BRIAN THORNTON

The Dangerous Chicago Defender

A Study of the Newspapers Editorials and Letters to the Editor in 1968

The Chicago Defender is one of the largest and most influential African American newspapers in the U.S. Some called
it radical and dangerous. Thats because as early as 1920 it demanded racial equality, particularly in the South, in jobs,
housing and transportation and preached black empowerment and black self-reliance. The paper published incendiary
editorials with messages such as, When the white fiends come to the door to kill you, shoot them down. When the white
mob comes, take at least one with you. But did the Defender maintain this aggressive stance some forty years later, in
1968, for instance, at a time when the civil rights movement was spreading across the country? To gain a true sense of
history one must study the lion in winter as well as in spring. Thus this research examines what editorial positions the
Defender took in 1968 and how readers responded through letters to the editor.

here is arguably a mythological narrative surrounding the

Chicago Defender, one of the largest and most influential
African American1 newspapers in the United States. The
poet Langston Hughes described the newspaper as the journalistic
voice of a largely voiceless people.2 In the 1920s the Defender
had a paid circulation of 250,000 and was a must-read for many
African Americans, especially in the Deep South.3 In that part of
the country the paper was often banned from newsstands because of
what historian Theodore Kornweibel called its dangerous demands
for racial equality. 4 Historian James Grossman says the Defender
would print incendiary editorials with a message such as, When
the white fiends come to the door to kill you, shoot them down.
When the white mob comes, take at least one with you. Those
BRIAN THORNTON is a professor in the
department of communication at the University of North Florida.

40

were things, Grossman said, that an African American Southern

newspaper couldnt write because the newspaper would get torched
or the editors would be run out of town. But the Chicago Defender
could say it and did, Grossman wrote. And so black Southerners
came to see the paper and its editor, Robert Abbott, as a man they
could trust.5
Documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson said any Southern
readers brave enough to be seen publicly reading the Defender in
the 1920s were often harassed by segregationists because of the
papers militant calls for civil rights. To get around this, copies of
the Defender were carefully smuggled like contraband into places
such as Birmingham, Alabama, carried by Pullman railroad porters
and traveling musicians and distributed surreptitiously. The paper
was then carefully parceled out and read in African American
barbershops, social clubs, and churches, and passed along from one
reader to another.6
Despite these difficulties, it has been estimated that more
than two-thirds of the Defenders readers in the 1920s were in the
Deep South. The Defender played a major role in influencing the
Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the
urban North from roughly 1915 to 1925.7 Thats partly because the
Defenders founder and first editor, Robert S. Abbott, wrote many
editorials urging African American Southerners to flee the South
Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

and head North, where there is more humanity, some justice just a few months later.19 Truman then appointed Defender editor/
and fairness.8 He also posted jobs available in Chicago, described publisher John Sengstacke (Abbotts nephew and successor) to a
working conditions there as being better than in the South, and key leadership role on a blue ribbon committee to assure that the
even arranged for cheap one-way train fares for those wishing to military implemented a workable integration plan.20 In addition, in
leave the South.9
the 1940s, Sengstacke created the National Newspaper Publishers
In addition, the paper promoted the Great Migration through Association, an organization formed to help unify owners of African
letters to the editorprinting letters from people longing to leave American newspapers.21 Sengstacke served as association president
the South and those who successfully moved to big Northern cities seven times.22
where they improved their lives.10 For example, a series of letters
The Defender waged a decades-long editorial war through
in 1917 from readers in Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, and Alabama, the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, to force big-city police departments in
described how easy it was to get cheap transportation to the North such places as Washington D. C., Chicago, and New York to hire
and how job opportunities there were so
more African Americans, especially African
much better. One letter warned, though,
American women.23 The Defender waged
Within twenty years
how we have to whisper this around
a similar decades-long editorial campaign
The Defender had a huge
among ourselves because the white folks are
on behalf of postal workers, starting in the
angry now because the Negroes are going
1920s and continuing until the 1960s.24
circulation,
one
of
the
largest
11
north. In another letter in 1917, a reader
In 1951 Sengstacke bought the Trisaid she was a girl of 17, in the 8th grade
State
Defender in Memphis. In the 1960s
for an African American
at Knox Elementary, in Selma, Alabama,
he became even more influential when he
paper anywhere in the
who was determined to get a job up North,
bought The Pittsburgh Courier. This added
because she couldnt find work in her
depth and breadth to his Sengstacke
country, caused in part by its newspaper chain, which by then was made
hometown and on account of not having
money enough I had to stop school. 12
editorial mission, as espoused up of four newspapers.25 Sengstacke used
all four papers throughout the early 1960s
by Abbott, to destroy
here have already been a number
to editorialize that major league baseball
of excellent studies of the Defender
needed to hire more African Americans to
American race prejudice.
in its early days,13 but this article
achieve more than token integration.26
examines the editorial pages of the paper in
But what kind of editorial stance did
its later yearsthe year 1968, to be exact. This date is an important the Defender take in 1968, at the height of the Black Power/Black
time of transition for the country, the civil rights movement, and Panther social phenomenon? This was an intense and particularly
the newspaper. To gain a true sense of history one must study the important time of transitions. And for the paper the transitions
lion in winter as well as in its youthful spring. Thus this research were particularly difficultwith declining readership, shrinking ad
examines what positions the paper took on its editorial pages in revenues, staff turnovers and management problems.27 In the early
1968 to put together a more complete history of the Defender.
part of the decade Chicagos black population was mostly confined
Abbott started the Defender in 1905. He began it as a four- to the south side. Those who track the history of the Defender say this
page weekly produced with borrowed money and borrowed printing informal segregation gave the paper a secure niche in the marketplace
equipment set up in his landladys dining room. Initially the paper had and easy access to readers who lived in nearly all-African American
only three hundred readers.14 But nonetheless Abbott immediately enclaves, such as Bronzeville.28 But by 1968 some African Americans
and modestly dubbed his paper The Worlds Greatest Weekly.15 were leaving Chicagos south side. At the same time young, white,
Within twenty years The Defender had a huge circulation, one of upwardly mobile baby boomers were moving into all-African
the largest for an African American paper anywhere in the country, American areasand ignoring the legendary African American
caused in part by its editorial mission, as espoused by Abbott, to Chicago Defender, which was geared to a different audience.
destroy American race prejudice.16 The paper became a daily in 1956,
To make matters worse for the black press, the citys two major
at which point it described itself even more modestly in a bold, front- white daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, were
page banner headline as The Worlds Greatest Daily. The Defender trying to woo African American readers. To that end they, like other
was one of the first African American newspapers to use sensational, white papers, were hiring African American reporters and editors
blood-red headlines in the style of yellow journalists such as William away from the Defender. Violent civil unrest across the country in
Randolph Hearst. The paper also used graphic and lurid images to 1968 had unexpected benefits for African American journalists.
expose crimes against African Americans, especially in the South, White newspapers and television producers wanted to learn what
and to denounce racism, lynchings and social inequalities.17
was causing riots in the African American communities, so many
The Defenders influence and importance was not limited to the hired African American reporters in large numbers for the first time.
1920s, however: In 1944 the Defenders incessant needling forced Phyllis Garland, a journalism professor at Columbia University
President Franklin Roosevelt to admit the first Negro reporter to in New York, said she knew many African American friends who
a presidential news conference. Then in 1948 the paper published moved into mainstream journalism jobs in 1968. They could cite the
many editorials demanding the immediate integration of the particular riot that led to their being hired. Riots led indirectly to a
armed forces.18 President Harry Truman integrated the military black brain drain that was devastating, Garland says.29 And because

Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

41

of these changing demographics African

American businesses were no longer sure
if the Defender was the best way to reach
their target audience. Some advertisers
began to pull ads.30
In the midst of all this change, both
within the paper and outside, this article
examines whether the Defender called for
massive social change, what would have
been called a liberal or radical stance in
1968, or defended the status quo, that is
take a conservative position?31 An earlier
study by this author showed that ten
African American newspapers in 1968,
including the Chicago Defender, took
strong editorial stances against the Black
Panther party.32 But that work triggered
a questionwhat other editorial stances
did the Defender take in 1968? And how
did readers respond?
It might surprise some to discover
that the Defender repeatedly called for
more Negro Republicans in 1968, for John Sengstacke, right, points to an item in the Defender in this 1942 image from the Farm
instance. A Defender editorial that year Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection in the Library
argued that a major goal is to swing as of Congress. Public domain.
much of the nations Negro community into Republican affairs as bind the African American community together. Nelson added that
possible, because it is only with the inclusion of black Americans African American editors carried on important discussions on their
and the poor and the disadvantaged that the Republican Party is to editorial pages about political, social and economic problems.36 And
survive as a viable entity.33 It might be equally surprising to find the the Chicago Defender, and its founder, Abbott, have both been the
Defender endorsed the death penalty that year, especially for teen focus of a growing number of important scholarly works.37
This current work builds on the work of Renee Romano and
murderers.
This research examined all the editorials and letters to the Raiford Lee. They wrote about myth and consensus memory
editor published in the Chicago Defender from January 1 through and how the 1960s have become mythologized, blending fact with
December 31, 1968. The examination was undertaken to uncover fiction.38 Kristen Hoerl has also written about the role of the media
what stances the paper and its readers took in discussions of such in creating and perpetuating myths.39 Perhaps a myth has been
important topics as race, social change, African American pride, and spread about the dangerous Defender.
This article closely examines how the Defender, on a day-to-day
equal employment. A total of 577 editorials were published in the
Defender that year. All were closely read and analyzed along with basis, over a one-year period, worked through its editorial page to
281 published letters to the editor. The goal was to discover what advance its founding goals of ending racial prejudice and telling of
recurring themes were expressed in both the editorials and letters the struggle of African Americans in Chicago in 1968. How readers
to the editor. This is significant work because it offers a unique responded to those editorial pages is another part of this research,
perspective: It examines the Defender, not at the height of its power a part that complements an earlier study by this author of African
in the 1920s, as earlier studies have done, but later during a crucial American newspapers in 1929.40
The question may be posed: why study every issue of the
time of change and challenges.
Defender in 1968? Journalism historian W. Joseph Campbell has
here is a growing body of knowledge about the African argued that the year-study approachthat is, examining an entire
American press and its importance in the African American year in detail, or a publication over a one-year periodis a diverse
community.34 For instance, Martin Dann wrote that the and flourishing genre that is sorely lacking in the work of journalism
African American press has been the focal point of every concern of scholars.41 Campbell writes that many mainstream historians have
black people, representing the strengths and mutual reinforcements used the year-long methodology to great effectstudying 1776,42
that united the black community.35 Charles Simmons wrote that the 1929,43 1831,44 1857,45 190346 and 1919,47 to name just a few years.
African American press provides an essential record of the efforts of a Such explorations of exceptional years can reveal how powerful
people dealing with generations of hatred and discrimination. Stanley transformative forces come together in certain time frames and give
Nelson noted in the documentary, The Black Press: Soldiers without rise to innovation, vigorous competition and much uncertainty,
Swords, that African American newspapers have been among the Campbell wrote. Revisiting defining and pivotal years offers
strongest institutions in black America, creating jobs and helping intriguing and relevant insights, Campbell concluded.48

