39
“This callous indifference to the feelings of its Negro readers on the part of the paper which published such an insulting headline only goes to show that the dailies are by no means as friendly towards the Negroes as they sometimes appear,” the Age editorialized. “They continue to exaggerate criminal stories about Negroes although many of them have stopped emphasizing the race of a criminal in their headlines. Neither do they go to the front to point out and mould public opinion against the unequal justice meted out to Negro offenders, as compared to that given the more influential of the white race…. We might cite other instances of bias on the part of the daily press but this should suffice to show that the Negro still needs his own racial organs in his fight for a square deal in this country.”
PostScript: That Morgan College building under construction opened as the Soper Library in 1939. When a more modern facility was erected at what was then Morgan State College in 1974, the old structure was rechristened Banneker Hall and, as a communications center, later became home to public radio station WEAA as well as to academic departments. Now 75 years after it opened, the building is home to the School of Education and Urban Studies. In the fall of 2013, another building was dedicated as the Communication Center, home of both WEAA and the new School of Global Journalism and Communication at what is now Morgan State University.
1R. L. Crowder, "’Don't Buy Where You Can't Work’": An Investigation of the Political Forces and Social Conflict Within the Harlem Boycott of 1934”. Afro - Americans in New York Life and History, Vol. 15, No. 2 (July 31, 1991)
2 Armistead S. Pride and Clint C. Wilson II, A History of the Black Press. Washington D.C.: Howard University Press, 1997.
3 Emma Lou Thornbrough, T. Thomas Fortune. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1972.
4Ibid.
5bid.
6 See, e.g., the March 13, 1943, editions of The Pittsburgh Courier, The Chicago Defender and the Cleveland Call and Post.
7Atlanta Daily World, Aug. 25, 1948; New Journal and Guide, Aug. 28, 1948; The New York Times, Sept. 2, 1948; The Chicago Defender, Sept. 4, 1948; Afro-American, Oct. 2, 1948.
8 New York Amsterdam News, Feb. 27, 1960.