The northwestern bulletin-appeal., 1925-03-28

Thou Art Jewel" / am sure every
intelligent Negro who is capable of
thinking straight fully agrees with
you lin the argument SO well and
logically set forth in that splendidly
written editorial.
Your editorial takes a timely and
well directed swing at certain Negro
weeklies that are commercializing
crime, scandal and other news OF a
vile and sordid nature concerning our
people. One of our Negro papers
which styles itself as the worlds
greatest weekly" has become the
most prominent herald of scandal and
the most notorious chronicle of crime
of any paper published in the entire
United States. It's front page fire.
quently contains glaring headlines of
this sort Of sensational news, printed
in the boldest kind of type which Oft
en- extends across the entire sheet.
This coarse, vulgar news Is featured
so conspicuously that self-respecting
Negroes with the smallest bit of race
pride would not dare unfold this pa
per and read it in a street car or any
other public place. 1t specializes in
news that is nauseating and revolving
to every Negro who loves clean Ii
teratare, and who reads books.
magazines and papers for the in
formation and knowledge they i'm
part, and for the cultural advantages
they afford.
In the first column of the editorial
page of this same paper, in last
weeks issue. appeared the following
item:
I'VE overheard the managing edi-
tor say: 4 wish somebody would get
married, flying machine blow up,
horse run over an auto, or a man
with grind organ and monkey come
along so we would have some live
news"
Is it possible that despite the fact
that the American Negro is making
greater progress today than ever be-
fore in all his entire history, and des-
pite the fact, too, that hiS outstand-
ing achievements are often subject of
editorial comment by many of the
big white magazines and daily pa
pers.-I repeat, is it possible that
this particular Negro weekly with its
large and capable staff of local news
gatherers, and with its score of cor
respondents in the various towns and
cities throughout the United States.
must wait until some terrible catas-
trophe comes, until some awful SEN
sation occurs, until some sickening
scandal is revealed before it can OBJ
tain sufficient news for it's columns?
feel safe in venturing the asser-
ton that this one Negro weekly alone
publishes more sordid news of scan
dal and crime among Negroes than
the combined white press of the
northern cities. Then we have the
audacity to complain and even pro-
test whenever some white paper in
that particular locality essays to give
the least undue prominence to the
news of our shortcomings and crimes
Some of us attempt to -vindicate the
policy of Negro paper that COM
mercializes the news of our crimes,
by asserting that Negroes want news
that tells of scandal and crime, and
that the paper must publish such
news in order to be appealing to the
majority of our group. and in order,
too, that it might receive the patron
age necessary to make it's publication
financially profitable. To say the
least, this is a very selfish and COM
promising argument. u
There are thousands of Negroes
throughout the country who love
clean. wholesome literature, who en-
Joy reading news that is elevating
and worth while, news that keeps
those of us in one city informed of
the progress that Is being made by
our people in. other cities. Certainly
there are thousands of others who
like to read of scandal, robberies.
murders, suicides, divorces, strikes,
riots, floods, earthquakes or any
thing that is horrifying. sordid or
sensational. But why should our
Negro press feed these depraved
minds with news of crime and scan
dal simply because they crave it?
Would it not be far better for us as a
group, IL our Negro press would
strive to educate these abnormal
mentalities up to the right apprecia-
ftfon of clean, helpful news? In at
tempting to civilize cannibals should
they be fed upon the flesh of dead
mortals merely because they crave
human blood as food?
Again permit me to commend your
very excellent editorial to which this
article refers; and also permit me to
express my personal appreciation of