T
42

Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

Echoes and parallels are not difficult to find between 1968 shook the country. Students seized university buildings in protest at
and the present day. Then, as now, journalists and newspapers in colleges from coast to coast. Then beloved baby doctor Benjamin
general were accused of being biased and injecting their ideology Spock was accused of treason and conspiracy for urging violation of
into supposedly objective news stories. Then, as now, there was a draft laws.53
growing gap between rich and poor. In addition, there was a cultural
Unrest seemed contagious. In Paris, France, five thousand
divide between law and order pro-war, conservative Republicans students took to the streets early in the year and engaged in
and peace-nik, flower power, liberal Democrats.
pitched battles with police who lobbed tear gas grenades, and then
Other similarities: on the surface it appeared in 1968 that administered baton beatings. A few months later approximately
African Americans had made a great deal of progress toward equal nine million French workers went on strike in support of the student
rights. An African American was serving on the Supreme Court. movement. Poland had similar riots. And in Czechoslovakia there
African Americans were also being elected to Congress, and elected were even more disturbances as Czechs demanded freedom from
mayors of major cities. And an African
the Soviet Unionand the Soviet Union
American actor, Bill Cosby, was co-starring
responded with 200,000 Warsaw pact
The accumulation of
in one of the most highly rated adventure
troops, determined to quash the so called
cataclysmic events in 1968
TV shows, I Spy. Millions of whites and
Prague Spring movement.54
African Americans watched Cosby each
In addition, 1968 was the year
was so intense, that the term Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated,
week and saw a proud, African American
man who was intelligent, highly educated,
as well as presidential candidate Robert F.
68ism was coined
witty and urbanejust the opposite of the
Kennedy.55 Kings April 4 murder sparked
to describe it.
stereotypical African American roles often
more than one hundred race riots in big
shown on TV.
cities across the country from Watts to New
Yet despite signs of increasing racial advancement for African York. Thirty-nine people were killed in the first forty-eight hours,
Americans, major problems remained. Poverty and unemployment thirty-five of them black.56 Riots broke out in Baltimore, Boston,
among African Americans seemed almost insurmountable. In 1968, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In Chicago
for example, 34 percent of African Americans lived below the poverty alone, one thousand people were injured in the first day of rioting,
level.49 There were additional racial problems with many schools and twelve people were killed and one thousand were arrested. More
universities across the country. Many remained largely segregated. than eight hundred fires were deliberately started.57 Rioting caused
And many jobs suffered from an informal form of occupational an estimated $50 million in damages nation-wide.58 To quell the
segregation, as well: African American people were just not expected insurrection in Washington, D.C., 13,600 National Guard troops
to enter certain fields such as advanced medicine, law, and university patrolled the streets. But thousands of other National Guard troops
teaching.
rolled into other cities in tanks and trucks across the entire country
Several researchers, including David Paul Nord50 and Karin as well, armed and ordered to shoot if necessary to stop rampant
Wahl-Jorgensen,51 have urged historians to capture the published looting, vandalism and arson.
editorials and letters to the editor printed in newspapers over a long
Still more violence and rioting gained national attention again
period of time, such as an entire year, especially during important in 1968 when 10,000 protestors clashed with an estimated 12,000
transitional periods of history. This research builds on Nords police and 7,000 National Guardsmen in Chicago at the Democratic
and Wahl-Jorgensens theoretical and conceptual framework by National Convention at the end of Augustand a police riot
examining the Defender in the context of 1968.
broke out. In that melee dozens of police viciously attacked antiwar
protestors with batons and tear gas. Police beat demonstrators and
urther, 1968 was a presidential election year and thus a bystanders alike and sprayed them with tear gas and Mace. Tear gas
logical choice for comments that reveal thoughts of the body billowed down the streets and wafted into the convention hall
politic. It was also filled with seminal events, both dramatic while TV cameras recorded the chaos and protestors chanted, the
and traumatic. The accumulation of cataclysmic events in 1968 whole world is watching.59 The police violence reportedly shocked
was so intense, that the term 68ism was coined to describe it.52 large portions of white, middle-class America. They watched on their
There were great shifts in politics, and religion, for instance. (Time TV screens as police attacked the citizenry, largely for exercising their
magazine just two years earlier had a cover story asking Is God first amendment rights and speaking out against the war. Hillary
Dead?). There was also tumult in the arts, culture, politics, and Clinton, for instance, who was to go on to become first lady and
everyday lifeand most relevant for the Defender, great shifts in later, secretary of state, and her childhood friend, Betsey Ebeling,
racial attitudes.
recalled how We saw kids our age getting their heads beaten in, at
It was the year men first circled the moon. Meanwhile the the 68 convention. The most searing lesson was the realization that
sitting U.S. president refused to run for re-election because the our government would do this to our own people, Ebeling said.60
Vietnam War was going so badly. Thousands of U.S. troops were
This was also the year that the newly formed National
being killed and injured in the war each week. In other overseas Organization for Women (NOW), targeted the sexism of a Miss
problems, North Koreans captured an American war ship off Korean America beauty contest in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Some women
waters. They took eighty-three American crewman hostage for most threw their bras into so called freedom ash cans as a symbol of
of the year and accused them of spying. At home, antiwar protests their desire to throw off paternal restraint. And even though no bras

Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

43

were actually burned, the phrase bra-burning feminists was used

in a New York Times story that day and quickly became an antifeminist catch-phrase.

any prominent scholars assert that 1968 was the heyday

of the counterculture.61 It was a time when the radical
left was in full blossom,62 along with long hair, love
beads, and platform shoes.63 The Summer of Love happened in
1967. That was when the media focused on an estimated 100,000
hippies tuning in, turning on, and dropping out in such places as
San Francisco. Historian Bruce Schulman said this boisterous 1967
minority began to blossom each year after that into a garden of
millions of flower people in the U.S.64 Scholars Robert Hariman
and John Lucaites wrote that in 1968 a growing number of U.S.
citizens were recognizing that their government was waging war
without purpose, without legitimacy and without end.65
Feminist author Ruth Rosen described 1968 as arguably the
start of the most intellectually vital and exciting era for American
women, producing an amazing array of changes in social, political
and public thought and policy.66 She wrote that women experienced
liberating changes, freeing themselves from their kitchens. Historian
Bruce Schulman wrote that in 1968 clothing was outrageous, sexual
behavior was less restrained, and personal liberation trumped civility,
decency, and restraint. He argues the changes were not simply
cosmetic; they fundamentally made over the United States.67
Historian Dominic Sandbrook writes:
When conservatives rail against the legacy of the
1960s, complaining about the collapse of discipline and
the family, the rise of crime, and the spread of pornography,
they are often talking about things that actually peaked
very late in the 1960s.68
Sociologist Todd Gitlin describes the late 1960s as a cyclone
in a wind tunnel, when a whirling dervish of revolution swept the
country.69
The year 1968 was the heyday of Black Power, a phrase
coined the year before by Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael.
Carmichael urged African American people to get guns and prepare
to die fighting police in the streets.70 Black Power was a rallying
cry, synonymous with militancy, self-reliance, independence and
nationalism.
Other changes were underway for African Americans in 1968.
In Cleveland, Carl Stokes began serving as one of the first African
American mayors of a major U.S. city. In another milestone, the
Supreme Court had its first African American member, Thurgood
Marshall, serving on the court. Meanwhile in April, President
Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting
racial discrimination in housing. In addition, on November 5, 1968,
Shirley Chisholm became the first African American woman to hold
a seat in the U. S. House of Representatives.

y 1968 John H. Sengstacke, Abbotts nephew, was in charge

of the Defenders editorials pages. He was only twenty-eight
when he became editor and publisher after Abbott died in
1940 of Brights disease, a kidney affliction. Sengstackes editorials
44

CHICAGO DEFENDER
Jan. 1, 1968, to Dec. 31, 1968

Major themes
Letters
Editorials
Crackdown on crime
20
28
Jobs/economy
13 30
Voting rights
8
17
Black power/Black Panthers
4
18
African history/discovering roots
4
12
Need for education
12
23
Racial stereotypes
15
18
Police misconduct
25
41
Law and order
5
20
MLK Jr. murder
2
8
Other
175 180*
*Many editorials were written about a single topicfor eample, the opening of a new black hospitaland never touched again on that topic. As
there was no repeating pattern, such editorials were labeled other.

