Black press observes 150th anniversary
BlMX
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staff photo by James Parker
Black Ink past and present: on the inside pages of this special section Black Ink editor,
Allen Johnson explores the brief but illustrious history of "The Official Publication of
the Black Student Movement."
Nora Parker
Staff Writer
This year marks the 150th
anniversary of the Black Press in
America. This first Black newspa
per, Freedom's Journal, was found
ed by Samuel Cornish and John
Russwurm March 16, 1827, in New
York City.
“We wish to plead our own
case. Too long have others spoken
for us.” This plea, the main point
of the paper, was aimed at freed-
men, sympathetic whites and aboli
tionists in America and abroad.
Freedom’s Journal included poetry
and literature, reported religious
events and emphasized racial issues.
Other Black newspapers soon
sprang up, some more militant than
Freedom's Journal, but they fol
lowed a similar format of reporting.
Bemadine Moses teaches a
course about the Black Press in the
Afro-American Studies curriculum.
Moses said, “The Black Press has
acted as the champion of Black
people through illuminating the
merits of education, community
identity, achievements, nationalism
and enfranchisement. It further
projected the plight and determina
tion for equality to the United
States government and people.
“The Black Press,” added
Moses, “has been the Black com
munity’s health, education and
welfare department—our critic and
conscience.”
Dr. Sonja Stone, co-chairman
of the African and Afro-American
Studies curriculum commented,
“The Black Press has been a fore
front of the struggle for equality
and human rights. It is also a pri
mary source of Black history at the
international, national and local
levels.”
Both Moses and Stone are co
directors of the Southeastern Re
gional Black Press Institute, which
will analyze and develop strategies
for leadership of the Black Press. A
Rockefeller Grant has been award
ed to the institute, which is in the
final stages of development.
Black magazines
A tradition of education
Bernard McIntyre
Staff Writer
Although the Black magazine
between 1930 and 1950 had its
weaknesses, it contributed signifi
cantly to the impetus of the Age of
Rights. The Crisis, The Black Man,
and Negro Digest all played an inte
gral role in educating the Black
masses to the societal circumstances
that their fellow man had to deal
with—their educational institutions
and their identity which circum
vented their heritage. Edited by
Roy Wilkins, The Crisis' major con
cern was to give the Negro an op
portunity to speak out.
The Blacks who did speak out
educated other Blacks through the
revelations of their experiences. In
the June issue of The Crisis in
1945, Howard Baer wrote a non-
fictional article, “Glen from the
Boetheel.”
In an effort to make other
Blacks aware of their plight in
America, Baer summed up Glen’s
dilemma; “Glen Strickland cannot
act Uke a man in front of his boss.
He wants to, but then he needs the
work and he cannot keep both his
manhood and his job.”
When asked by another white
man why .he refers to his boss as
Mr. Nick, Glen responded with his
head between his hands, “He makes
me. He says he won’t have any
nigger calling him plain Nick.” Nu
merous articles appeared through
out The Crisis revealing similar ex
periences of fellow Blacks and cop
ing mechanisms to deal with such
oppressive situations.
Marcus Garvey proposed an
other coping mechanism in Black
Man. “A race that does not think is
left to the mercy of those who
think, which is white society,” Gar
vey declared. The Black Man advo
cated that it was highly impossible
to achieve in organizations like the
NAACP when intoxicated with
white supremacy. Thus, Blacks
were made aware that it was essen
tial for them to change their
thoughts concerning white civiliza
tion.
The Black Man was one of the
few Black magazines during that
time which let the Black man know
that he was living on the shores of a
(cont. on 3B)
Special Section ■ The Black Press
BI^CK INK
April 15, 1977 Volume 9 No. 12
The other Black Press
Players - a waste of journalistic talent ?
Chiquetta Shackleford
Staff Writer
Webster defines “player” as
one who performs for amusement,
and Players magazine, “the maga
zine designed to turn you on!”,
boasts of beautiful sisters from L.A.
to Africa, the coolest sounds in
jazz, rock, blues and classical, films
and fiction, books and articles,
fabulous fashions and much, much
more—all for your amusement.
Players magazine, although
basically a pornographic publica
tion, is different from all the other
pomo magazines in one very ob
vious aspect: all its birthday-suited
beauties are Black. From Queen
Regina, to Brandy “the Players'
Choice, to the Fox of the Month,
Black women are exposed in every
sensuously revealing, voluptuous
pose imziginable, none of which
leave anything to the imagination.
In polling the opinions of
Black students here, both male and
female, opinions were almost even
ly weighted on opposite poles.
Men’s comments ranged from the
usual “I read it for the interesting
intellectual articles” to “There’s
no doubt about it, the ladies are
bad!”, while most females found
it just like all other pornographic
magazines—dirty.
“Players really does have a lot
of good articles on stereos and
sound systems,” commented one
male senior, “but you can’t help
glancing at the pictures. There are
a lot of good looking bombs on
those pages,” he laughed.
wMfW-
Players: slick pornography or good
journalism?
“Yes, I like Players," admit
ted another male sophomore, “and
I won’t deny that I buy it just to
look at those beautiful naked sis
ters—they’re breath-taking!”
Most females, however, found
Players as typical as other porno
graphic magazines such as Playboy
and Oui.
"Players is just as exploiting
and chauvinistic as any other
pornographic magazine,” said one
female senior. “The whole purpose
seems to be exposing the female
body in every degrading pose
imaginable. I believe that the hu
man body is beautiful, but there’s
nothing beautiful about porno
graphy.”
Along those same lines, an
other female sophomore com
plained, “What upsets me about
Players and all other pornographic
magazines geared strictly for male
audiences is that the women in
them are completely exposed, and
when I say completely, I mean
completely, but the men show
practically nothing at all. I think
Players should take special pains
to be geared equally to both
sexes, in both articles and in
pictures.”
While most people did com
ment on the issue of Players which
I practically forced in their hands
to get an opinion, quite a few were
genuinely “pissed off” with what
they saw. One young woman sim
ply threw the magazine to the
floor.
Another female commented,
(cont. on 4B)