Hal S. Chase lecture, "The Afro-American Press and the Protest Tradition, 1875-1920," at the University of Iowa, June 1975

Speaker 1: The following is a presentation from the seventh annual Institute of Afro-American culture held at the University of Iowa, June 15th to the 27th 1975. Speaker 1: The Afro-American press and the protest tradition 1875, 1920 is the subject of this lecture by Hal S. Chase. Introducing Dr. Chase is Fred Woodard an instructor in the departments of Afro-American studies and English at the University of Iowa. Fred Woodard: Ladies and gentlemen this afternoon, it is my pleasure and privilege to introduce our speaker for the afternoon, Hal S. Chase. To tell him that I would be out the hallway pacing up and down, trying to go through the motions of organizing the interesting philosophical statements we made last night but I remember two rather interesting things that we never seem to finish with a sort of an interest in American philosophy and somehow sort of clustering around the pragmatism of William James. Fred Woodard: And then today to hear Hal mentioned that he moved into the protest tradition out of a conviction that protest is a vital way of life. It seems to me from one looks at the ethics of William James that the aggressive doing is also a vital part of human existence. Fred Woodard: So if by doing one is also making a viable protest, I see very much the link with the philosophy of protest and a kind of pragmatism, now I might be stretching it a great deal. Fred Woodard: Hal Chase is a native Iowan born in the Des Moines Iowa, raised in Frankfurt Kentucky. He is married and has three children, Heather, Parker and Spencer, his wife is Avril, she is here. Fred Woodard: He earned his BA at Washington and Lee University in American civilization. His MA at Stanford University in American history, his PhD at University of Pennsylvania in American civilization. Fred Woodard: Among his publications and presentations, we have William Calvin Chase and The Washington Bee, The Negro History Bulletin, William Calvin Chase in Rayford W. Logan's Dictionary of the American Negro Biography and as we understand, Hal is presently revising, reworking his dissertation for publication by the Southern Illinois University Press. The title of the dissertation is, Honey for Friends, Stings for Enemies, William Calvin Chase and the Washington Bee, 1882 to 1921. Fred Woodard: Today, Mr. Chase will be speaking to us on the topic of the Afro-American Press and the protest tradition, 1875 to 1920. Thank you. Hal S. Chase: First of all Fred and the others I consider fellow scholars, teachers and students. It's a hyphenated word with me, I think of it in terms of one word. It's an honor to be here, it's a pleasure and it's a opportunity to make a statement that I've been working on for about three years concerning The Afro-American Press, its content. What I find there, what I have found there so far, I certainly welcome your questions at the end and I hope we can go further for the whole topic, that's what I have in mind. Hal S. Chase: Regardless of the time period, The Afro-American Press has been an institution of the protest tradition which is to borrow a phrase from Langston Hughes, as old as the flow of human blood and human veins. Hal S. Chase: Between 1875 and 1920, The Black Press had several forms, the most numerous of these was The Commercial Weekly, the most, excuse me. It usually was a four page paper with six columns, although several of them had eight pages. The most influential editors and weeklies in this bureau were T. Thomas Fortune of the New York Age, Christopher J. Perry of The Philadelphia Tribune, William Calvin Chase of the Washington Bee, John Mitchell Jr. Of The Richmond Planet. Hal S. Chase: Harry C. Smith of The Cleveland Gazette, Edward E. Cooper of The Indianapolis Freeman and then later The Washington Colored American and Ferdinand L. Barnett of The Chicago Conservator, Ida B. Wells Barnett known for a fearless crusade against lynching and Johnny Bruce, better known by his pen name, Bruce Grit were widely read columns of this era. Hal S. Chase: Significant additions to this group after the turn of the century word were William Monroe Trotter, The Boston Guardian, Robert S. Abbott of The Chicago Defender and Robert L. Vann of The Pittsburgh Courier. Hal S. Chase: Religious denominations, fraternal orders and such protest organizations as The Niagara Movement and NAACP supported their own publications, especially important among these were AME Bishop, Henry M. Turner editor of The Voice of Missions and then The Voice of the People and W.B. Du Bois, editor of Horizon, The journal of the Niagara Movement and later editor of The Crisis, of course, The journal of the NAACP. Hal S. Chase: There were also short-lived attempts at posting in magazines and among these was J. Max Barber's, militant Voice of the Negro. Hal S. Chase: The protest tradition is a more debatable term because there are