in 1968 often opposed any radical or counterculture advocates and

vehemently and consistently blasted the militant Black Panther party.
Thus many people in 1968 would characterize his editorials overall
that year as conservative. Those editorials often said the status quo
for African Americans was good and improving steadily and would
get better if African Americans would strive to improve themselves,
get a better education, work harder, learn more discipline and
self-control and heartily support their churches, families and local
businesses.
An example of Sengstackes conservative editorials in the
Defender occurred when the paper endorsed Richard Nixon for
president a month before the 1968 election. Admittedly the papers
editorial on October 15 concluded that Nixon was the better of
two evilsthe worse evil being George Wallace.71 The editorial
argued that concerned African American citizens should vote and
speak out against Wallace and do everything to keep him from being
elected, even if that meant voting for Nixon.
The Defender also took a conservative stance against African
Americans forming their own nation within the U.S.a proposal
endorsed at a National Conference on Black Power attended by
several thousand people in Philadelphia. The conference was held to
decide if our society can be saved by reform, revolt or revolution,
the editorial explained. But the American establishment can be
transformed without revolution, the Defender editorial asserted.
And one official recommendation of the conference, calling for
the creation of a new nation, free, separate and independent for
black people, is not necessary, not feasible and an impractical
hypothesis. Instead the black community can generate self-help,
within the enclaves to which the black masses are already confined.
The editorial said:
Negroes already have a stake in the land which
their forefathers tilled and in whose defense countless
generations of black men have shed their blood. Those
who believe American society is not beyond redemption
should not be denied the right to dream of a better world.
Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

Such a dream may well come into

fulfillment as the contemplated
voyage to the moon, which not
too long ago, was thought to be
impossible.72
The Defenders conservative voice
was heard a month later when the paper
sharply attacked two African American
athletes for giving a Black Power salute
during a medal ceremony at the 1968
Olympic Games in Mexico City. The
Olympic ceremonies are sacrosanct.
Certainly this is no hippodrome
for circus stunts and childish
exhibitionism, a Defender editorial
argued. The sprinters black-glove
salute was infantile, inappropriate and
perverse, the editorial said. The two
Negro sprinters violated basic standards
of sportsmanship and good manners.73
Earlier in the year the Defender The Defender topped its editorial page, like this one from September 18, 1968, with a cartook an even more conservative point of toon and a signed editorial from John Sengstacke.
view when it advocated killing teens who commit murder. Because Rap Brown, who preach just the opposite gospel from that of Dr.
of rising crimes and increasing murders by teens, society needed to Kings.78 Another editorial, the next day, said those who rioted and
impose the death penalty for unjustifiable killings regardless of the burned in response to Kings murder were playing right into the
age of the criminal, the editorial argued. And the paper said there hands of government forces and African American radicals alike who
ought to be a law making parents responsible for the criminal acts of were hankering for a fight. Many in America believed it is easier
their children under 18. The whole Negro society must mobilize and cheaper to crush the black nationalists that call for war and
to stop African American juveniles from becoming killers, including guns,79 than to address the underlying issues of slums, segregation,
churches, schools, fraternal organizations, and womens clubs. and associated poverty, the editorial said.
And most importantly it is the responsibility of the parentsa
An April 11 editorial argued that King completely rejected
responsibility they must shoulder,74 or face prosecution.
the skepticism, and cynicism, that pervades the air, thus making
violence an irresistible urge. Instead, King called on the African
n March a blue ribbon, bipartisan, national commission, American man to assert his individual dignity, to meet the hazards
appointed by President Johnson, released a scathingly critical of freedom manfully, to suffer without resorting to violence.80
report on race and the cause of recent racial riots in the country. As a tribute to King, the struggle for freedom must be carried on
Illinois Governor Otto Kerner led the commission.75 In response peacefully, the editorial concluded.
to this report, the Defender took a conservative stance once again.
In May the Defender was conservative once again in an editorial
It critiqued the commission for failing to underscore instances in that critiqued what it described as the wrong-headed tactic of some
Chicago in which efforts are being made by the government and African American student civil rights activists at Northwestern
community. . . to improve conditions in the black ghettos.76
University who were demanding separate housing accommodations
But the Defender wrote that the commission sidestepped the for Negro students. To ask for separate living quarters [for blacks],
splendid work being done by such groups as the Chicago Committee is unpardonably inconsistent with the basic assumptions of the civil
on Urban Opportunity. The committee has established Urban rights movement. For open, un-segregated housing is the acid test
Progress Centers throughout the African American community of the Democratic process, the editorial maintained. The request
where African American people could find help and make contact is a harmful negation of the constitutional warrant for first class
with the Illinois State Employment Service, Head Start, Job Corps, citizenship.81
Neighborhood Youth Corps and Manpower programs, the editorial
A conservative message of evolution, not revolution was
argued. This citys arduous and successful labor in the prevention reinforced by a Defender editorial in November that warned that
of riots could have been pegged as a shining example for other the current divisions among black people were causing an inner
metropolitan centers to follow,77 the editorial concluded.
cleavage, and a confusion over aims. Conservatives [among
When Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in April, the Defenders black leaders] want integration. And they have the courts and
first editorials expressed shock and dismay. But quickly a conservative scores of civil rights Acts on their side. The issue of recognition
editorial urged African Americans not to resort to violence in as first class citizens has constituted a paramount objective of the
response as urged by people such as Stokely Carmichael and H. drive for freedom, for those who follow the path of Martin Luther

Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

45

King Jr. In direct opposition was the black power movement, with editorials. Instead they often mentioned recent news stories. For
a completely different thesis, in which separation of the races is example, A.L. Foster, a former leader of the Chicago Urban League
advocated as a means of acquiring freedom and power through and head of the Cosmopolitan Chamber of Commerce, wrote a
isolation, the editorial said.
letter March 28 attacking community activist Jesse Jackson. Jackson
But, the editorial warned, a black state within a state is was quoted in the Defender saying that, a new order is going to reign
impracticable and unworkable. Instead there should be an in the African American community and white principals and white
evolution that combines economic self-sufficiency, in the context contractors must go. Foster wrote that after fighting vigorously for
of integration. The editorial concluded, the black man cannot have complete integration for years, I am unwilling to accept Jacksons
both integration and segregation at the same time. One negates the theory of complete separation of the races. Instead, Foster wrote,
other. Black people needed to acquire a decisive voice in political the future is better served by cooperative efforts [among all races],
matters82 while pursuing integration and equality, the editorial rather than pitting black against white.87
stated.
April was a surprising month for
But why were there only
To balance the papers views, were there
letters to the editor in the Defender
any editorials in the Defender in 1968 that
since one might expect an outpouring
two letters published in
could be labeled as liberal? A handful, but
of letters in response to Martin Luther
not many. For example, on October 11 an
King Jr.s murder, especially since many
the Defender about Kings
editorial challenged the status quo when
other African American newspapers
it wrote that Negro history should be a death? It remains a mystery. printed scores of letters of letters reacting
required subject of study in high school,
to the assassination.88 But no letters were
and schools across the country should change their curriculum published on the subject in the Defender that month. That may
immediately to accomplish this. Not only should Negroes know mean no letters about Kings murder were sent to the paper, which
their own history, the editorial continued, but white people need seems unlikely. Or perhaps editor Sengstacke wanted to give space
to know something about the black mans past.83
on the editorial page on this subject to his presumably well-reasoned
Another liberal editorial was published November 26 when the editorials, rather than emotional outpourings from amateur writers.
Defender wrote that the government could take the wind out of the sails Or maybe he received angry letters he feared might incite still more
of black militants, many of whom seemed to be fomenting a bloody violence, following days of non-stop rioting. When dealing with
black revolution of the worst kind, by simply taking steps to make sure historical artifacts there are always some unanswerable questions.
the Negro attains his full citizenship. The incoming Nixon
In total, for the whole year, only two letters commented on
administration could influence how militant or how subdued the Kings slaying, one in May, and another in June. That first letter, May
black power movement is in the days ahead, in the type of social 4, was from A West Side resident, who wrote that for a short while
programs for racial justice it propose, the editorial warned.84 This the nation was shocked by Kings death. But then race relations went
is liberal in the sense that it indicates that government can solve a back to being bad once again. If white people dont start treating black
problem and not be the source of a problem as was believed by some Americans like human beings [every day], there will never be any peace
conservatives at the time.
for black or white in this country,89 the West Side resident concluded.
Another letter, published June 15, discussed how big cities exploded
ow did readers respond to the Defenders editorials in 1968? with violence after Kings murderand police responded with even
Especially reacting to the papers more conservative views, more violence, making matters worse. When police hit people, as
calling for the death penalty for teen killers, for instance, they often do, they create a climate of disrespect for the law,90 wrote
or endorsing Nixon? Readers didnt respond much that year to Roy J. Brown in June.
specific editorials written by the Defender, at least not in published
But why were there only two letters published in the Defender
letters to the editorin a whole year only thirty-five letters, out of a about Kings death? It remains a mystery. The author attempted to
total of 281, directly addressed editorials in the Defender, or a little contact any retired editorial writers from the Defender from 1968
fewer than three letters per month. Most letters were unrelated to to ask about why so few letters were published about Kings death.
Defender editorials. The majority of the letters, 175, or roughly 62 But Sengstacke died in 1997 at the age of ninety-four and no other
percent, consisted of readers mentioning an upcoming event they editorial writers from that period could be found.
wanted to publicize, such as a bake sale, or thanking someone for a
It is equally hard to explain why some months the Defender
service or job, or voicing random complaints about problems with a had a very high number of published letters and some just a few.
local business or service.85
But in December, for example, fifty-two letters were published,
An example of this trouble letter was a missive from Mrs. most expressing complaints about a local service or expressing
Marilyn C. Cartiero of Chicago, who wrote May 9 to say she had thanks. There was one notable exception: Pancho Hall wrote a letter
good service recently while having surgery at Provident Hospital December 19, responding, he said, to a news story about differences
on Chicagos South side. But the hospital equipment was old and between skin tones. Hall wrote that some people considered darker
outdated, she said. Can black power come together and save this skin better. But he said the color of a persons skin has nothing to do
hospital? she asked. Cant we support what is ours?86
with anything. I believe that as long as a person acts like a brother,
A few letters spoke directly about racial issues raised on the he should be treated equal to everyone else. Hall said black-skinned
Defenders editorial pages. But most letters did not refer to specific and light-skinned African Americans need to stop splitting our own

46

Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

race in two, with one group thinking it was better.91

A few letters to the editor mirrored some conservative views
expressed on the Defenders editorial pages, but again, most letters
were not in response to any specific Defender editorialsand
generally did not mention the editorials. For example, C.C. Mosely
wrote in July, just a few weeks after King and Robert Kennedy were
both killed by gunmen, that more gun control laws are just stupid.
Criminals can always buy or steal guns. Mosely wrote that the courts
must severely punish criminals who commit crimes with gunsand
the Supreme Court should stop interfering in death penalty cases
because killers must be killed. Mosely did not refer specifically to
the Defenders editorial support of the death penalty back in April.
Instead he ended his letter by warning that gun ownership should be
easier for the average person because with all the riots and trouble
brewing in this country, the people may need firearms very badly in
the near future to protect their families and homes.92
A reader who identified himself as a lawyer, Minor K. Wilson,
wrote a conservative letter in September, in which he said the media
portrayed Chicago in a false light during the Democratic Convention
in Chicago. Despite all the negative publicity, three facts emerge
to which all Chicago citizens can point with pride, Wilson
wrote. One, he said, was that only one person was seriously hurt, a
patrolman hit in the face with a brick. (And he was recovering with
the help of plastic surgery.) Two, all those arrested were immediately
brought before a judge and given a hearing. And they were out on
bond within a matter of hours. And finally, preparations are being
made to furnish free legal counsel to every indigent person arrested
in connection with the Democratic convention. Wilson concluded
that Chicago citizens can truthfully say we not only have law and
order in Chicago, but law and order with justice.93
On December 26 one letter specifically cited a Defender
editorial published in Octoberand made a point of taking a strong
stand against it. Gloria A. Lewis of Chicago argued that the two
militant athletes who gave the black power salute at the Olympic
games in Mexico City were brave and heroic. And she asserted the
Defender should not criticize them. Since when are commercial
events such as the Olympics more sacrosanct than the struggle
for human dignity?Lewis asked. In my opinion, any occasion,
sacrosanct or not, is the proper place to demonstrate our convictions
and our desire for something beyond that which the United States so
grudgingly permits us. The only fault with what happened in Mexico
City is that the rest of the black athletes did not do the same. The
Defender asked in its October 21 editorial what the black power
salute meant at the Olympics. And Lewis replied in her December
letter: It means keep your puny little bribes. We [black people] are
after a grander prize94than Olympic medals, she wrote.

he findings presented here demonstrate that rather than

printing only dangerous editorials that urged African
American revolution and/or separatism, the Defenders
editorial page in 1968 sang a generally nuanced song, more often in
the key of conservativism. It could modulate in many different keys,
however, sometimes soothing, other times harsh, and still other
times neutral. In most instances when Defender editorials tilted to
the right, as when the paper supported the death penalty, especially
urging the state to kill convicted teen murderers, even though many
Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

