This past Black History Month, I read a 120 year-old Black American Newspaper, some highlights:
On “The Colored American” vol. IX, iss. 43–46, February 1902
This past Black History Month 2022, I spent some time out of each week to read each February 1902 issue of The Colored American, a newspaper that I discovered in the Library of Congress Digital Archives while reading up on the Philippine-American War. The Colored American was owned, written by, and written for Black Americans from 1893 to 1904. Here I will highlight its stories and images that I think are relevant to current affairs and/or significant in history.
My intention is to present the material as it is, in summary, and not to argue my own opinions of it. But of course that’s subject to the selective bias of what moved me most.
“Properly used there is not a more effective engine for progress and happiness than the press. Improperly used, its influence is demoralizing beyond compare.
Everybody reads and the majority of the people, having no other source of information, are likely to believe what they read and are guided in their judgments by what purports to be the facts. The editor thus holds in his hands the destiny of races, the reputation of useful men and women, and stands as the mouthpiece of the community in which he lives. His office is a high one and such a responsibility should be entrusted only to men of solid character and lofty ideals.”
MEN OF THE HOUR.
All four of these issues of The Colored American feature this column on the frontpage centering a portrait of an influential and successful Black American man, or who the paper might refer to as “Race Leaders.” The publication tends to include portraits of Black Americans throughout. It seems to me that it has considerably more visual representation of its demographic than other American newspapers of its day.
THE WOMEN’S WORLD
Often directly following MEN OF THE HOUR on the second page in the top left corner, this column similarly presents descriptions and sometimes images of prominent women in Black American communities of the time.
The February 1st issue, no. 43, features the story of Carrie Williams Clifford: born in Columbus, Ohio, educated in public schools, and graduating High School with honors, she dreamed to become a teacher.
But as at the that time no colored teachers were employed in the schools, she was obliged to leave home to pursue her chosen work. This her parents strongly opposed, but an opening presenting itself at Parkersburg, W. Va., she gained a very reluctant consent, and in September 1883 left for her field of labor.
The paper says that Carrie Williams Clifford didn’t stay long in that job, but after marrying in 1886 and moving to Cleveland, she remained proactive in education.
Evidently, since “Cleveland was a place where colored people had always enjoyed marked school privileges, she expected to find a strong literary society here.” Not finding it, Clifford teamed up with one Mrs. H. K. Price, a teacher, who then organized and hosted the Minerva Reading Club, “which was the first Ohio club to join the N.A.C.W.” (National Association of Colored Women, founded 1896 and active today; note that the NACW is also referenced in the column title, as seen above).
Carrie’s husband is mentioned 2 weeks later in issue no. 45 under the “City Paragraphs” column on page 15 of 16:
Mrs. Clifford’s motto is “Keep abreast of the times.” She believes in progress. She firmly believes that the work of the N.A.C.W., is the movement of the hour; and that if we are true to it and true to ourselves, it will prove one of the greatest factors in the solution of the race problem, and in wiping out of race prejudice.
Many aspects of what was then called “The Race Question” feature prominently throughout the publication.
THE POLITICAL HOROSCOPE
This column remarks on many topics of government, particularly elections of Black Americans to public offices, or the latest news of White leaders sympathetic to Black causes. In early 1902, the race for the 1904 presidential election is underway. Teddy Roosevelt is already in his first term as president after the September 1901 assassination of President William McKinley by an anarchist. The Feb. 1st issue reported that Roosevelt was in the lead.
Other political topics of the day included Jim Crow Cars (segregated train cars), Black voting rights, and justice for lynchings.
The February 1st issue relates the story of a rumor that one Black leader, Dr. Rev. Daniel E. Wiseman, “the first Lutheran African-American pastor in the nation’s capital,” was seen using a Jim Crow Car — a would-be act of submission to the institutions he was actively fighting. Several other articles in the later issues that month also reference the rumor:
An article in the same issue titled “Color Prejudice in Washington” reports increases in discrimination in DC over the previous 15 years. In the National Capital it happened in the forms of segregated seating in theaters and “Jim Crow Cars” and even outright denial of service in other settings.
The word “colonized” in this and other articles is used to mean moved to a segregated location. The term calls to mind Indian Reservations, which the Bureau of Indian Affairs was still forcing people into at that time. Or concentration camps, which at that time were common practice in wars everywhere.
A speech titled “The Light of History” by one Professor Jesse Lawton is published in full on Feb. 8th, issue 44, in which the political expert reviews the past “three and thirty” years of Black American politics.
Professor Lawson’s speech starts from President Ulysses S. Grant and his fight for the 15th Amendment (granting men of any color the right to vote) and covers many subsequent state-level counter-measures to that Amendment. To Lawson, the right of all men to vote is the next great step in American progress.
Professor Lawson’s celebrates America’s growth in economy and territory but juxtaposes those achievements abroad with the nation’s failures at home:
The Philippine-American War would officially end 5 months later on July 1st, 1902. It was one of many conflicts in the 40 years since the Emancipation Act (1862) in which Black soldiers had served the United States. Several of The Colored American’s articles called for recognition of this:
Issue 45 mentions Capt David J. Gilmer, who previously had been featured as Man of the Hour and interviewed for his deployment in the Philippines:
Issue no. 45, Feb. 15 featured an article titled “West Point and Annapolis” which devoted nearly a whole column to condemning racial discrimination in The United States Military Academy at West Point and in the United States Naval Academy. The first Black cadet enrolled at West Point was James Webster Smith in 1870, 32 years prior to said article. The first Black man to graduate West Point was Benjamin O. Davis in 1936, 34 years after said article (Susan D. Hansen, “The Racial History of the US Military Academies”).
