Page 18 Portland Observer Section 11 Thursday. February 23. 1978
ment and the compiler was J.
Edgar Hoover, later to become
head of the F.B.I.
The report read in part:
“At this time there can no
longer be any question of a well
concerted movement among a
certain class of negro leaders of
thought and action to constitute
themselves a determined and
persistent source of radical oppo
sition to the government and to
the established rule of law and
order.
“Among the more salient
points to be noted in the present
attitude of the negro leaders are.
first, the ill governed measures
in connection with lynching;
third, the more openly expressed
demand for social equality, in
which the sex problem is not
infrequently included..."
As consequence of the wide
spread riots that developed, a
former employee of the Chicago
Defender. Claude A. Barnett,
established the Associated Ne
gro Press, the first national
Black news service, which he
operated from 1919 to 1964.
The attacks on the Black press
were carried to the floor of
Congress as well and there Con
gressman James F. Byrnes -
later to be Governor of South
Carolina. Secretary of State and
a member of the Supreme Court
- placed the blame for “The Red
Summer" squarely on the should
ers of the Black press which he
accused of inflaming its readers.
The New York Times of August
26, 1919, reported:
“Representative James F.
Byrnes of South Carolina told the
House today that the race anta
gonism which flared up in Mr ash
ington and other sections of the
country recently had its inspira
tion in incendiary utterances of
negro leaders as disseminated
through negro publications."
Byrnes suggested that the
publishers be prosecuted under
the Espionage Act and if there
was no law prohibiting the send
ing of their publications through
the mail, one should be enacted.
Nothing came of the Congress
man's suggestion, but over the
next few months the government
kept up a steady attack against
the Black press, seeking to dis
credit it. Stories alleging a Black
conspiracy to incite appeared
regularly in the nation's leading
newspapers. Example:
“Evidence is accumulating in
the files of the government to
show that the negroes of this
country are the object of a
vicious and apparently well fi
nanced program, which is direct
ed against white people, and
which seeks by newspapers,
pamphlets and in other ways to
stir up discontent among the
negroes, particularly the unedu
cated class in the southern states
...A federal official exhibited to
the Times a few days ago a
recent copy of a negro magazine
which is said to have a large
circulation in sections where
there are considerable negro
publications." New York Times.
July 28. 1919.
"Russian Soviet interests ap
parently are supplying funds for
propaganda to stir up race anta
gonism in the U.S., according to
information now in the hands of
the Department of Justice." New
York Times, August 27. 1919.
No such evidence was ever
made public and there is a
serious question whether such
evidence ever existed, or wheth
er the charges were manufactur
ed out of an intent to so stain the
Black press with the smear of
subversion that it would be re
duced to impotency or frightened
into silence.
If that as the
strategy, it did not work. The
steady drumfire of protest did
not stop and the papers gained
even more credibility by the
sheer viciousness of the govern
ment’s attacks. It was. however,
a sad and trying period for the
First Amendment.
Efforts were also being made
outside of Washington to muzzle
the Black press, but these were
more direct. It was not uncom
mon for Black publications to be
confiscated by southern officials,
or for distributors to be beaten
and ordered out of town. The
Crisis received many letters at
testing to this, including this one
from a correspondent in Florida:
“I would be glad to continue to
serve you as agent and willing
but you are aware of the fact that
the crackers or Ku Klux will beat
a colored man for giving the
Crisis away in some sections of
this country. I wish to stop here
a little longer as I make good
wages in railroad service...As
long as I can stay in peace I
decided I would discontinue for
reasons stated above..."
The Crusader received this
letter from "somewhere in the
South. Names are deleted for
safety of the writer."
“We here in the South are not
allowed to sell Northern news
papers. We have to slip the
paper into the hands of our
friends and 1 am trying to induce
my friends to subscribe by the
year for the Crusader. Every
public school teacher is watched,
also the Negro preacher."
Given the attitude of the South
toward the newspapers coming
down from the North, and the
fact that Blacks were still under
the domination of whites in the
South, it would have been ex
peering too much to have the
papers published in the South
assume the same militant stance
as their sister papers in the
North. And in fact, they did not.