of those killers were African American. And that rightward tilt was
evidenced again by urging African Americans to vote for Nixon.
Another example of the Defenders right-wing tilt, for instance,
occurred when the papers editorials repeatedly attacked African
American militants such as Eldridge Cleaver and H. Rap Brown
for urging violence and separatism. And then the Defender further
attacked four Olympic athletes offering black power salutes in medal
ceremonies. And rather than blame poverty and discrimination and
a lack of jobs for teen violence, the paper blamed African American
families for not taking enough responsibility. The Defender urged
churches and fraternities and social clubs to all help raise the next
generation. The Defenders editorials from 1968 often sounded
similar to the current message espoused by comedian Bill Cosby:
that African American self-empowerment can only come from
education, discipline, and better parenting.95
It is not difficult to imagine most of the editorials published in
the Defender that year as being easily accepted and published on the
pages of the conservative Wall Street Journal. The overall editorial
message to readers of the Defender in 1968 was that they should
buckle down, get the best education possible, and then work hard
and they would succeed, despite racial prejudice.
It is important when seeking reasons for the Defenders
conservative editorials in 1968 to remember that Sengstacke was
a businessman, first and foremost. He was trained by Abbott, also
a consummate businessman. And Abbotts push for the Great
Migration was inspired in part by a desire for more readers and more
subscribers. According to the work of historian Earnest L. Perry Jr.,
both Abbott and Sengstacke presented sensational crime news in the
Defender mainly because such yellow journalism sold more papers
and hooked readers. Perry has shown that the Defenders founding
editors did not particularly care that their yellow journalism
coverage of crime created an unfortunate profile of the African
American community.96 History also shows yellow journalism was
a moneymaker: Abbott became the first African American man to
become a millionaire as a publisher of a newspaper. Both Abbott
and his nephew became famous for enjoying the trappings of
wealthfor example, a gold-headed cane, grand tours of Europe,
and a Dusenberg convertible and Rolls-Royce limousine.97 Maybe
Sengstackes comfortable position of power, fame and wealth played
a role in keeping him from supporting the Black Panthers and other
black radicals. There may also be something to the theory that many
so-called radical publications start out wild and wooly in their early
days and then grow mellow as they get older and more established.
This is a theory worth testing in future research.
In stark contrast, it is much harder to get one overarching
single message from examining published letters to the editor in the
Defender in 1968. As mentioned previously, most letters were general
complaints about poor services or were messages about upcoming
events or thanks for various community services. It is worth noting
that timeliness did not seem to be an issue in the letters since often
a letter would refer to something that happened several months
earlier. But it is not clear, however, if the letters arrived at the paper
long after an event, or if the paper simply took its time in publishing
them.
To its credit, however, the Defender in 1968 accepted and
published at least a few letters that strongly disagreed with its
47

editorials. And these letters took the Defenders editors and reporters
to task for mistakes and faults in logic. So the paper was open to
reader criticism and published that criticism.

just in its youthful days.

Another significance of this research is that it is a longitudinal
study, which is research over a given period of time, similar to one
done by the New York Times in 2001 called How Race Is Lived in
his research offers primary source material from the Defender America.98 The fifteen-part series in the Times was the work of a
that indicates the countrys leading African American dozen reporters who conducted interviews across the country over
newspaper took a wide variety of editorial stances in 1968, the span of a year. The project won a Pulitzer Prize. Supporters said
many of them conservative, but many also contradictory. So, too, the papers coverage of day-to-day exchanges between races was long
did its readers, sometimes urging the abolition of gun control laws, overdue and invaluable.99
for instance, then saying rioting cops at the Democratic Convention
At the start of the series the Times editors wrote that race
were not too bad, while at the same time demanding justice, freedom relations are defined today less by political action than by daily
from police repression, support for black
life, in schools, in sports arenas, in pop
power saluters and equal rights for all. The
culture and at worship, and especially in the
It is important when
editorial page of the Defender in 1968, with
workplace. That is why the editors note
seeking reasons for the
its varying points of view in its editorials
said the paper decided to spend so much
and letters, can confound those who want
time and effort examining race relations as
Defenders conservative
to neatly label it simply as a dangerous
seen in peoples daily existence at work and
publication.
at play over an entire year.100
editorials in 1968 to
Why are these findings important?
The series needs to be seen in a
remember that Sengstacke
First off, this research offers primary
larger historical context: There is another
source material directly from the pages of
largely untapped historical record that
was a businessman, first and tells peoples personal stories about race
the Defender in 1968. And this is no small
accomplishment. Because, like it or not, it
foremost. He was trained by in their own words and in their daily
is difficult to find, read and study complete
existence over the course of a year, and
Abbott, also a consummate
press runs of many African American
longerpublished letters to the editor in
newspapers for any given year. Some black
African American newspapers across the
businessman.
community leaders and historians are
country, as well as editorials printed daily
slowly trying to change this by recovering
or weekly. Individuals concerned with how
old copies of newspapers wherever they can find them. But it is a some newspaper readers have expressed their views about race in
very slow process.
America and the role journalism has played in telling their story can
Whether by intent, racial bias, or simple neglect, some study the historical record of editorial pages from earlier times. In
historically important African American newspapers, such as such published letters and editorials a researcher can find a treasure
the Defender, have not been generally maintained and carefully trove of editors and readers remarks about their daily experiences
catalogued in historical collections around the country that are involving race.
readily available for public loan and careful study. Some libraries
The research in this article examined the largely unexplored
have bits and pieces of a collection of parts of particular African record of race relations at a critical time in the nations
American newspapers, but are missing months at a time. Other history1968by studying editorials and letters to the editor that
partial collections of a particular newspaper are hoarded away appeared in the Chicago Defender that year.
under lock and key in special collection sections of libraries and not
Nearly any period in history can potentially yield interesting
available for copying and in-depth analysis. Still other newspaper discussions by revealing published editorials and letters. But as
morgues, or collections of back issues, have been lost over time historian Lloyd Chiasson writes, the press plays a particularly
when new owners of African American newspapers have gotten into important role in times of crisis. In times of normalcy the press
squabbles with previous owners and suddenly all the back issues seems most adept at accomplishing its tasks of informing, educating
have disappeared. As a result, many African American newspapers, and persuading, Chiasson wrote. But the presss role becomes even
including the Defender, were not and still are not readily available more important and critical when the environment in which the
for thorough study for a years uninterrupted press run at a time. press functions becomes volatile, he said.101 The year studied here,
To get a complete years worth of the Defender for this research, 1968, was a critical time of transition. In keeping with Chiassons
for example, required ordering the paper from three different observations, this research explored race relations when the nations
library collections and comparing them. Where one library might social, spiritual, and cultural fabric seemed to be unraveling.
be missing the March 1 edition, the other would have it. It was
Langston Hughes wrote that the Defender inspired him when
definitely a cobbling together process. By reading, analyzing and he was a child: Its flaming headlines and indignant editorials did a
summarizing a years worth of the Chicago Defenders editorial pages great deal to make me the race man that I later became. He added,
this research provides new knowledgereaders can find out what Thousands and thousands of other young Negroes were, I am
Sengstacke actually published that year and not rely on memories sure, also affected the same way by this militant and strongly edited
and second-hand recollections. One can see here the actions (and Chicago paper.102 But the reality is that the Defender was not frozen
published words) of the lion (the Chicago Defender) in winter, not in time with only one message, like a butterfly trapped in amber.

