St. Paul recorder., 1957-04-12

llhe JOB Lincoln University has ac-
complished in turning out gradu-
ates capable OF taking their places
IN the communication industry OF
radio, TV and the newspaper
trade. The peculiar circumstances
which resulted in the establishment
OF The Lincoln University school Of
Journalism which Is now the de-
partment Of journalism, were in
TACT a blessing in disguise, for the
training which students received
mere at Lincoln, prepared them
both for jobs on the secular week
lies and daily press, but also, and
Just as important, for positions on
the growing NegrO-COmmunity
press.
In this your school has filled a
unique need, for most Of the schools
OF journalism In the country pre-
pare their students for Jobs on the
daily and weekly secular press al
most entirely, often without con-
sllsrlnS the class press or supple
mentaFy publishing areas.
BY personal experience 1 have
found some OF these otherwise well
trained graduates totally uuprepaT-
ed for the conditions which CON
front those who take jobs on the
Negro papers, or for example the
labor or Jewish press.
Every journalism student here In
this school or elsewhere, no matter
what his ethHiC background ought
Le orIvuted as 20 what he will find
when he joins the staff OF class or
special publications like the Negro
press.
The careful observer Will find
the Negro metropolitan weekly
compares often lu standards, work
ing conditions and news and edi-
toF.u enterprise 10 the best rura!
and small town weeklIes, with the
added problems, creative opportUu-
lllts and challenge which any sup
Elementary media with a cause TO
advocate offers.
l think IL important to say at
this point that the American Press
as whole remains the freest press
IN the world, and that the Negro
Press is unique In that since its ap-
peaTanCe on this continent in the
year Of our Lord. 1891, has been
the freest, and most challenging
segment Of the American Fourth
Estate.
When the true history OF the
American Press Is written, II will
be recorded, that no press ever aC-
COmplIshed so much, with so little,
as the Negro Press. Il will be re-
corded that this Press has shown
the finest example OF the correct
role Of free newspapers In a grow
ing changing social order. This
press was one Of the influences as
great country suffered the ira
vail Of change from nation, half
free, half slave, to an era Of legal
freedom for all, and Industrial
progress unparalleled in the history
Of man.
This Negro Press came on the
scene, as most great manifestations
Of the human spirit, as a protest
against some social injustice or
eYil-whiCh in this instance, was
the lnhumanity OF human slavery,
and the liberation OF 1t, by even
those people and states that did not
even profit from 1t.
Most every one Of you here to-
night, who is familiar with the his
tory Of this press recalls the story
Of the free Negro Samuel Cornish,
who, becoming tired Of the printed
pr0-slayery, anti-Negro diatribes
printed In the New York daily
press, and unable to obtain space to
reply to the libel against the Negro
paid advertising space, decided to
do something about the situation.
Cornish, together with John c.
Ruswurm, the first known u. S. Ne
gro college graduate, established
the first Negro weekly newspaper,
SO years before Abraham Lincoln
issued the Emancipation Procla-
nation,
T-.-f - ~ 80 ~ .f.,
and tribulatiOns Of Cornish and
Russwurm. and those who followed
them, risking their skinny funds,
and their very lives to print news
papers. rejecting the established in
stitution Of chattel slavery, In
land where IL had flourished over
200 years, and had become an i'm
portant part Of the nations econ
omy
Il was dangerous business in
those days for even an American
white man TO take up his pen in any
newspaper, to champion the anti
slavery cause. Scarcely 10 miles
from where we sit tonight, an
salnted Elijah Lovejoy paid the
supreme sacrifice for a free press.
An Alton, III. mob burned Love
joys newspaper plant to the
ground and murdered him in the
year Of 1897, because he dared TO
write against the institution Of
human slavery.
When one realizes the dangers
faced by Journalists and writer's
like william Lloyd Garrison. who
was jailed In Baltimore for the
auti-sIavery articles in his paper.
and was mobbed iunumcrable times.
the courage of the poorly equipped,
meaEreIy financed Negro editor or
published Of the period leading up
to the Civil War, can be appreciated
and admired.
Yet these early Negro editors
whose publications often could
scarcely be distinguished from
haudBtIls, or pamphlets, played an
effective role and carried on with
the doubtful and often fearful sup
port Of the free Negroes Of the
north and the white ab0lItionists
and sympathiEers with the anti
slavery movement
Continued Next Week