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Equity: Our Theme For
Equity for all Americans will be
our theme for the coming year. And,
since black Americans are those
most mistreated, our major focus
will be surrounding the needs for our
communities which typify the needs
of all America en extremus.
However, to achieve an accurate
assessment of where we need to be
going and of how to get there, we
must correctly ascertain where we
are.
In support of this need for ab
solutely correct assessment of our
precise positioning, a story is told
of young Benjamin Banneker. the
black, self-taught mathematician
and pastrommer who played a major
role in establishing the geographical
boundaries of Washington, D.C.
The account of this arduous task of
establishing the precise center of this
Historic Role of the JEf B
Black Press In The Wil®* dOt
Liberation Struggle
Black Americans
By Lionel C. Barrow, Jr., Ph.D.
Not too long ago the U.S. News
and World Report asked 500 U.S.
Leaders to rate 18 organizations and
institutions on their degree of in
fluence in the United States. Four
of the top 15 were media, television
ranked first, newspaper ranked
fourth, magazines ranked 11th and
radio ranked 13th. All four were
ahead of the Democratic Party
(14th), the Cabinet (16th) and the
Republican Party (17th).
Politicians in this country have
always been aware of the power of
the press but the first “real
October November, 1975
exactly square and 10-mile per side
city tells us that the instruments had
to be movement -free and precise.
Allowances had to be made foreven
the minute changes in length of the
marking chains due to changes in
temperature.
To assure no movement of his in
struments. young Banneker, they
say, chose the stump of a tree on
which to secure them. To obtain
an undisputably accurate fix on the
center of Washington, D.C. and on
each boundary, young Banneker
chose reliance on the position of the
stars at various times. In deter
mining where we as a race of people
are in this eve of our nation’s Bi-
Centennial year, the same kind of
objectivity and emotionless
precision must be employed by us.
One of those assessents must be that
we are a people who have suffered
newspaper” didn’t appear in
America until 60 years before our
difficulties with England. This was
the Boston News-Letter, a weekly
which first appeared on April 24.
1704. Boston then was the largest
city in the colonies with a population
of 7.000. This first paper, according
to Schlesinger, “never mustered
more than 300 subscribers’’ during
the days of its first editor John
Campbell.
By 1775. there was “37
newspapers in the American
Colonies" with circulations
averaging 300-600 per paper. The
vast majority of these papers were
weeklies, supported in large part by
political parties with weekly cir
culations averaging about 1,000 per
paper. One-hundred and sixty-one
of these papers were being published
in New York State.
This was the journalistic en-
1976
Support the products that bring you the MONITOR
vast amounts of discrimination. For.
even the many newspaper accounts
of the day that applauded the plan
ning of our District of Columbia
omitted the name of the one man who
was at the center of the stage - Ben
jamin Banneker.
Why We Shun Reality
Sometimes facing the harshness of
truth is so painful that people often
feel more comfortable by denying
reality. To compensate for the
everyday indignities that position us
always as second-class citizens,
some of our people buy unusually
fine clothes, drink what they believe
to be the best brand of liquor or
decorate our homes almost over
lavishly. Others, in order to escape
those same realities, turn to drugs
vironment for “Freedom’s Jour
nal”, the first Black Newspaper
which was founded in 1827. It
quickly achieved a circulation of the
800-1.000 bracket, the average for
such papers in the country.
Why A Black Press?
With all of these existing
newspapers, why did the Rev.
Samuel Cornish and John
Russwurm, (one of the first Black
to graduate from college) found a
new one? Why did other 'blacks
found 42 other publications prior to
Emancipation? Why are there more
than 200 Black newspapers being
published today?
Basically there were four major
reasons for the early Black press:
I. To perform a watchdog func
tion for the Black community that
or crime in one form or another.
In either case, the actions reflect a
desire not to face reality bacause of
its pain. However, this self-imposed
myopia raises the question of how
can we overcome any undesirable
situation unless we are willing to face
it realistically ?
Our first examination of the pain
we shun is that imposed on us by
white press both historically and at
present. Our next issue will discuss
the positive roles of Senators Ed
ward Brooke, James L. Buckley and
others in the trust toward equitable
treatment of minority business en
terprises. The discussion will en
compass how, via the multiplier ef
fect, the whole black community and
our nation stand to benefit. So, keep
your valuable black press healthy by
supporting it.
the white press was either unable or
unwilling to perform.
2. To answer the attacks
published in the white press.
3. To present a viewpoint that dif
fered even from that of liberal
whites.
4. To be a carrier and preserver
of Black culture (a function the other
media performed for white but not
for Black America).
Watchdog Function
& Answering Attacks
The first news report of a lynching
appeared in Freedom’s Journal.
Crisis Magazine constantly reported
lynchings during the early 1900’s at
a time when Associated Press and
the New York newspapers ignored
or justified them.
In an 1859 article on “The
f COMWM ON M6E 8 )
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