48

Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

Instead it was a living, breathing, evolving organism. It was complex

and complicated and changeable, especially in changing times.
A Chicago Defender that called for the death penalty for young
African American hoodlums in 1968 and derided the Black Panthers
and black power salutes at the Olympics may conflict with some
peoples memories of what the paper stood for. This apparent conflict
can be explained by examining Owens 2007 assertion that human
understanding is a fusion of many narratives blended to create a
mythic structure. (She examined the mythic paradigm in connection
with Martin Luther King Jr. as an example of myth making in a
modern setting.) There may be a similar blurring of myth and reality
in the perceived image of the Chicago Defender in 1968.
NOTES
1
The term African American is used in most cases throughout this paper, except
when dealing with quotes, although that terminology was not in general use in 1968.
Instead Black, and Afro-American and even Negro, were more commonly used
then.
2
Christopher C. De Santis, Langston Hughes and the Chicago Defender,
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995), 13.
3
Dirk Johnson, The Chicago Defender, New York Times, May 27, 2009.
4
Theodore Kornweibel Jr., The Most Dangerous of All Negro Journals: Federal
Efforts to Suppress the Chicago Defender During World War I, American Journalism
11:2 (Spring 1994), 257-69.
5
Quoted by Stanley Nelson, producer/director, in The Black Press: Soldiers
without Swords (San Francisco: California Newsreel, 1998), videocassette. Also see
James R. Grossman, Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 172; and A Chance to Make Good:
African-Americans, 1900-1929 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 150.
6
Nelson, The Black Press.
7
Alan D. DeSantis, Selling the American Dream Myth to Black Southerners,
The Chicago Defender and the Great Migration of 1915-1919, Western Journal of
Communication, 62, (4) (Fall 1988), 474-511.
8
Roi Ottley, The Lonely Warrior: The Life and Times of Robert S. Abbott (Chicago:
Henry Regnery Co., 1955), 160.
9
Ibid., 15.
10
See Davarian Baldwin, Chicagos New Negroes: Modernity, the Great Migration,
& Black Urban Life (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2007), 38-9; and
Carole Marks, Farewell, Were Good and Gone: The Great Black Migration (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1989), 35-44.
11
Signed A Reader, from Lutcher, Louisiana, Journal of Negro History, vol.
IV, 1919, 20.
12
Ibid.
13
See, for example, the previously mentioned work of Alan D. DeSantis,
Kornweibel, Ottley, and Nelson.
14
Brent Staples, Citizen Sengstacke, New York Times Magazine, Jan. 4, 1998.
15
Grossman, Land of Hope, 172.
16
Felicia G. Jones Ross and Joseph P. McKerns, Depression in The Promised
Land: The Chicago Defender Discourages Migration, 1929-1940, American
Journalism 21, no. 1 (Winter 2004): 55-73.
17
Karen E. Pride, Chicago Defender Celebrates 100 Years in Business, Chicago
Defender, May 5, 2005.
18
Earnest L. Perry Jr., A Common Purpose: The Negro Newspaper Publishers
Associations Fight for Equality During World War II,American Journalism 19, no.
2 (Spring 2002): 31-43.
19
President Truman Wipes Out Segregation in Armed Forces, Chicago
Defender, July 26, 1948; Harry S. Truman, Executive Order 9980, July 26, 1948,
University of California, American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/
ws/print.php?pid=78208, accessed Feb. 7, 2014.
20
Alan D. DeSantis, A Forgotten Leader: Robert S. Abbott and the Chicago
Defender from 1910-1920, Journalism History 23, no. 1 (Spring 1997): 64.
21
Earnest L. Perry Jr. , Voice of Consciousness: The Negro Newspaper Publishers
Association During World War II, (PhD diss., University of Missouri-Columbia,
1998), 1-22.

Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

DeSantis, Selling the American Dream, 475.

Megan M. Everett, Extra! Extra! Tracing the Chicago Defenders Campaign
for African American Policewomen in the Early 20th Century, Explorations: An
Undergraduate Research Journal, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 26.
24
A.L. Glenn Sr., History of the National Alliance of Postal Employees, 1913-1955
(Cleveland: Cadillac Press Co., 1957), 25.
25
Jasmin K. Williams, The Mouthpiece of 14 Million People, Dubbed the
Black Hearst, New York Amsterdam News, April 18, 2013.
26
John N. Ingham, and Lynne B. Feldman, African-American Business Leaders,
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994), 18.
27
Lolly Bowean, Chicago Defender Goes Back to Bronzeville, Chicago
Defender, May 27, 2009.
28
Ibid.
29
Quoted by Nelson in The Black Press.
30
Adam Green, Selling the Race: Culture, Community, and Black Chicago
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 201.
31
The words liberal and conservative have different meanings in different
times, and exact definitions are hard to come by. But in 1968 if a person supported
presidential candidates Eugene McCarthy or Robert Kennedy, for instance, both
progressive Democrats, then one would probably be labeled a liberal. Conversely,
those who supported Richard Nixon and wanted to maintain the status quo and
spoke passionately about the need for law and order would be labeled conservative.
32
Brian Thornton and Bill Cassidy, Black Newspapers in 1968 Offer Panthers
Little Support, Newspaper Research Journal, 29, no. 1 (Winter 2008): 303-20.
33
Negro Republicans, Chicago Defender, July 9, 1968.
34
Charles A. Simmons, The African-American Press: A History of News Coverage
During National Crisis with Special Reference to Four Black Newspapers, 1827-1965
(Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. 1998), 165.
35
Ibid.
36
Nelson, The Black Press.
37
Including the previously mentioned Ottley, Lonely Warrior; and Myiti
Sengstacke Rice, The Chicago Defender (Mount Pleasant, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing,
2012). Also see Kornweibel, The Most Dangerous, 168; Ella T. Strother, The Black
Image in the Chicago Defender, 1905-1975, Journalism History 4, no. 4 (Fall 197778): 137-41, 156; Mary E. Stovall, The Chicago Defender in the Progressive Era,
Illinois Historical Journal 83 (Fall, 1990): 162; and Charlesetta Maria Ellis, Robert
S. Abbotts Response to Education for African Americans via the Chicago Defender,
1909-1940, (PhD diss., Loyola University of Chicago, 1994).
38
Renee Romano and Raiford Lee, eds., The Civil Rights Movement in American
Memory (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006).
39
Kristen Hoerl, Mississippis Social Transformation in Public Memories of the
Trial Against Byron de la Beckwith for the Murder of Medgar Evers, Western Journal
of Communication 72, no. 1 (January-March 2008): 62-82.
40
Brian Thornton, Pleading Their Own Cause: Letters to the Editor and
Editorials in 10 African-American Newspapers in 1929-1930, Journalism History
32, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 168-79.
41
W. Joseph Campbell, The Year That Defined American Journalism: 1897 and
the Clash of Paradigms (New York: Routledge, 2006), xix.
42
David G. McCullough, 1776 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005).
43
William A. Klingaman, 1929: The Year of the Great Crash (New York: Harper
& Row, 1989).
44
Louis P. Masur, 1831, Year of the Eclipse (New York: Hill and Wang, 2001).
45
Kenneth M. Stampp, America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1990).
46
Tom Lutz, American Nervousness, 1903: An Anecdotal History (Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 1990).
47
Margaret Olwen Macmillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
(New York: Random House, 2002).
48
Campbell, 1897, xix.
49
Lawrence D. Bobo, Are Black Americans Screwed? The Root, March 5,
2013, 23.
50
David Paul Nord, Reading the Newspaper: Strategies and Politics of Reader
Response: Chicago, 1912-1917, Journal of Communication 45 no. 3 (Summer
1995): 6693.
51
Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, Journalists and the Public: Newsroom Culture, Letters to
the Editor and Democracy (Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press, 2007), 4, 5.
52
Philip Jenkins, Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of
22
23

