African-American Reporter in 1946
Meredith Dempsey was a reporter for the country’s largest Black newspaper, the Pittsburgh
Courier. After eight years, including four years reporting on WW II, he is unsure about his
future in the newspaper business. He made $1,600 a year and he and his wife had a small child.
Life at Home
• The Dempseys are enjoying the birth of their first child, but are shocked by the cost of everything
from baby food to diapers
• Their baby was born in a hospital, the first child on either side of the family not to be born at home;
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the Urban League has played a key role in linking improved medical care to new arrivals
Until she got pregnant, Jeanine worked as a nurse’s aid in the same hospital where her baby was born
To hold down inflation but allow prices to rise to competitive levels, the government has been
gradually lifting the wartime controls; recently, because the Office of Price Administration approved
a two percent increase in the price of cotton fabrics and yarns, Jeanine knows the price of cloth
diapers is bound to go up
According to the newspapers, the average price
of goods has risen 18.5 percent in a year; her
budget tells her the government’s report is low
The retail price of chocolate bars, cooking
chocolate, and cocoa recently jumped 27
percent
Until recently, she was thinking about
supplying a local market with baked goods to
supplement their income, but now she is unsure
if she can turn a profit
Before the baby arrived, she had grown tired of
the long hours Meredith devoted to his job;
now she wants him to leave the newspaper
business and find a job with more regular hours
He loves being a reporter so much she is afraid
to tell him her thoughts
Life at Work
• When covering a story, Meredith is expected to
defend the Negro position, and to seek civil
rights at every turn
• Although the Chicago Defender defined the role
of the Black press during World War I and the
Meredith Dempsey had a reputation for tough, insightful writing.
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This is Who We Were: In The 1940s
The Pittsburgh Courier was often passed from one apartment to the next and emerged as the national voice of blacks during WW II.
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Black great migration period of the 1920s and 1930s, his paper, the Pittsburgh Courier, is emerging as the
national voice of blacks during World War II
The Pittsburgh Courier is the largest Black newspaper in the country; its circulation ex ceeds
280,000
Because the Courier is often passed from apartment to apartment, many believe its influence is four
times greater than its circulation numbers
One of its readers is the FBI; several times, agents have come to visit the newspaper following the
publication of an article
The FBI is concerned that the newspaper is “holding America up to ridicule”; they also want to
know whether any outside forces are trying to influence the paper
In the past, the army has stated publicly that the Japanese and communists are using the Negro press
to influence Americans
The Courier replied to the charges of disloyalty, saying, “The Japanese, Germans, Italians, and their
Axis stooges know that it is futile to seek spies, saboteurs, or Fifth Columnists among American
Negroes. Every attempt in that direction has been a miserable failure.”
Meredith knows several of his contacts are linked to the Communist party; they will occasionally call
him to write a story that will help a family whose father has been lynched or simply is in desperate
need
He believes the Courier has given a voice to African Americans
He is especially proud that the Courier launched the famous Double V campaign, thanks to a letter
to the editor from a factory worker in Kansas
The Double V campaign calls for victory abroad and victory at home, meaning an end to Jim Crow,
and has become a national symbol for blacks
This is Who We Were: In The 1940s
• Some of his stories recently dealt with a rising tide of anger now that the war has ended; he believes
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the paper serves as a safety valve within the community, and that without the Black press there
would be more riots, not fewer
His stories are frank and clear, just what his editors demand; writing politely is for the White press,
he has been told repeatedly
Since labor disputes are rampant now that the war has ended, he has spent much of the year
covering strikes
Strikes in Pittsburgh alone have involved bellhops, waitresses, the Independent Union of Duquesne
Light Company, steelworkers, state and county workers, and textile workers
A recent story he wrote focused on who was to blame for an act of sabotage during the strike against
Duquesne Light Company; a rope thrown over a 22,000-volt line caused it to burn out and pitch the
city into darkness for 15 minutes
The strike at the power company has also forced more than 100 large steel-fabricating factories to
close; their output ranges from straight pins to steel for houses, autos, refrigerators and multi-ton
heavy machinery
In sympathy, the city’s 2,700 streetcar motormen have also staged a work stoppage, virtually closing
the city down
The pressure for a settlement is intense and tempers are short
Covering strikes can be exhausting since neither side trusts a reporter, and management will rarely
even meet with a reporter from the Black press, especially the Pittsburgh Courier
In an attempt to keep up with breaking events, Meredith has a cot set up near the presses at the
newspaper office; some days he does not go home
The paper now has 10 regular columnists, and although he has enjoyed reporting, he thinks he now
wants to leave “beat” work and write a column
Many of the columns are written by professors, businessmen, and labor leaders; columnists for the
Courier currently include two non-blacks: a Chinese man and an Indian woman
He is also desperate for money and thinks a columnist job will both pay better and allow him to
make money on the side
The Courier began in 1907 when Edwin Nathaniel Harleston, a security guard at the H.J. Heinz food
packing plant, decided to put his love for poetry to use and started a newspaper, A Toiler’s Life; sales
were slow
The Double V campaign was demonstrated in a variety of ways.