It was a matter of survival.
"Freedom of the (southern
Black) press was minimal." Theo
dore G. Vincent has observed in
“Voices of a Black Nation -
Political Journalism in the Har
lem Renaissance", going on to
note that it was dangerous for
these southern papers to endorse
anything considered controver
sial. including the NAACP and
trade unionism.
It was in the North, in the
large cities, that the militant
press flourished but since they
were widely distributed through
out the South - despite efforts to
keep them out - their influence
did not stop at the city's edge.
One of the leading weeklies of
the period was Marcus Garvey's
New World, the organ of his
worldwide Black nationalist or
ganization. the Universal Negro
Improvement Association. The
strong voice of A. Philip Ran
dolph thundered from the pages
of the magazine the Messenger.
W.E.B. DuBois made the
NAACP's Crisis magazine into
one of the most influential maga
zines of the times. And at the
National Urban League. Dr.
Charles S. Johnson began O,»;«or-
tunity magazine which was to
publish an astounding variety of
articles, stories and poetry by
some of the nation's most out
standing Figures. There were
other Black magazines published
during this era, but only Crisis
survives today.
Mdpuu) nah vyud m m iw , oppotiuMiq
A Kaliilf ÓÍ OwjOiL
JOSEPH C JEREMIE
>»*■ - l»4»
1 T IM I Of MAITIS MOST DISTINGUISHED
U C IT I» NS WHO LIVED TO B I 9 9 -
YEARS YOUNG IN I6B? H i FOUNOED
THE FIRST NEWS-
»
PAPER EWRP«MT
to IN HAITI Hf
X
t ,
BEGAN MIS DIP10-
a .’ / MATIC CARURAS
’ a W CLERK
AN t*» SERVED
*S S Y
-s A ™
.
AS MINUTER
OF STATE ANO Of WAR AHOAS
A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE.
2 HIS COLORFUL LIFE HAD ITS
UPS AMD DOWNS, HE WAS EXILED
TWICE FROM HAITI FOR HIS
POLITICAL ACTIVITIES OHCE
DECORATED BY POPE PIUS XII
AND WAS OHE OF THE SIGNERS
OF THE CUBAN ACT OF INDEPENO
ENCE ON HIS 9 7th BIRTHDAY ,
HE WAS PRESENTED WITH HA’ TIS
HIGHEST HONOR - THE ORDRE
D H O N N EU R ET MERITE - BY
PRES.RAUL MAGLORIt PERHAPS HIS
3 GREATEST HERITAGE WAS BEING
THE GREAT GRANDSON OF THE
FAMOUS JEAN BAPTISTE POINT
OU SABLE, EXPLORER
WHO FOUNDED CHICAGO
INIT79 JEREMIE AN
AUTHOR OF 10 BOOKS
WROTE 'H A IT I ANO
CHICAGO PUBLISHED
IN FRENCH IN WSO A
RELIGIOUS M A N HE
WOULD CLIMB 102 STEPS
TO HIS CHURCHAT 9 6 /
8
Abbott t Simpson Roofing & Gnttors
Mobil
Poe’s Service
C O M R L .K T K A U T O
S IH v iC E
2 8 4 -3 5 2 7
5 5 2 0 N.E. Union Avo.
AMM CLAYTON
POWELL- H E FOUGHT
FOR THE RIGHT OF THF
FLACKCOMHUNITIESTD
SELECT ITS OWN
representatives .
Mrs C’s Wigs
7 0 7 N.E. Fremont
JAMES P. BECKWOURTH
Tra;»;«er, hunter, interpreter,
and guide - he hel;ied o.ten the
West (or the American (lettiera.
Albina Ministerial Alliance
Family Day and Night Care Center
2 8 8 -6 9 2 1
IA
en
■
The Prudential Insurance Company of America
12200 N. Jantzen Ave., Suite 150
Office 283 1212 - Rea: 255 7444
S’