African-American History – Page 4 – Old Magazine Articles

Marcus Garvey: The Negro Moses
(Literary Digest, 1922)

A profile of Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887 – 1940), Jr.; National Hero of Jamaica. During his lifetime Garvey worked as a publisher, a journalist, and an entrepreneur. A devoted Black nationalist and a black separatist, Marcus Garvey was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the African Communities League (UNIA-ACL). He rubbed a good many white folk the wrong way and this article from The Literary Digest covers much of his activities leading up to 1922.

‘Negroes Still Departing”
(The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

This short notice from a 1917 Georgia newspaper documented the heavy numbers involved in what has come to be known as the Great migration as more and more African-Americans abandoned their homes in the Southern states preferring life in the North. It is believed that between the years 1910 through 1940, some 1.6 million African Americans participated in this exodus. The Southern journalist who penned these three paragraphs clearly felt a sense of personal rejection:

The worthless ones are remaining here to be cared for… The departure of these Negroes is not spasmodic. It is a steady drain of the best class of laborers that the South now has. Just what remedy is to prevent it we do not know.

Another article about the great migration can be read here.

The KKK Fall from Fashion
(The Literary Digest, 1928)

In 1928 the presiding übermensch of the KKK, Hiram Evans (1881 – 1966), saw fit to make a sartorial change in his terrorist organization by declaring that there would be no need in the future for any face-covering to be worn by any member. The article is primarily about the rapid disintegration that the Klan was experiencing and the tremendous loss in it’s over all social appeal throughout the country.

It was a success, temporarily, because it appealed to the playboy instinct of grown-ups and offered burning phrases of patriotism as the excuse for gallivanting about… It failed because its ‘patriotism’ was not real, but ancient bigotry in new a guise… It failed finally, because the genuine American sense of humor finally asserted itself and laughed at the Klan out of court.

The KKK Fall from Fashion
(The Literary Digest, 1928)

Confronting the Bigots
(The American Magazine, 1946)

With the passing of the Ives-Quinn Bill in 1945, the state of New York was empowered to bring the full weight of the law down upon all employers who practiced any sort of discrimination in the workplace:

During the first eight months of the law’s operation, the Commission received 240 formal complaints charging some form of discrimination in employment… The charges varied greatly. Fifty-nine complained because of alleged prejudice against their religion. Another 113 charged color bias: 105 Negroes and eight Whites. Still another 48 charged prejudice against their race or national origin: 8 Germans, 5 Spaniards…

A similar article from 1941 can be read here…

The Camp Slaves
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

By the time this small paragraph appeared in the 1922 pages of Confederate Veteran Magazine the vast majority of their readership was living on their Confederate pensions. This article serves to remind the subscribers that there were numerous faithful Negroes who were also deserving of same. The author recounts a few stories of the devotion he witnessed.

Social Differences Among the Lighter Skinned and Darker Skinned Blacks
(Literary Digest, 1922)

The varying degrees of color found among American Blacks has been, and still is, a sensitive topic and it was addressed in 1922 with some wit by an African-American journalist whose work is attached. Its a good read and speaks of a social structure that, we like to think, is gone with the wind; words appear in this article that seem queer in our era – there is much talk of

yellow gals
golden-skinned slave girls
tawny-skinned maids
midnight
stove-pipe

-all originating from African-American verse and popular song.

During the Second World War, hair dye was not simply used by women;
click here to read about the men who needed it, too.

Click here to read about black women who pass for white.

Click here to read a history of African-Americans between the years 1619 through 1939.

Anti-Lynching Legislation Shelved
(PM Tabloid, 1942)

Whether it was due to the urgency of the war or whether it was simply business as usual on Capitol hill, who knows – but ever since he came to Washington in 1929 Representative Joseph Gavagan (D., NYC: 1892 – 1968) tried numerous times to get his anti-lynching legislation through Congress. In April of 1937 he succeeded in getting one of his anti-lynching bills passed (277 to 118) – but the Southern Democrats saw to it that he wouldn’t get an encore performance in ’42; this was his last attempt, he retired from the House that same year.

Post-War America and the KKK
(Rob Wagner’s Script Magazine, 1946)

Written in the aftermath of W.W. II, this is an article which cautioned that the KKK was attempting to pick-up where it had left off prior to the war and made known it’s intentions to open a franchise in Southern California.

The KKK Influence on U.S. Politics
(The Literary Digest, 1922)

Attached is a 1922 report from THE LITERARY DIGEST regarding how remarkably close two KKK candidates for governor came to winning their respective state primaries. The two political contests in question, Oregon and Texas, caught national attention and became popular subjects for concern across the United States:

The closeness of the vote ought to be a warning…If the Ku Klux Klan insists on entering politics, good citizens must show it the way out.