via Wikimedia
According to white-run newspapers in the 1820s, “[Black people] were never born, we didn’t get married, we didn’t die, we didn’t fight in any wars, and we never participated in anything scientific. We were truly invisible [in the news] unless we committed a crime.”
These are the powerful words of journalist Vernon Jarett, as told to documentarians in The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords.
That is until we began taking matters into our own hands.
Starting in 1827 with the Freedom’s Journal publication in NYC, the Black press retaliated against our historic erasure by taking control of what and how our stories were told.
They made it a point to extensively report on our social events, activism, and the cultural evolution of our communities, all the while encouraging literacy, political involvement, and economic empowerment.
As some publications caved under financial hardship, newer publications filled the void left behind by the absence of earlier journals. Why?
Because NO ONE explores what we go through nor explains why we continue to fight against racism and oppression like the Black press.
But for these publications to survive, we must invest in their continued circulation. Here is how.
By marveling at our fortitude and beauty across the pages of Black publications, and CERTAINLY by sharing PushBlack’s stories of Black excellence and resilience that are broadcast daily, for example, we honor all of the contributions Black folks have made to American society that have historically been ignored.