Page 14 Portland Observer Section II Thursday, February 23. 1978
limited market, could expect to
make money front such papers
and indeed most of them had to
depend on their own funds, or
money from contributors both
Black and white, to keep publish
ing. But the tradition of an
independent Black press was
established, and this was to
prove more important than the
longevity of any individual publi
cation.
The most prominent Black
newspaper of the pre-Civil War
period was the North Star,
founded and edited by Frederick
Douglass, one of the towering
figures in Black history. It was
first published in Rochester,
New York on November 1, 1847,
and was named North Star
the celestial reference point
which escaping slaves used to
guide them on the trek to the
North and freedom.
In the first issue. Douglass set
forth his credio:
"The object of the North Star
will be to attack slavery in all its
forms and aspects, advocate uni
versal emancipation, exact the
standard of the colored people;
and to hasten the day of freedom
to our three million enslaved
fellow countrymen.”
The paper s name was changed
in 1851 to Frederick Douglass
Pa wr, as much to capitalize on
the powerful appeal of his name
by that time he was widely
known as one of the era s most
*
... *•
DR. M A R T IN D E L A N Y
Founder of Pittsburgh M y
stery in 1842, Co-editor of North
Star. Graduate of Harvard M edi
cal School, served as director in
Union A rm y | M ajo r |, led scienti
fic ex ploration u;> Niger R iver in
1859.’
notable orators - as it was,
according to Douglass, to distin
guish it from the many other
papers that had Star in their
names. In the pages of the paper.
Douglass brought the same fire
to the printed page as he did to
the spoken word as witness an
excerpt from an editorial (March
17, 1848) in which Douglass tern
porarily turned his attention
from slavery to the War with
Mexico. The war ended with the
United States in possession of
much of that country's territory.
Perhaps he saw in that war
against a weak neighbor, the
same insensitivity which charac
terized America's dealings with
her people of color. He wrote:
“In our judgement, those who
have all along been loudly in
favor of a vigorous prosecution of
the war. and heralding its bloody
triumph with apparent rapture,
and glorifying the atrocious
deeds of barbarous heroism on
the part of wicked men engaged
in it, have no sincere love of
peace, and are not now rejoicing
over peace but plunder. They
have succeeded in robbing Mexi
co of her territory, and are
rejoicing over their success un
der the hypocritical pretense of a
regard for peace...Our soul is sick
of such hypocrisy...we ought ra
ther blush and hang our heads
for shame, and, in the spirit of
profound Humility crave pardon
for our crimes at the hands of a
God whose mercy endureth for
ever."
There was in 1859 a brief
interruption of Douglass' editor
ship when he was rumored to
have been involved in John
Brown's raid on Harper’s Ferry.
Threatened with arrest, he fled
first to Canada and then to
London where he remained until
the danger disappeared. Return
ing to America he resumed the
editorship of the paper until a
mounting sea of debts forced him
to close it down in 1860. It was
about this time that he began the
publication of Douglass' Maga
zine in which, after the outbreak
of the Civil War, he crusaded
had agendas that were markedly
different from those of their
white friends. Given the temper
of the times, the Black papers
with their insistent calls for
emancipation were regarded as
militant and even radical. But
this is what gave them their
reason for being -- their single
minded devotion to the end of
slavery - a cause that was closer
to them and their readers than to
anyone else. It could not have
been otherwise.
P H IL IP A. B E L L
General agent of Freedom’s
Journal, founder of Colored
Americans (New York! in 1837,
lublisher of San Francisco E le
vator 1865-1888.
unceasingly for the use of Black
soldiers in the Union Army and
the issuance of an Emancipation
Proclamation both events later
came to pass.
In assessing the importance of
the Pre-Civil War Black papers,
it is important to recognize that
they were the only instruments
of communication that Blacks
controlled. Even the most radi
cal of the abolitionist papers -
which were controlled by whites
- were not prepared to go to the
lengths of the Black press in
urging full citizenship for Blacks.
More importantly, in many in
stances Blacks found that they
A Decline in Militancy
Once the guns of the Civil War
fell silent there was a great rush
to set up Biack newspapers.
During the decade after 1865,
publications were established in
eight states which previously
had none, and in four others that
already had papers. By 1890, 575
papers had come into being.
Many of these were regular
newspapers while others were
political organs, church papers or
publications designed to serve
some specific interest group.
A number of reasons have
been advanced for the spread of
the Black press in the post-Civil
W ar era. Among them were, the
fact that the Black populance was
becoming better educated; freed
men were able to earn money
with which to buy papers; freed
men were anxious to read about
themselves and other Blacks,
something that was unthinkable
under slavery; social service and