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This is Who We Were: In The 1940s
The war led to aggressive campaigns to end segregation in America.
• By January 15, 1910, the four-page newspaper had a new name, the Courier, new partners, and a
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press run of 500
Within five years, the paper was a social force for neighborhood issues and was calling for Southern
blacks to “come North.”
To meet the demand of the newly arrived rural blacks from the South, the Courier wrote extensively
about the need for housing, health, and education reform
During World War I, the paper advised blacks who had gained employment to “save your money and
prepare for the day when white soldiers return from war and reclaim their old jobs.”
In 1925, the Courier sent George Schuyler on a nine-month tour of the South, during which he
visited every city with more than 5,000 African Americans
Also in 1925, Florida was given the “pennant in the Lynching League of America” because eight
blacks were lynched in the Sunshine state that year; seven were lynched in Texas, four in Mississippi,
three in South Carolina, two in Arkansas, and one person each was lynched in Georgia, Kansas,
New Mexico, and Tennessee
Emboldened by its successes, the paper then battled White government, complacent Black churches,
Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa Movement, and the “do-nothing” NAACP
By 1936, the Courier boasted a circulation of 174,000
The Courier, like most Black newspapers, attracts few regular advertisers, while the few that do
appear are for skin creams and lucky charms; most of its income results from subscriptions
By the start of the war, the Courier was calling for mass meetings and rallies to protest the exclusion
of blacks from the military and the industrial defense program
This is Who We Were: In The 1940s
Life in the Community: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Since the start of the war, Pittsburgh’s steel industry had been working around the clock to supply
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tools and weapons to defeat the enemy
Since Pearl Harbor Day, Pittsburgh has produced 95 million tons of ingot steel, and is proud of its
contribution to the war effort
Unfortunately, Pittsburgh’s long association with steel has given it the nickname, “The Smoky City,”
even though industry has made strides to reduce pollution
For decades, the city has accepted smog so heavy it turns day into night
The battle to control smoke in the 1940s has been led by Edward T. Leech, editor of the Pittsburgh
Press, and several other prominent citizens
The impact on the city has been
dramatic; buildings once thought to be
black have been scrubbed white
Beginning in 1916, the Black population
of Pittsburgh began to swell as part of
the great migration of blacks from the
South
They moved North between 1910 and
1930 for the same reason that eastern
European immigrants came to America
in the preceding decades, jobs in the
iron and steel mills
Between 1910 and 1930, the Black
population of Pittsburgh grew 115
percent from 25,623 to 54,983; the
number of black iron and steel workers
in Pittsburgh jumped 326 percent from
786 to 2,853
In 1917, a survey of black immigrants
showed that half were in their prime
work years-18 to 30, most resided in
boardinghouses for unmarried men, and
more than two-thirds had been in the
city for less than six months.
In 1920, the average black family,
Buildings once thought to be black due to the constant smog were scrubbed
including two wage earners brought
white.
home $3.60 per day; rents were
generally $10 per month
The migration continued in the 1920s; the ravages of the boll weevil drove many black families off
the Southern farms, while restrictive immigration policies designed to close the door to eastern
Europeans created new job opportunities
During World War II, some jobs opened to black workers in Pennsylvania, thanks to the Committee
on Fair Employment Practices
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the committee to investigate complaints of job
discrimination, while an order was issued to prevent black leader A. Philip Randolph from leading a
march on Washington
Several labor strikes have taken place because black workers were added to the work force
As labor shortages grew during the war, many blacks were hired to platform jobs at the Pittsburgh
Railroad, or as welders at the Sun Shipbuilding Company
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This is Who We Were: In The 1940s
Pittsburgh’s steel industry worked around the clock to supply tools and weapons for the war.
