Race News: Black Journalists and the Fight for Racial Justice in the Twentieth Century

by Fred Carroll

Overview

Once distinct, the commercial and alternative black press began to crossover with one another in the 1920s. The porous press culture that emerged shifted the political and economic motivations shaping African American journalism. It also sparked disputes over radical politics that altered news coverage of some of the most momentous events in African American history. Starting in the 1920s, Fred Carroll traces how mainstream journalists incorporated coverage of the alternative press's supposedly marginal politics of anti-colonialism, anti-capitalism, and black separatism into their publications. He follows the narrative into the 1950s, when an alternative press re-emerged as commercial publishers curbed progressive journalism in the face of Cold War repression. Yet, as Carroll shows, journalists achieved significant editorial independence, and continued to do so as national newspapers modernized into the 1960s. Alternative writers' politics seeped into commercial papers via journalists who wrote for both presses and through professional friendships that ignored political boundaries. Compelling and incisive, Race News reports the dramatic history of how black press culture evolved in the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252083037
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	11/06/2017
Series:	History of Communication Series
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Fred Carroll is a lecturer at Kennesaw State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: Political Pressures and Black Newswriting 1

1 "Negro Subversion": Solidifying a Militant Press 14

2 Enter the "New Crowd" Journalists 41

3 Popular Fronts and Modern Presses 63

4 The "New Crowd" Goes Global 89

5 "Questionable Leanings": The "New Crowd" Driven Out 117

6 Black Power Assaults the Black Newspaper 152

7 Into the White Newsroom 180

Epilogue: A Crusade into the Digital Age 207

Notes 213

Bibliography 239

Index 259

Editorial Reviews

"For those interested in black newspapers' complex navigation of the politics of the twentieth century and how those papers ultimately made a difference, Race News is worth a careful read." --The Journal of American History

"A fascinating and ambitious book, covering a wide range of important individuals and institutions across various eras of African American history." --The Journal of African American History


"Race News is an essential and thoughtful exploration of a crucial epoch, blending meticulous research into a compelling narrative. Students will be inspired by stories about long-neglected journalists and publishers, while historians will appreciate the complex portrait of a fulminating struggle at the heart of the African-American experience."--American Journalism

"Carroll offers new insight in examining the ties between 'alternative' and 'commercial' outlets. Race News will also be of value as a comprehensive, readable introduction for those more broadly interested in African American history, journalism history and civil rights activism."--LSE Review of Books
 
 


"[A] wonderful book about the black press in the 21st century. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice
  "An ambitious undertaking, one that covers decades of press data and a large body of scholarship. . . .Carroll captures the arc of his study with a provocative insight: commercial newspapers' 'business model. . . . carried the seeds of its own destruction'." --African American Review

"Race News reveals a new perspective that illuminates the ways in which alternative Black journalism informed the editorial practices of the commercial Black press and mainstream news media across the last century. A meticulously researched examination that contributes new insight to scholarship on Black journalism." --Communication Booknotes Quarterly

From the Publisher