different perspectives on protest. One problem with our knowledge of the historical past is that it is often distorted by the present. For example, many may think of the protest tradition in terms of the direct action demonstrations of 1950s and sixties and consciously or unconsciously use that personal knowledge as a criteria for defining protest of the past. This problem of erroneous hindsight is mitigated if one considers more closely, the term Protest Tradition. Hal S. Chase: Tradition designates the human action of handing down from one generation to another and this in itself denotes change in complexity. Protest literally means, can testify in favor of. This positive connotation should be especially noted because by some interesting twist of etymology, protest is now defined as the expression or declaration of objection, disapproval and dissent which curates a negative connotation of being against, as both a word and tradition. Hal S. Chase: Protest is an historical phenomenon. The expression of it between 1875 and 1920 was different from that of our own time, but it was no less protest. In fact, we were greatly indebted to, The Afro-American Press and its editors for handing down to us a strong protest tradition. Hal S. Chase: It should be noted that The Afro-American Press was founded upon the positive expression of the protest tradition. In New York in 1827, John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish justified the publication of Freedom's Journal with a statement quotes; "we wished to plead our own cause, too long have others spoken for us too, long has the public been deceived by misrepresentations." End quote. Hal S. Chase: This positive urge for self-definition and self-determination was a continuous undercurrent and the articles and editorials which appeared in black newspapers between 1875 and 1920. Nevertheless, that race pride has been interpreted as one facet of the age of accommodation and this view has been widely accepted and over simplified. Hal S. Chase: The protest tradition in the Afro-American Press 1875, 1920 was also rooted in the human instinct for survival. Those actions classified as objection, disapproval and descent were actually a means of self-defense. Hal S. Chase: During the 45 years in question, the number of Afro- Americans, the murder of Afro-Americans by lynching and quotes, 'riot' was pervasive in the South and increasingly frequent occurrence in Northern cities. Hal S. Chase: T. Thomas Fortune, editor of The New York Age had a clear concept of the role of The Black Press in response to such violent white racism, quote, "the newspapers become the Oracle of the people, it has become the defender of the just rights of the people so that error and wrong can not long prevail where the press is left free to begat them, as long as men are struck, they will cry out in protest and indignation until those wrongs are avenged." End quote. Hal S. Chase: The objections and descents of black journalists, whereas pervasive as the oppression they opposed. In the words of one scholar, the content of the Afro-American Press constituted a quotes, "bitter and relentless criticism of most white Americans of their policies and domestic or international affairs, their legal and political practices, their business enterprises, their churches, schools and other institutions, their social customs, their opinions and prejudices and almost everything else in white American civilization. Hal S. Chase: Although the protest tradition in black journalists ran counter to almost everything in white America, it sprangs from the same spirit of justice and equality, which produced The Declaration of Independence and Constitution as an American." said, T. Thomas Fortune, I feel it born in my nature to share in the fullest measure, all that is American, I have a heritage in each and every provision incorporated in the constitution of my country. Hal S. Chase: The protest tradition also contain moral overtones of the Christian ideology of the brotherhood of man and from the more militant Old Testament beliefs, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth and in the sure judgment of sinners by a wrathful God. Hal S. Chase: The protest was inherently middle class, the optimism of the idea of progress characterized most of its content. Hal S. Chase: Recognition by merit was the guideline for society. For example, Calvin Chase changed the motto of his Washington Bee to quotes, home rule, industry, justice, equality, and recognition according to Meier when he gained control of that paper in late 1882. Hal S. Chase: This orientation is also reflected in the fact that the leadership and subscribers of The Afro-American Press were members of the middle class like the middle class ideology of the 1950s and sixties. That a black journalist of the era 1875, 1920 was militant. For example, the biography of T. Thomas Fortune is subtitled, Militant Journalist and that of Johnny Bruce, Militant Black