49

Eighties America (Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2006), 3. The term 68ism
is used extensively in a recent best-selling novel by Kurt Andersen, True Believers
(New York: Random House, 2012).
53
Thomas Maier, Dr. Spock: An American Life (New York: Harcourt Brace,
1998)..98.
54
Tieren Williams, The Prague Spring and Its Aftermath: Czechoslovak Politics,
19681970 (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 67.
55
See Mark Kurlansky, 1968: The Year That Rocked the World (New York:
Ballantine Books, 2006), 112.
56
Clay Risen, A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination
(Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons), 12.
57
Denise Kersten Wills, People Were Out of Control: Remembering the 1968
Riots, Washingtonian, April 1, 2008, B1.
58
Jonathan Bean, Burn, Baby, Burn: Small Business in the Urban Riots of the
1960s, The Independent Review 5, no. 2 (Fall 2000): 16587.
59
Todd Gitlin, The Whole World Is Watching: Mass Media in the Making and
Unmaking of the New Left (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).
60
Carl Bernstein, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton (New
York: Vintage Books, 2008), 63-70; and Gail Sheehy, Hillarys Choice, New York:
Random House, 1999), 54.
61
See Mark Ray Schmidt, ed., The 1970s (San Diego: Green Haven Press,
2000), 241.
62
Peter N. Carroll, It Seemed like Nothing Happened: America in the 1970s (New
Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1982), x.
63
Bruce J. Schulman, The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society
and Politics (New York: The Free Press, 2001), 16.
64
Ibid., 14.
65
Robert Hariman and John Lucaites, Public Identity and Collective Memory
in U.S. Iconic Photography: The Image of Accidental Napalm, Critical Studies in
Mass Communication 20, no. 1 (March 2003): 3566.
66
Edward D. Berkowitz, Something Happened: A Political and Cultural Overview
of the Seventies (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 5, 6.
67
Schulman, The Seventies, xvi.
68
Dominick Sandbrook, Mad as Hell: The Crisis of the 1970s and the Rise of the
Populist Right (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), xi.
69
Todd Gitlin, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage (New York; London:
Bantam, 1993), 242.
70
Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin Jr., Black against Empire: The History and
Politics of the Black Panther Party (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013),
118. Also see Carmichael Urges Arms for Negroes, Jackson Daily News, April 5,
1968.
71
Black Clergys Advice, Chicago Defender, Oct. 15, 1968.
72
Black Nation for Blacks, Chicago Defender, Sept. 5, 1968.
73
Olympic Black Power, Chicago Defender, Oct. 21, 1968.
74
End Juvenile Crime, Chicago Defender, April 30, 1968.

50

75
The official title of the Commission was the National Advisory Committee on
Civil Disorders. See Thomas J. Hrach, An Incitement to Riot, Journalism History,
37, no. 3 (Fall 2011): 164.
76
Riot Panel Tells the Truth, Chicago Defender, March 5, 1968.
77
The Kerner Panel, Chicago Defender, March 11, 1968.
78
They Bury Him Today, Chicago Defender, April 9, 1968.
79
A Man of Peace, Chicago Defender, April 10, 1968.
80
Free at Last, Chicago Defender, April 11, 1968.
81
The Revolting Students, Chicago Defender, May 6, 1968.
82
What Do We Want, Chicago Defender, Nov. 25, 1968.
83
Teaching Black History, Chicago Defender, Oct. 11, 1968.
84
Black Power Advocates, Chicago Defender, Nov.26, 1968.
85
For purposes of this research these letters were labeled other, since they did
not fit into one single or repeating category.
86
Help Provident: Black Power Job, Chicago Defender, May 9, 1968.
87
Separatism Foe, Chicago Defender, March 28, 1968.
88
See the New York Amsterdam News, April 1968, with dozens of letters about
King printed along with the Los Angeles Sentinel.
89
Time for Sorrow, Chicago Defender, May 4, 1968.
90
Law and Order, Chicago Defender, June 15 1968.
91
Light Negroes Want Equality, Chicago Defender, Dec. 19, 1968.
92
Gun Law Foe, Chicago Defender, July 16, 1968.
93
Point of Pride, Chicago Defender, Sept. 23, 1968.
94
Black Power at Olympics, Chicago Defender, Dec. 26, 1968.
95
Mary Mitchell, Cosby Gave It to Us Straight, Chicago Sun-Times, June 3,
2004.
96
Earnest L. Perry Jr., To Plead Our Cause and Make a Profit: The Competitive
Environment of the African American Press, paper presented at the annual meeting
of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Chicago,
Aug. 9, 2012.
97
Former Defender reporter Vernon Jarrett was quoted as saying Abbott and
his nephew loved many trapping of wealth, especially their fancy cars, even though
Abbott never drove and Sengstacke rarely did. See Nelson, The Black Press.
98
How Race Is Lived in America, New York Times, June 4-7, July 3-23, and
July 19, 2000. Eventually the series was reprinted as a book, How Race Is Lived in
America: Pulling Together, Pulling Apart (New York: Henry Holt and Co., Times
Books), 2001.
99
David L. Johnson, book review, Curled Up with a Good Book, http://www.
curledup.com/howrace.htm, accessed Feb. 7, 2014.
100
Editors Note, How Race Is Lived in America, New York Times, June 4,
2001.
101
Lloyd Chiasson Jr., The Press in Times of Crisis (Westport, Conn.: Praeger,
1995), iii.
102
Christopher C. De Santis, Langston Hughes and the Chicago Defender, 14.

Journalism History 40:1 (Spring 2014)

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