Posted
on March 16, 2016
Russwurm
and Cornish wrote in their famous first editorial, “We wish to
plead our own cause. For too long have others spoken for us.”
The
North Star, founded by Frederick Douglass, was another important
early entry in African American journalism. As you can imagine,
Freedom's Journal and The North Star were published in
the north. Many copies were handed out in secret in the South. I
picture enslaved people secretly teaching one another to read using
these newspapers, or gathering around the literate ones among them to
get news.
Freedom's
Journal was founded by Peter Williams, Jr., and several other
free black men who lived in New York City. They carefully chose
Russwurm and Cornish, who were already community activists, to be the
editors. The goals for the newspaper included opposing New York
papers that attacked African American people and encouraged slavery –
even though slavery was gradually becoming illegal in New York, the
state's economy had strong ties to the South, because its textile
mills processed cotton grown in the South. Largely with labor of
enslaved people.
Another
goal was to oppose articles in the abolitionist press. Of course,
abolitionists wanted to abolish all slavery – so that's a good
thing – but a lot of white journalists writing for the abolitionist
press still described black people as being simpler, more childlike
and dependent, and inferior to white people.
 |
| Black press is more than newspapers. |
Black
newspapers were an important source of information during times of
slavery, times of Civil War, times of Jim Crow laws, and times of the
Civil Rights Movement...and the black press is still an important
source of information now!
Even
though many of us talk about the death of newspapers in the age of
the internet, Ourvillagenews.com has been established to help
people find African American newspapers throughout the U.S. and to
provide links to these newspapers' websites and social media sites –
all in one place.
The
Black Press Research Collective offers some lesson plans to
teach about Freedom's Journal and the importance of black
voices in journalism.
Watch the PBS film Soldiers Without Swords.
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on this date:
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ahead:
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