Countdown to 100 has begun
16th September 2024 · 0 Comments
Ida B. Wells’ words, writings and books, nearly two centuries later, continue to educate us about the dangers her generation faced, which, unfortunately, Black Americans still face today.
Wells is deservedly lauded as the first Black female investigative journalist. She investigated and published reports on lynchings and injustices and risked her life to do so.
The celebrated journalist was still alive when The Louisiana Weekly began its truth-telling journalism journey as the New Orleans Herald on September 19, 1925.
Under the yolk of the same segregation Wells labored under, New Orleans Herald co-founders “C.C.” (Constant Charles) Dejoie Sr. and Orlando Capitola Ward Taylor changed the newspaper’s name. They published the first edition of The Louisiana Weekly on October 10, 1925.
“… There is only one course for a Negro paper to take in matters pertaining to Negro life, and that is the right side. Any attempt to sidestep and to ‘pussyfoot’ is more harmful to the race than anything else.
“Negro papers are not the property of the individuals who have them in charge, but the property of the Negro public whose interests they should serve…Lastly, we know that there are always papers that must be devoted to special interests…We know that certain societies papers are justified in having their papers for their own special use…Hence we have selected our special group to serve—THE NEGRO PEOPLE OF LOUISIANA,” the publishers wrote in the newspaper’s first editorial on September 19, 1925.
On September 19, 2024, The Louisiana Weekly turns 99 years old, and next year, publisher Renette Dejoie Hall will preside over the 100th anniversary of the Black-owned press.
Today, with social media, digital newspapers, YouTube channels and many newsletters, Black-owned newspapers are thought to be longer needed. Anyone who thinks that is wrong, wrong, wrong. Why? Because Black-owned newspapers are still beacons for justice, truth-telling and opportunities for exposing those who seek to harm our Black bodies and communities.
The truth about the need for the continual existence of Black-owned newspapers is that Black Americans would not be holistically educated about what’s going on in the U.S., federal and local governments, Congress, and state legislators, and how it impacts them. Without Black newspapers, our people would not know what we need to advocate for and against.
The ultimate truth is that Black newspapers cover issues related to Black communities that mainstream media will not.
For example, for more than nine decades, The Louisiana Weekly has covered a myriad of issues and events affecting Black Americans, including acts of domestic terrorism committed against people of color across the U.S., inequitable treatment in the workplace, segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces, the destruction of Black towns and businesses by white supremacists, the Tuskegee Experiment, the historic Civil Rights Movement, the March on Washington, the Million Man March, Million Woman March, the passage of primary civil rights legislation, and acts of Congress and local and state governments designed to stop Blacks and other people of color from voting.
The Louisiana Weekly and others are needed more today than ever, given the assault on women’s rights, voting rights, and constitutional rights. The march toward authoritarianism orchestrated by Republicans is a clear and present danger to all Americans, but most of all Black Americans, many of whom aren’t financially able to withstand losing their fundamental rights.
The paper has celebrated freedom fighters, such as the courage and bravery displayed by the Buffalo Soldiers, Tuskegee Airmen, Deacons for Defense, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, and the great social work done by various Black sororities and fraternities.
The paper has captured the successes and told the stories of trailblazers, political pioneers and civil rights leaders and organizations, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; the Rev. A.L. Davis; the Rev. Avery C. Alexander; Ernest “Dutch” Morial; Justice Revius Ortique; A.P. Tureaud Sr.; Homer Plessy; Valena C. Jones; Dr. Felton G. Clark; Dr. Mack Spears; Dr. Rivers Frederick; Walter L. Cohen; Israel Augustine; Dorothy Mae Taylor; L.B. Landry, Albert Dent; Thomy Lafon; Alfred J. Lawless; Henriette Delille; Fannie C. Williams; Jerome Smith, Rudy Lombard; Oretha Castle Haley; Retired Chief Justice Bernette J. Johnson; Sybil Morial; Mayor Marc Morial; Leah Chase; Dr. Beverly Wright; Bishop Tom Watson; Dr. Clyde Robertson; and all the others who have paved the way for the freedoms we enjoy today.
This paper has advocated for better schools, safer streets, fair housing and access to affordable health care for all Americans. It has celebrated the successes of Black-owned businesses and organizations across the city, state and nation and advocated for laws and ordinances that give every citizen a fair shot.
The Louisiana Weekly chronicled a series of world-changing events, such as the September 11 attacks, the destruction caused by levee breaks after Hurricane Katrina, the election of the nation’s first Black president, Barack H. Obama, and the creation of a memorial honoring the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall.
This paper has also looked closely at the 200th anniversary of the historical 1811 Slave Revolt and the meaning it has for Black people in New Orleans and around the world.
The refusal of major media to deal with the racist acts, innuendoes and outright lies presented at the recent Republican National Convention is a testimony to the fact that Black people cannot trust these sources. Even internet “news” sources have shown themselves to be blatant in their racial and political leanings. The unprecedented foul treatment of the first Black president in the media is testimony that we are not in a “post-racial” society.
New Orleans and Louisiana were at the forefront of the modern Civil Rights Movement, and The Louisiana Weekly documented it all.
The Louisiana Weekly reflects with great pride and a sense of accomplishment on how far people of African descent have come since the paper was founded in 1925.
This paper has participated in the fight to abolish legal segregation, worked to secure the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, integrated the nation’s armed forces, entered the nation’s top corporate boardrooms, and elected the nation’s first Black president.
But this paper also acknowledges that the nation still has a long way to go. Black, brown and poor people are still relegated to the lower rungs of the socioeconomic totem pole, and people of color are still often treated by the legal system and criminal justice system like we have no rights that white people are bound by law to respect.
People of color are still being targeted and racially profiled by those sworn to protect and serve us and are being gunned down in numbers that would make some believe that it’s 1919 rather than 2024.
Financial institutions are still subjecting people of color to payday loans, redlining strategies, and high interest and mortgage rates, and the U.S. Department of Justice is doing little to ensure that people of color enjoy equal protection under the law.
As such, The Louisiana Weekly and Black Americans have precious little time for celebration, sleep, or rest.
The privatization of public education in New Orleans is still a significant setback for children of color. Naming a school after Mrs. Leah Chase and making that school the first to be returned to the Orleans Parish Schools’ jurisdiction is commendable for the Chase family. We celebrate that fact.
But the destruction of our public school system plotted by white interlopers and white state legislators in 1999 is still a disgraceful theft of power and money from the hands of educators and students in this predominately Black city.
School buildings are being sold and turned into apartments, children are being bussed, and the charter school experiment is a colossal failure. Charter school administrators are making six-figure salaries off the backs of our children, with no oversight or guidance, and many are not scoring above a ‘D’ grade for school performance.
The alleged Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) allowed a school to be built on a former landfill containing at least eight toxic metals, including lead, mercury and zinc, another reason The Louisiana Weekly must never cease publishing.
As this nation succumbs to a continuous program of racial injustice, increased class oppression and political hostility, now more than ever there is a need for a Black Press that will speak truth to those who don’t know their power. Louisiana is a state where the leaders have declared war on the Black, the brown, the poor and the middle class.
Destroying public education, public health care, and human services is part of a national strategy that seems to be working because few in the so-called mainstream media dare to expose these activities.
Now more than ever, we need a Black Press that will sound the alarm, provide information, promote solutions and celebrate the victories of the Black community every day.
The Louisiana Weekly is the oldest continuously published Black-owned newspaper in the Southeast. The fact that any business, especially a Black publication, is approaching its 100th birthday speaks to the continuing need for communities of color to tell their own stories.
This article originally published in the September 16, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