Journalist. Hal S. Chase: The autobiography of Ida B. Wells Barnett is entitled, Crusade for Justice and the biographies of William Monroe Trotter and Robert S. Abbott are entitled respectively, The Guardian of Boston and The Lonely Warrior. Hal S. Chase: The protest on The Black Press was always directed to its black readers. No doubtedly that partially accounts for the lack of scholarly attention to it until recent years, since 1970 words concerning T. Thomas Fortune, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Johnny Bruce and William Monroe Trotter have been published. Hal S. Chase: But the statement by the editors of the recently published bibliographical essays, Blacks in America, quotes the literature about The Black Press has thus far been weak, is still valid in terms of over remaining omissions. Hal S. Chase: They were equally correct the editors in asserting that there is no satisfactory study of the black press for the period 1875, 1915 essay. Hal S. Chase: August Meier may disagree because in his [inaudible] studies, Negro Thought in The America, 1880, 1915 published in 1963 is based somewhat on the content of newspapers and religious journals and because he devotes considerable attention to black editors, they're all in a poem some quotes 1200 times Meier presented this thesis, quote "segregated institutions have appeared most desirable in the periods of greatest depression and discouragement and it has been in such periods referring to the late 19th, early 20th century that this desirability was most often expressed overtly and became the core of a dominant ideological orientation." End quote. Hal S. Chase: This thesis is based on the model of again, quote " a mutual and interactive cause of relationship between segregated institutions and ideologies and attitudes of withdrawal from the white world." End quote. Hal S. Chase: This model essentially that a stimulus response, emanates from the premises that quotes," reasons that have led Negros to favor their own segregated institutions are several but they are ultimately rooted in the hostility of the white world in which they live." End quote. Hal S. Chase: In some Meier assert that Negro Thought in America, 1880, 1915 was predominantly accommodations. The components of which he defined his race pride, solidarity and self-help. He states that this was especially true in the South where the psychopathic oppression of black Americans by whites was most severe. Hal S. Chase: Several points here deserve closer attention. The first is, the promise that segregated institutions are ultimately rooted in the hostility of the white world. Hal S. Chase: Perhaps this was a figure of speech and perhaps the author did not intend to be taken literally, nevertheless, the literal meaning is there and it contains, I think two fundamental, perhaps unconscious misrepresentations, the United States of America is not the world and neither the USA nor the world is white. Hal S. Chase: What seems to follow from this misconception, however is the model where white Americans are the active force equated to stimulus and black Americans are the passive force equated with response. Hal S. Chase: When such a model is applied to Thought of Black Americans for the years, 1880, 1915. The past had connotation of response easily translates into accommodation, define his withdrawal in terms of segregated institutions expressing race pride, solidarity and self-help. Hal S. Chase: The essential problem in Meier's model and thesis however, is that its inherent dynamic permits no change from accommodation to protest via the surly generous actions of black Americans. Hal S. Chase: Thus he explains the ascendancy of protest in the 20th century, by the death of the Booker T. Washington and the shift of the black population to note to the northern cities where the protest tradition prevail. Hal S. Chase: The content of The Afro-American Press is understood best in terms of the model of countervailing power. Simply stated the model is, as one power emerges and a search is influence, another power arises to counter it. Hal S. Chase: Between 1875 and 1920, the protest of The Black Press became more vigorous as the white racism became more viscous, until it became the dominant ideology of the black community. Hal S. Chase: In the words of William Calvin Chase, quote "it was the weekly newspapers, more than 200 in number who strong every week protest against the injustices heaped upon and segregation named against the race that prompted into existence, The NAACP, Meier's well aware that a strong protest tradition existed in the black press in a grossly overlooked statement, he declares" quote. Hal S. Chase: Ask after surveying these examples of Fred R. Moore and Charles Alexander relationships between those two editors and Booker T. Washington. Hal S. Chase: After surveying these examples, one is compelled to conclude that for the most part, Negro editors did not adopt an accommodating line