The Black magazine since World War II and its background
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Abstract
[This study attempts to show the growth and development
of The Black magazine from its early history as an organ of
protest and a repository of cultural and educational attainment
on the part of free Blacks to a political propaganda
tool used to enlighten and persuade a disillusioned and
frightened people of their right to full and unequivocal
citizenship and civil rights. The struggle for the control
of the mind of the mass of Black Americans was waged in the
Black newspaper and periodical press. Examination of the use
of magazines such as THE VOICE OF THE NEGRO, THE HORIZON and
THE CRISIS to counteract the non-resistant passivity and
emphasis on materialism that was characteristic of the Booker
T. Washington school of thought provides a large segment of
the media's historical development.
The emergence since 1945, or the end of World War II,
of a periodical press that is less an initiator of protest
than it is a reflection of the tastes and habits and the
social and political points 6f view as expressed by a complex
and multifaceted sub-culture, provide the major portion of
this study. It focuses on John H. Johnson, the president and
publisher of EBONY Magazine, the largest circulation general
publication in the history of the periodical press. EBONY,
founded in 1947, has a guaranteed circulation of 1,300~000
copies monthly.
Brief sketches are given of other Black-oriented magazines
published since 1945, a description given of the Black
consumer market and a content analysis of 12 .consecutive
issues of EBONY.]
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This work is being made available in OpenBU by permission of its author, and is available for research purposes only. All rights are reserved to the author.