The Louisiana Weekly celebrates 95 years of civil rights reporting
14th September 2020 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
Right from the outset, the publication that would become The Louisiana Weekly newspaper established and set in writing the philosophy under which it would operate.
In the paper’s very first issue, dated Sept. 19, 1925, the editorial team wrote that a newspaper “should have an adequate amount of real good news, interesting to its readers and bearing upon their lives.”
The writers declared firmness and conviction as part of their goals, stating that “editorially, in matters pertaining to the race, a paper should not straddle. There is only one course for a Negro paper to take in matters of Negro life, and that is the right side,” they penned. “… 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,” they concluded, “we know that there must always be papers devoted to special interests. We know that certain societies are justified in having their papers for their own special use. Church papers are highly justifiable. Special interests must be served. Hence, we have selected our special group to serve – THE NEGRO PEOPLE OF LOUISIANA. To them our columns are open. For them will be our plans and labors. To them we look for support.”
Now, 95 years after those words were etched in ink, they have remained true to the mission of The Louisiana Weekly. In all that time, those goals and aspirations have remained, and in so doing, such beliefs have continued to record local and national Black history for posterity, and to advocate for justice, fairness and progress.
“The Louisiana Weekly, in 1926, became a publication without which Black New Orleans history in the twentieth century would only exist in the cemeteries,” prominent New Orleans journalist Keith Weldon Medley told the Callaloo literary magazine in 2007.
Renette Dejoie Hall, the current publisher of the newspaper said last week that she and the paper’s staff are proud of “so many things” about the paper.
“The fact that we have been the preservers of history,” she said. “That we are a research reference. That we tell the story of change and in most instances have been the catalyst for change. That we provide news that matters to our community, informs our community, affects and effects our community.”
With just five years to go before it reaches its centennial, The Louisiana Weekly has garnered compliments and kudos from across the country, including among historical researchers and authors.
In his 2015 book, “Defying Jim Crow: African American Community Development and the Struggle for Racial Equality in New Orleans, 1900-1960,” author Donald E. DeVore related how crucial The Louisiana Weekly has been to the social, cultural, economic and political progress of African-American residents and businesses, and to the welfare of the whole city.
“The Louisiana Weekly… re-mained steadfast and true to its stated aims,” DeVore wrote, “usually echoing the sentiments of the black community and helping to define vital issues. More than an organ of race chauvinism, it printed articles and editorials that challenged Jim Crow in its many manifestations.”
DeVore described the vital role the paper played locally in the long fight against segregation, and how it maintained a special relationship with its readers. “The weekly newspaper maintained continuous coverage and commentary on issues such as discriminatory voter registration practices, unresponsive white political leaders, the corrosive effects of incivility of white citizens, police misconduct and racial segregation,” he wrote. “… [E]nduring Jim Crow was a lived experience. The publisher, journalists and editors of The Louisiana Weekly never forgot that fact and, by highlighting the realities of life under Jim Crow, built and maintained strong support throughout the entire community.”
And, DeVore added, the newspaper served as a rallying cry to boost Black civic engagement and to spur its readers to action themselves.
“Good leaders, however, often needed better followers,” he wrote, “and The Louisiana Weekly remained adamant about the need to cultivate greater activism within the black community. Consistent with the self-help tradition, the newspaper implored African Americans to do more to help themselves in throwing off the odious yoke of oppression and discrimination.”
In a 2009 doctoral dissertation, LSU student Sharlene Sinegal DeCuir echoed DeVore’s thoughts; she chronicled in detail how The Louisiana Weekly evolved as a proponent for change from its inception in 1925 up to the start of the Second World War.
She noted that “throughout this time period [the newspaper] documented and reported on the daily lives and struggles of blacks in New Orleans,” including during the beginning of the Depression, when the paper zeroed in on ways the Black community could enact and push for economic recovery, such as applying for unemployment benefits and boycotting white-owned businesses that refuse service to Black customers.
DeCuir discussed how The Weekly kept the feet of local Black political and civic leaders to the fire, pressing them to develop a more progressivist, vocal, strident approach to toppling Jim Crow and demanding equality and social justice. The paper urged local Black unity and strength from within.
The Weekly called for cooperation and unity in the Black community as well as self-help, DeCuir wrote. “It used information as a form of activism to transform the black community’s approach to race relations in the Jim Crow South. The Weekly challenged the masses to become more involved and demand a change in leadership to reflect the growing needs of the community. … The Weekly advocated new leadership for the black community that would reach the masses by being more aggressive, demanding and inclusive.”
The Louisiana Weekly maintained a sterling reputation among its journalistic peers in the South during the Civil Rights era as well.