The Black Press
• When Franklin D. Roosevelt entered Office in 1933, there were 150 Black newspapers with a
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combined circulation of 600,000, but by 1943, the Black press had more than doubled its weekly
circulation to 1.6 million; in 1946, the combined total was 1.8 million copies weekly
Only five newspapers had a circulation of more than 50,000; nationwide, the 1940 cen sus showed a
Black population of 13 million
The Black, or Negro, press became known as a “fighting press” or “crusading press”; it always kept its
eyes on the United States Government and its policy toward blacks
To create a more united front on confronting racial issues, the National Negro Publishing
Association was created in 1940
The issues included the U.S. Navy’s recruitment policy that virtually excluded blacks, the rampant
use of employment discrimination, concerns over possible governmental charges of sedition and
disloyalty during the war, and the need to balance the timidity of advertisers with the desire for
militancy
The Black press and the traditional federal government did not always see eye to eye
When the Black press began pushing in 1939 for more Negroes in the army, particularly the officer
corps, the White House declared “the policy of the War Department is not to intermingle colored
and white enlisted personnel in the same regimental organizations.”
When 13 Negro seamen aboard the U.S.S. Philadelphia wrote to the Pittsburgh Courier to voice their
discontent with the navy’s racial policy, the sailors were jailed and scheduled to be court-martialed
The editorial work of the Courier resulted in the soldiers’ release without trial or court-martial; the
sailors were sent back to the United States and released with bad conduct discharges
Later in 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Courier made the world aware of a black navy
mess attendant, Dorie Miller, who dragged his captain to safety, then manned a machine gun until it
ran out of ammunition; although the paper called for the Congressional Medal of Honor, Miller
received the Navy Cross
Taking the lead of the Pittsburgh Courier, Black newspapers nationwide began promoting the Double
V: “victories over totalitarian forces overseas and those at home who are denying equality to
Negroes.”
This is Who We Were: In The 1940s
• Nationwide, the Double V campaign improved circulation for all papers; the Courier boosted
circulation to 270,000, The Afro-American in Baltimore reached 229,000, followed by the Chicago
Defender with 161,000, and the Journal and Guide in Norfolk, Virginia
• The increased circulation allowed the Negro press to become more aggressive
• The government wanted the Black press to give up its demands for full black rights until the end of
the war, having made the same demand during World War I
Racial policies and prejudice extended to the military during WW II.
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This is Who We Were: In The 1940s
“The Negro in the United States,” by Franklin Frazier
“The Negro reporter is a fighting partisan. The people who read his newspaper expect him to
put up a good fight for them. They don’t like him tame. They want him to have an arsenal
well-stocked with atomic adjectives and nouns. They expect him to invent similes and
metaphors that lay open the foe’s weaknesses and to employ cutting irony, sarcasm, and
ridicule to confound and embarrass our opponents. The Negro reader is often a spectator at a
fight. The reporter is attacking the reader’s enemy and the reader has a vicarious relish for a
fight well fought.”
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“Editorial,” by Perival Prattis, Editor,
Pittsburgh Courier, 1942, following a meeting with
the Federal Office of Facts and Figures
“The hysteria of Washington officialdom over Negro morale is at once an astonishing,
amusing, and shameful spectacle.
It is astonishing to find supposedly informed persons in high positions so unfamiliar with the
thought and feeling of one-tenth of the population. One would imagine they had been on
another planet, and yet every last one of them insists that he ‘knows the Negro.’ It is amusing
to see these people so panicky over a situation which they have caused and which
governmental policies maintain.
It is shameful that the only ‘remedy’ they are now able to put forward is Jim Crowism on a
larger scale and the suppression of the Negro newspapers, i.e., further departure from the
principles of democracy.
If the Washington gentry are eager to see Negro morale take an up turn, they have only to
abolish Jim Crowism and lower the color bar in every field and phase of American life
Squelching the Negro newspapers will not make the Negro masses love insult, discrimination,
exploitation, and ostracism. It will only further depress their morale."
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