Unlike the northern black press, the southern black press was consistently threatened. Due to the South’s racial climate, African American editors were under constant scrutiny from white southerners in their localities. While the northern and western black press also experienced violent reactions to its coverage, editors in the South faced the most visceral and destructive forms of said violence. Black newspapers were at the center of two of America’s worst racial massacres, Tulsa and Wilmington, and white southerners often threatened African American editors with lynching attacks that affected coverage styles.
The map below showcases several attacks against black newspapers, not only limited to the South alone. It details the dangers African American editors faced across the nation when they exposed the racist powers around them which explains why many black editors adopted a style of news coverage that was considered more ‘conservative’ by their northern peers.
Clicking on any of the symbols below will provide a brief description of the event: including information on the specific newspapers, the date of the attack, type of attacks, any victims, and any known perpetrators.
In addition to the attacks referenced above, the black press as a whole, in both the North and the South, became a target during intense periods of American nationalism. During both World Wars, the U.S. government surveilled the black press and made sedition claims. While the southern black press had a history of advocating in a more muted manner, the northern black press was more directly affected.
For instance, just after the U.S. entered World War II, government officials met with several African American editors, attempting to keep them in line and prevent them from distracting the country from the Roosevelt administration’s goal to keep the nation united during the war. Despite this, the black press still instituted the Double Victory Campaign during the war, which advocated that African Americans take a two-pronged approach to the war: supporting America’s war abroad while also making headways against Jim Crow laws and segregation at home. While northern black newspapers such as the Pittsburgh Courier and Chicago Defender widely supported this movement, prominent southern black newspapers, like the Atlanta Daily World, did not join or promote the movement, potentially fearing the white backlash the movement might receive.
Similarly, during the beginning of the Cold War, African American newspapers remained under constant scrutiny, as white Americans and government officials were wary that civil rights supporters may align themselves with communists and threaten the country from within. These worries were unfounded, as the black press and civil rights leaders consistently made efforts to separate themselves from forces that could distract from their goals, knowing that allying with communists would make them an easier target and destroy any chances of earning equality. Namely, while A. Philip Randolph planned his 1941 March on Washington Movement (which was ultimately cancelled after President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 ordering the implementation of fair hiring practices in the government and defense industry), he made efforts to detach himself from American communist movements, unwilling to distract from the purpose of the march.
Overall, this violence and government oversight in periods of nationalism, resulted in a southern black press with editors who varied in their ability to avoid the negative spotlight as their papers’ grew more popular and locally/regionally important.