Scholar discusses unknown part of black history
If it hadn’t been for the efforts of the black press – a regular target for censorship attempts by the U.S. government during World War II – the American civil rights movement probably would have had a harder climb, according to an Ohio University professor and scholar of the black press.
Patrick Washburn spoke on the censorship efforts and his experiences in researching them to a crowd of Utah State University students, many of whom had to sit on the floor or in the aisles of the Business building auditorium, Thursday from noon to 1:15 p.m. as part of the USU Media & Society Lecture Series.
He said the efforts of the black press during World War II were vital in giving the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s a boost.
“I’m a white person telling blacks their history,” Washburn said before his lecture. “And sometimes that makes [blacks] a little nervous.”
But he said the attacks on the black press and the “Double V” campaign run by the black press are a part of black history many black Americans know little about, and his research can help them understand their history better.
Washburn, author of the award-winning book “A Question of Sedition,” said the date of his lecture was significant because on Feb. 8, 1944, the first black White House correspondent was hired by the Atlanta Daily World.
“Before that, you had no one that could talk to the president of the United States that was black” and ask about black issues, Washburn said.
He said the black press was an important force in the United States during World War II, questioning black dedication to the war effort abroad in the face of discrimination at home.
James Thompson, a cafeteria worker in Wichita, Kan., wrote a letter to the Pittsburgh Courier with the headline “Should I Sacrifice To Live ‘Half American?'”
The letter was the start of the Courier’s “Double V” project, a campaign to fight for victory for democracy and equality inside and outside the United States.
Washburn said after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, many blacks wanted to join the U.S. armed services to fight. However, most branches refused to allow them to join.
The Navy said blacks could join and work in the kitchens, and the Army had a policy of only allowing 10 percent of its soldiers to be black, meant to match the black 10 percent of the U.S. population.
In addition, the Red Cross only allowed blacks to donate blood after blacks fought for the right, and even then, blood donated by blacks was only given to blacks for a time, Washburn said.
“With all of these inequalities, it was very natural that the black press would jump into the fray, so to speak,” Washburn said.
Washburn said the “Double V” campaign became very popular across the country, especially as the black press spread stories about discrimination in the war effort – black and white Americans killing each other in military camps and other signs of racial discrimination rampant in the country.
He said the campaign led to such things as Double V baseball games, Double V hairstyles, Double V beauty contests and Double V flag-raising ceremonies.
Washburn’s lecture was sponsored by the USU Journalism and Communication department and the Black Student Union as part of Black History Month.