“[The] Louisiana Weekly is the only Negro newspaper published in the city of New Orleans [and] has the largest circulation of any weekly in the state,” stated the Atlanta Daily World in 1954. “This publication has received numerous citations locally and nationally, for outstanding contributions in the fields of Human Relations and the civic and welfare betterment of New Orleans. The best way to reach [the] lucrative Negro market [in New Orleans] is to advertise in the columns of The Louisiana Weekly.”
Along the way, The Louisiana Weekly succeeded at such a high level partially because it made itself a longtime, stalwart player among the nation’s Black news organizations and establishing business and editorial connections with other African-American publications.
During the Great Depression, The Louisiana Weekly made a bold step by becoming an affiliate member of the Southern Newspaper Syndicate, a business alliance formed to protect Black journalism jobs and printing positions in the region and to break African-American newspapers dependence on white print shops.
The Weekly became a charter member of the groundbreaking National Newspaper Publishers Association when C.C. Dejoie Sr. represented the New Orleans publication at a 1940 gathering in Chicago of leading Black journalists from across the country that established the NNPA. In 1953, Dejoie and The Louisiana Weekly hosted the NNPA’s mid-winter workshop, held that year at Dillard University.
Dejoie Sr. served as NNPA president 1954-55.
In 1973, his eldest son, C.C. Dejoie Jr. received the Gulf Oil Company’s prestigious Publisher of the Year award at the annual NNPA convention.
Since 1925, at least one member of the Dejoie family has continuously played a leadership role in the newspaper’s publication and evolution as a steadfast voice of the Black community.
The Dejoie family legacy continues today with current president and publisher Dejoie-Hall, the granddaughter of C.C. Dejoie Sr. In 2018, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Press Club of New Orleans, and she said last week that her family has done its best to become an integral part of what makes New Orleans thrive.
“My grandfather started the paper, so we, the family, have been there from the start,” she said. “And I would venture to say that our dedication lies with the community. Making sure that they are informed on the news that matters to them, for them, about them.”
Other colorful figures have been part of The Louisiana Weekly operation over the years, including propelling multiple journalists into highly respected war correspondents. For example, Charles H. Loeb’s long career in Black journalism began with a reporting job at The Weekly in 1926 and included a stint with the NNPA’s Central Pacific bureau during World War II.
But even more prominent in the arena of battlefield reporting was Joseph Madison “Scoop” Jones, whose life in the press began at age 9 as a delivery boy for The Louisiana Weekly, and who earned three service medals as an Army master sergeant while covering the War in the Pacific. Before the war, Jones worked for The Weekly as an editor and reporter, and in the years after 1945, he returned to New Orleans to continue his civilian press career.
The Louisiana Weekly has also been renowned for placing women in leadership roles at the newspaper and encouraging women to grow and succeed, beginning in the 1930s, when Mayme Osby Brown served as editor of the newspaper.
Brown was active in numerous local clubs, organizations and charities, and she also traveled across the country to speak of African-American education at universities and other teaching institutions. In 1938, Brown was instrumental in the founding of the New Orleans chapter of the National Urban League, becoming the local organization’s secretary, and that same year she helped draft a report by the National Council of Negro Women to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and other federal officials urging the selection of more Black women for positions in the federal government.
Those involved with sports coverage also shined at The Louisiana Weekly. In 1940, the paper’s sports editor, Eddie Burbridge, helped create the Sports Writers Association, a coalition of Black journalists fed up with white journalists co-opting and controlling reportage of African-American athletes and events.
Precipitated by the monopolizing of PR duties for the famous East-West All-Star Negro Leagues game by white writers, Burbridge and others united to advocate for Black sports journalists. In fact, Burbridge was picked to oversee SWA interests in the South. (Burbridge also covered New Orleans music and nightlife for The Weekly, before moving to California to help establish another Black newspaper, the Los Angeles Sentinel.)
Others of The Louisiana Weekly’s sports writers thrived over the years, including Jim Hall, who was called “one of the most popular sports writers in the southeast” by the Atlanta Daily World upon his death in 1974. During his 28-year tenure as the paper’s sports editor, the award-winning Hall also blazed trails in professional football by serving as a PR consultant for the New Orleans Saints.
The Louisiana Weekly scored a major coup in the sports world in 1956 when it received a letter for publication from none other than Jackie Robinson, who was defending himself from racist accusations and bias on the part of Bill Keefe, longtime sports editor of The Times-Picayune. News of Robinson’s letter in The Louisiana Weekly made waves in sports sections across the country by becoming one of the iconic moments in both Black journalism history and Robinson’s blossoming into a civil rights leader.
With all this history behind it, The Louisiana Weekly has proven to be a resilient, vibrant and dedicated fixture in New Orleans life.
According to Dejoie-Hall, “determination, dedication and drive” have been the three keys to why the paper has lasted so long, through many challenges. “The fact that we are celebrating our 95th year in existence says it all,” Dejoie-Hall said.
This article originally published in the September 14, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
