Rights for All and continued to publish for a short period of time before the paper disappeared into the shadows of history. When the Journal expired, Cornish began editing another Black newspaper. The Weekly Advocate, which first appeared in January 1837, and with a name change to The Colored America, was to remain in business until 1842. A sympathetic critic said of the short-lived paper that “its columns were filled with excel lently selected and original mat ter. It ably advocated the eman cipation of the enslaved and the elevation of the free colored people.” Freedom and civility toward Blacks were the dominant themes that appeared not only in the first two Black papers, but in the 40 or more that-were to appear prior to the Civil War. Not content to stand on the sidelines while others did battle for them, Blacks found their own newspapers to be the best me thod of telling their story and in the process developed an institu tion that they themselves could control. Many of the papers were short-lived and all of them were under extreme financial pres sures. No editor, given this OPS-BLUE SHIELD EXTENDS CONGRATULATIONS ON NEGRO HISTORY WEEK As an equal opportunity employer, O P S - B lu e S h i e l d welcomes applicants regardless of race, color, sez or national origin. MEDICAL-SURGICAL-HOSPITAL BENEFITS BLUE SHIELD P 0. Box 1071, Portland, Oregon 97207 Telephone (503) 222-3251 Offices also in; Salem - Roseburg - Coos Bay Sold through local Agents & Brokers