even when they were close to and heavily subsidized by Tuskegee in the same passage, Meier goes even further and asserts, quotes "agitation for political and civil rights and against discrimination and oppression filled so many columns in most newspapers it seems correct to assume that this was what the editors believed their readers wanted, given the relationship with the Afro-American press, the United States Supreme court decision in the civil rights cases of 1883, The Afro-American League and Council, The Atlanta Compromise, The Spanish American War and Imperialism, The Brownsville Affair of 1906, World War One" quotes, "lynching" and quotes "rioting" which occurred throughout the era. Hal S. Chase: One is compelled to assert that protest was a strong and persistent theme in the thought of the black community. South and North an era of 1875, 1920 and at least co-equal to that of accommodation. Hal S. Chase: In 1875, Congress passed a comprehensive Civil Rights' Bill among the forces for such passage was the convention of colored newspaper men held in Cincinnati in 1875. Hal S. Chase: Resolutions call for quote, self confidence, self reliance, intelligence, wealth and united action in that order to advance the race. One which protested the continuing denial of civil rights, occasion considerable debate but more significantly the majority passed it. Hal S. Chase: The Civil Rights Bill was short lived. In October 1883, the United States Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional. Response from The Afro-American Press was immediate and militant. Hal S. Chase: T. Thomas Fortune declared in The Globe a precursor of The Age quote's "the colored people in the United States feel today as if they have been baptized in ice water." AME, Bishop Henry McNeal Turner published a widely circulated pamphlet which alluded to the constitution as a dirty rag, a cheap, a liable and you ought to be spit upon by every Negro in the land. Hal S. Chase: Bruce Grit was equally vehement quotes, "in this so called land of the free and home of the brave it is a common thing for us to speak of it as our country, morally and over right, it is our country, socially and politically is not our country but simply our abiding place. Hal S. Chase: We are permitted to exercise the right of citizenship only when that the exercise of such rights conforms to the idea of the dominant race, our country. What a mockery, what a farce, what a delusion, what a lie." End quote. Hal S. Chase: The usually temperate John Wesley Cromwell editor of The People's advocate of Washington DC declared the following, quote "the colored people are being robbed, cheated, insulted, bulldozed and murdered. We are shot down like dogs, let us shoot back. In May 1887, Fortune published an editorial in The New York Freeman which suggested the formation of a protected [inaudible] which he proposed to call the Afro-American league declared that the task of such a league was to organize and then to agitate, to overcome" quotes, the almost universal suppression of our doubt in the South. Hal S. Chase: Universal [inaudible] minimal rain of Lynch law and Mob law, the unequal distribution of school funds, the odious and the demoralizing penitentiary system in the South. Hal S. Chase: The almost universal tyranny of common carrier corporations in the South and exclusion from places of public accommodation. Hal S. Chase: Fortune lost control of the Freeman a few months later and his idea remained dormant until he became editor of The Age in 1889. Hal S. Chase: In November of that year, he published a call to a meeting in Chicago for the following January to organize the Afro-American league on the basis of the constitution which a company is called. Hal S. Chase: Editors were a majority of those who endorsed the idea, there were 19 and four of these men published papers in the South. Hal S. Chase: William A. Pledger of The Athens Georgia Blade, John Mitchell, Jr. Which was mentioned before The Richmond Planet, Mangus L. Robinson who published The National Leader in Alexandria Virginia and John C. Dancy who published The Star of Zion in Salisbury North Carolina. Hal S. Chase: Fortune sounded the keynote of the league and a speech before the Chicago convention quote. "We have met here today as representatives of eight million Freemen who know our rights and have the courage to defend them. It is the business of the Afro-American to content, to agitate and it can be done and no more effectual way than through the league system. Hal S. Chase: The press is determined that the people rally." To issues which concern the Afro-American league and especially The Black Press in 1890, were the Federal Elections Bill introduced by representative Henry Cabot Lodge, Republican of Massachusetts and the Immigration Bill of Matthew Butler, Democrat of South Carolina. Hal S. Chase: The Black Press was almost unanimous in its objection to Butler's proposal to appropriate $5 million to assist