Of course Black Americans in 1902 were fighting for education not just in the military context. The Colored American consistently advertises and praises DC’s own Howard University and its Medical Department:
The image above appears in all 4 of the weekly issues that I reviewed. The following article appears in the Feb. 8th issue:
The Feb. 1st includes a back-and-forth between the Editor and an outspoken reader. It started 3 weeks prior with the cover page of issue no. 40 on January 11th, 1902, which boldly featured this cartoon:
The cartoon depicts Uncle Sam, the classic caricature of the United States, a mini Andrew Carnegie, and a man in the distance knocking on the door of a “Temple of Education.” The analogy refers to the famous Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist’s practice of donating to only certain Black universities, and not others (today called HBCU, or Historically Black Colleges and Universities).
The Colored American’s cartoonist criticized Carnegie’s limited philanthropy. In this image his caricature ignores, or maybe even hides from, the Black man knocking at his door seeking an Education. And so a reader named J.J. Richardson submitted a letter to the editor which would be published on page 11 of issue no. 43 on February 1st.
The reader warns the newspaper that being rude towards White allies would be counter-productive to Black progress as a whole.
![“…From my point of view would be leaders of the colored race are often very impolitic in their public expressions. Our last colord [sic] Congressman [George Henry White] I think made a mistake when he arrogantly assisted in his last speech in Congress that the colored man would soon return. How would he know this? Who is to send him there, if not white votes? Certainly white protection of the colored voter — and the protection will not be forthcoming unless there is sentiment to sustain it…”](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*heQPIhNJSUlKgw2pV2ZwKw.jpeg)
The Editor’s reply, found on page 8 of the same issue, scolds the “Michigan Philosopher” for catering to White men’s feelings for White men’s comfort at the cost of keeping Black voices quiet and unheard.
According to Dr. John M. Berry in a 2008 review of David Nasaw’s biography of the philanthropist, Carnegie’s reasoning was that he preferred the “paradigm of Blacks learning technical skills for jobs available to them at the time,” (Berry’s phrasing) which apparently applied to Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute, and to the Hampton Institute. Carnegie initially withheld financial support for Atlanta University and Fisk University for not taking this approach.
Each February 1902 issue mentions the The Crumpacker Bill, intended to protect voting rights for Black men.
The Apportionment Act (1872) called for a reduction of a state’s representatives if that state limited voting rights for their males over 21. By 1902, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina had adopted state constitutions that limited voting rights of Black males in indirect ways.
The bill introduced by Indiana Representative Edgar Dean Crumpacker (white American) sought to reduce the number of Congressional Representatives for those states. The Bill was not passed.
All four issues also featured this ad somewhere in its pages:
And on the entirety of page 14 of every issue is this ad:
The same type of product. Black Americans continue to face discrimination for natural hair to this day and people are fighting against it.
Lastly, this ad is featured in all four issues I reviewed:
Today, the issue of “Colorism” continues to be perpetuated both between communities and within communities of all pigmentations around the world.
LITTLE COLORED AMERICANS
On the second-to-last page of the February 8th issue, this column appears. It summarizes recent stories from the newspaper into brief lessons or pieces of advice, presumably to be inclusive of young readers.
(1901, November 23) The colored American. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83027091/1901-11-23/ed-1/.
(1902, January 11) The colored American. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83027091/1902-01-11/ed-1/.
(1902, February 1) The colored American. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83027091/1902-02-01/ed-1/.
(1902, February 8) The colored American. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83027091/1902-02-08/ed-1/.
(1902, February 15) The colored American. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83027091/1902-02-15/ed-1/.
(1902, February 22) The colored American. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83027091/1902-02-22/ed-1/.
ANDREW CARNEGIE: PIONEER, VISIONARY, INNOVATOR, Carnegie Corporation of New York. https://www.carnegie.org/interactives/foundersstory/#!/
Berry, Dr. John M. “Andrew Carnegie and Race.” Diverse Issues in Higher Education. https://www.diverseeducation.com/institutions/hbcus/article/15087288/andrew-carnegie-and-race
“CROWN.” The CROWN Act. https://www.thecrownact.com/about
Grant, Cheryl S. “What Is Colorism?” Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-colorism-5077380
Hansen, S. D. (1999). The Racial History of the U.S. Military Academies. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 26, 111–116. https://doi.org/10.2307/2999176
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Historian, Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2008. “Legislative Interests,” https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Temporary-Farewell/Legislative-Interests/ (March 11, 2022)
Teigen, Phil. “Rev. Daniel E. Wiseman,” Lutheran Historical Society of the Mid Atlantic. https://www.lutheranhistoricalsociety.com/rev-daniel-wiseman/
“What is an HBCU?” White House Initiative on Advancing Education Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity through Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Department of Education. https://sites.ed.gov/whhbcu/one-hundred-and-five-historically-black-colleges-and-universities/
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “WHITE, George Henry,” https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/W/WHITE,-George-Henry-(W000372)/ (March 11, 2022)
National Association of Colored Women, Crusade for the Vote, National Women’s History Museum,. http://www.crusadeforthevote.org/nacw
