Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1951-03-17
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
THE NEGRO PRESS

u,
City, have any meaning to you?
1t should! 1t was there that
your Negro press was born-one
hundred and twenty-four years
ago, March Is, 1927. That was
great day in the history of free
dom, for it was then that the Ne
gro press had its inception as
Freedoms Journal.
With our tribute to the Negro
press on its anniversary likewise
should go our tribute to its found
ers. Freedoms Journals pub
fishers We're John B. Russworn,
first Negro graduate of an Amer
lean college, and The Rev. Samuel
| Cornish.
The ambitions of these two col
! ored Americans combined with the
! printers ink, the press and paper
to create the first Negro news
paper known to our nation. As a
| consequence, we now observe
March Is as founders day for the
Negro press.
An interesting sidelight on
Russworm is the fact that later,
in search of an expression which
he felt America did not offer, he
emigrated to West Africa and set
tied in Liberia. There he fathered
the first newspaper in the colony
The Liberian Herald.
Like Freedoms Journal, the
names of such pre-Civil War or
gans as Rights of All, Mirror of
Liberty, Elevator and Genius of
Freedom, were clearly indicative
of the purpose to which they lent
their devotion. In each case, their
slogan might have been, LET My
People Co."
The Colored American, also of
pre-Civil War times, quoted as its
aims "the moral, social and politi-
al elevation and Improvement of
free colored people and the peace
full emancipation of the enslaved."
Only the times have changed these
detectives of the Negro press.
The contemporary Negro press
still possesses the crusading spirit
of its early forerunners. It's head
lines, its news columns and its
editorials are all testimony to
carry-over of this characteristic.
They foster everything that the
early press championed.
Since the founding of Free
dom's Journal, many Negro news
papers have appeared, served their
purpose and persisted. Of the
twenty-four Negro newspapers
lnown to have existed prior to the
Civil War, only one, The Christian
Record which begun in 1871, still
survives.
Records show that in 1870, there
We're ten Negro newspapers; In
1886, there were thirty-one; and
IN 1890, there were one hundred
and fifty-four. There is no up-to-
date record on the number of Ne
gro newspapers in the nation, but
it is estimated that there are
more than one hundred and fifty.
At the turn of the century, the
publication of Negro newspapers
was more or less side-line bust
ness among Negroes. In those
days, publishing among our peo-
pie, though first love, was not
living making proposition. The
men who ran these papers had to
earn their keep through other
tasks.
AS the twentieth century grew,
so did our newspapers as well as
the publishing business among
Negroes. Papers appearing in
handful sizes during the early
1900's have developed into large
papers of many pages and varied
features and services.
No section of the world is too
remote nor too distant to make the
pages of the Negro press in to-
days news coverage. In the last
quarter-century, our papers had
war correspondents in every COM
bat area of the world. They main
tain coverage currently from Ko-
rea and Japan, as well as from
the available capitals of the world.
After one hundred and twenty
four years, the aims toward which
the Negro press strives still re-
main goals yet to be attained. To-
day, possibly the only resemblance
between this press and its early
predecessors is the Characteristic
of protest.
The early Negro press was borp
of protest, the modern Negro
press must continue in protest.
1t must chaperone the rights of
Negroes and strive to protect the
basic freedoms of the democratic
way of life. So as it protests,
it chaperones and protects the
right.
Happy birthday to the Negro
press.