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"Roosevelt shook Harry McAlpin's hand and said, 'Harry, I'm glad to have you here.' And that was a sign . . . that blacks are here to stay at the White House." •Part 1 of the text of Media & Society lecture by Patrick S. Washburn, historian of the black press and author of A Question of Sedition, Feb. 8, 2001, on the campus of Utah State University By
the USU department of journalism and communication
My name is Mike Sweeney. I am a professor in the Department of Journalism and Communications, and I'd like to welcome you to this Media & Society Lecture, which is co-sponsored by the Department of Journalism and Communication and the Black Student Union. Our speaker today is Dr. Patrick S. Washburn. He is a professor at Ohio University. Not Ohio State -- they're the bad guys. And I know because I attended Ohio University and got my Ph.D. there and Dr. Washburn was the chairman of my dissertation committee. Dr. Washburn is a world-class reporter, editor and historian. He has published a book called A Question of Sedition, which is about the black press during World War II, and a panel of journalism historians writing in the academic journal for people who do what we do, said that this is one of the 35 top journalism history books of the century. So Dr. Washburn as an author is in the same kind of company as Woodward and Bernstein, Walter Lippmann and David Halberstam. This an important book. He'll be talking today about the fight for civil rights, the black press and the Double V campaign during World War II. I think this important, not just for Black History Month, not just for black Americans, but for all Americans. As he'll tell you, during World War II, a time when this country was probably more united than it ever has been before or since, the United States needed the full participation of black America if it was going to defeat the Axis -- defeat Germany and Italy and Japan. But the black press in this country was a bit concerned. It said, "You want us to go overseas and fight our enemies there . . . you want us to fight totalitarianism, for freedom. We want something in return. If we are fighting for freedom abroad, we want freedom here at home, too." And I think that's important because a measure of a democracy, a measure of its strength, is how much freedom it gives, not just to most people, but to all people. And I think without further ado, I'll turn the floor over to Dr. Washburn. Dr. Washburn: Thank you, Mike. During the course of this, you will occasionally see me take a drink of water. I spoke earlier this week on the same topic at the University of Northern Colorado, went very hoarse in the middle of this, made the crack to them, that they have tough air in Colorado. I suspect you have tough air in this state too. And particularly if you aren't used to living here. Fifty-seven years ago today, exactly to the date, a milestone occurred for American blacks and for the black press. On that particular day, Feb. 8, 1944, Harry McAlpin, a reporter for the Atlanta Daily World, became the first black White House correspondent. You think about that. You look at TV today, you see all kinds of blacks that show up on TV reporting from the White House, and it's hard to believe that it was only 57 years ago that you had your first one. And before that, you had no one who could talk to the president of the United States, who was black, at a press conference and ask him what blacks wanted to hear. Well, that was an important thing for the black press, for blacks to suddenly have somebody who could talk to an American president. If you think that was the end of segregation at the White House, you're wrong. Harry McAlpin went to his first press conference 57 years ago. He was standing outside waiting to go into the Oval Office at the White House, where they had press conferences at that time, and a white reporter from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, who was head of the White House Press Correspondents Association, came up to Harry and said, "Harry, we're not happy that you're here, but we can't stop you from going to these press conferences. However, if you don't go to these press conferences, we will come out afterward and we will tell you everything that happened. You will have the exact same notes we do. You will find it possible to write the same stories that we do. And, if you don't go, we will let you join the White House Press Correspondents Association." Well, Harry McAlpin immediately went into the press conference. They had the press conference, and at the end of it he made a point of going by Franklin Roosevelt's desk -- Franklin Roosevelt had polio, he sat down at most of these press conferences -- he went by Franklin Roosevelt's desk. Franklin Roosevelt stuck out his hand, shook Harry McAlpin's hand and said, "Harry, I'm glad to have you here." And that was a sign to the white reporters there, and to white America, that blacks are here to stay at the White House, And they've been there. Ever since then, all 57 years. Well, what I'm here today to do, is to talk about what happened to the black press, and the government's investigation of the black press in World War II. This is a story that most people don't know much about. They've heard very little about it. So I'm here to tell you stories. I am a story teller. As I told a class this morning. I don't think there's dull history, there's just dull historians. I am not here to bore you today. To start this topic I want to show a portion of a documentary that was made and shown for the first time two years ago as a PBS Television documentary, and the particular part I'm going to show, is a part that deals with World War II. I was an adviser for this thing. This documentary won a Columbia Du Pont award, which is the highest honor given in broadcasting, and the part I'm going to show - it's an hour and a half documentary - the part I'm going to show is about 10 minutes. It deals with World War II. It gives you some of the flavor and then I'm going to talk about some of these things. (Shows video clip.) Click here to read Part II of Dr. Washburn's remarks.
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