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McCrorey Wells, Leslie

History

2006

MA

This thesis provides an overview of the scholarship on the black press in Chapter One. Within this historiography is a debate regarding whether the black press was conservative or radical in its efforts to effect social change. This theme is further developed in Chapter Two, which introduces a history of the black press from the early nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. At the center of this chapter is the development of the idea of the black press as a "fighting press." Chapter Three introduces the controversy over W.E.B. DuBois' important and controversial 1918 article, "Close Ranks," and examines both the contemporary and scholarly response to the article to explore the pressures on black editorial writers, the development of black consciousness, and the critical role the black press played in the attempt to reconcile the contradictions of American democracy during wartime. Those contradictions are further explored in Chapters Four and Five, which examine the ways in which black editors and editorial writers shaped their arguments in response to the enormous social pressures that existed in wartime America. Chapter Four covers World War I, and includes discussions of the draft and enlistment, as well as government surveillance of the black press and black leaders. Chapter Five traces the development of the black press after World War I and then moves to a detailed analysis of World War II. It focuses on questions of patriotism and military participation, as well as the attempts by black editors to use the press to advance an understanding of the "problem of the color line." Questions for further research and conclusions are presented in the final chapter.