the immigration of black Americans from the United States. Fortune, Chase, Smith and Cooper vigorously attacked Butler and Edward W. Blyden and these efforts contributed to the defeat of the bill. Hal S. Chase: Their efforts assume the positive role of protest with regard to the elections bill, Calvin Chase was especially attendant and coverage about the bill appeared weekly in his Washington Bee. For almost a year. Hal S. Chase: To Chase the federal elections bill was a great and beneficent measure which would remedy the central problem of black Americans lack of political power. Hal S. Chase: In July 1890 Chase juvinally reported the passage of the bill by the house but two weeks later he was warning his readers of rumors that Republican senators would betray blacks by allowing the defeat of the elections bill in return for Southern support of the McKinley, Tariff. Hal S. Chase: This bargain was made and the election bill was defeated in January 1891 but this did not mark as one scholar declares the acceptance of Negro subrogation more clearly than the combination of sectional reconciliation. Hal S. Chase: In fact, the years 1890 to 1895 marked the resurgence in political activity of black Americans, especially in the South via their involvement in the populist movement. Hal S. Chase: It was in the context of this political Renaissance and the impending presidential election of 1896 that Booker T. Washington was invited to address the Atlanta exposition in September 1895. Hal S. Chase: The so called Atlanta Compromise, received instant and effusive claim in the white daily press and there's evidence that Clark Howell, editor of the Atlanta Constitution instigated that favorable publicity. The response of the black press was varied and cautious. Hal S. Chase: T. Thomas Fortune and Edward E.Cooper promptly congratulated their friend and praised his remarks. W.B. Du Bois penned a tribute from his post as a young classics professor at Wilberforce and veteran columnists, Bruce Grit was thought but excuse me, but veteran columnist, Bruce Grit was more reserved and after a month he favorably compared the address to old wine which improves with age. Although eventually critical Calvin Chase and Harry C. Smith were initially cautious, neither responded to the speech at the first opportunity. Hal S. Chase: Chase took the second opportunity to publish in a relatively obscure place. A brief remark which described Washington's speech as an apology for Southern outrages. Smith maintained his silence. Hal S. Chase: It was late October and early November before each man took an editorial position. Chase expanded on his theme of apology and both he and Smith rejected Washington's favorable representation of the sell. Hal S. Chase: Such criticism of the Atlanta address was not exclusive to The Northern Black Press. One of the sharpest personal attacks on the Tuskegee appeared in The Atlanta Advocate and Bishop Henry M. Turner denounced the speech in his Voice of Missions. Hal S. Chase: The year 1898 was a turning point in the protest tradition, the murder of the black postmaster Frazier Baker and his baby child in Lake City, South Carolina produced a torrent of protest in the Black Press. Hal S. Chase: Harry C. Smith denounced white southerners in a front page headline, all capital letters INFERNAL BRUTES and Chase editorialized as follows, for malignantly and deep died prejudice and hatred together with the open defiance of national authority. This instance eclipses any of the thousands of crimes which have been perpetrated against the Negro in the cell end quote. Despite such dissent, president McKinley failed to make any, to take any retributive action and his indifference to the welfare of black federal employees and citizens in the South was distinguished in The Black Press from his concern for Cuban revolutionaries. Hal S. Chase: This protest did not subside after the sinking of the USS Maine. For example, John Mitchell Jr. asked in an editorial of the Richmond Planet quotes, with the national government will government not protect us, why should we be expected to protect the national government. End Quote. Hal S. Chase: The Indianapolis Freeman called for an indemnity for the loss of 10,000 Negroes who had been lynched and butchered and slaughtered since the Civil War, in addition to the proposal and indemnity from Spain. Hal S. Chase: Bishop Turner expressed the hope that no Negro would be persuaded by the abundance of jingoism that appeared in the white daily press and declared quote, if the United States gets into a war with Spain, we shall stump the country against the black man taking up a gun. End quote. Hal S. Chase: When war was declared in April, Afro-American editors by and large did not follow Turner's lead instead The Planet led a positive protest for black officers with a slogan, no officers, no [inaudible]. This movement spread far and wide and even the usually conservative alibi standard adopted this position.