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Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers

California Eagle - May 8, 1958

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May - Archived Posts
Click on date to view post:
May 1, 1954: Montgomery hires first African-American police officers, reported in Chicago Defender. Guest post by Caitlin Sullivan, undergraduate student at Manhattan College.
May 1, 1954: NAACP criticizes federal housing plans, reported in Baltimore Afro-American. Guest post by Matthew Lee, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 2, 1957: Court rules Philadelphia’s Girard College must open to black students, reported in the California Eagle. Guest post by Blake Miller, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 3, 1919: WWI passport dispute reported in St. Paul Appeal. Guest post by Andrew Mullinnix, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 3, 1958: New York Amsterdam News reports on socialites canceling wedding. Guest post by Kelly Monfredini, undergraduate student at Manhattan College.
May 4, 1957: Martin Luther King Jr. speaks at rally in New York City, reported in New York Amsterdam News. Guest post by Charles Zazzera, undergraduate student at Manhattan College.
May 4, 1963: Martin Luther King Jr. and protesters sentenced to ten days in Birmingham jail, reported in Baltimore Afro-American. Guest post by Aaron Nostwich, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 5, 1945: Baltimore Afro-American reports on 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion (the “Triple Nickels”). Guest post by Daniel Obren, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 6, 1943: California Eagle on discrimination in war industries. Guest post by Niccolo Peterson, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 6, 1922: Dallas Express calls for more roles for African-American actors. Guest post by Ariel Sumendap, undergraduate student at Manhattan College.
May 7, 1963: Washington Afro-American reports on black family fighting to keep land from developers. Guest post by Bryce Rooney, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 8, 1958: California Eagle reports on police brutality. Guest post by Paige Ross, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 8, 1929: Harlem teenager wins New York City oratory competition, reported in New York Amsterdam News. Guest post by Ellie Siwicki, undergraduate student at Manhattan College.
May 9, 1970: Mother claims squatter’s rights in vacant apartment building owned by Columbia University. Guest post by Paige Champman, undergraduate student at Manhattan College.
May 9, 1964: Black debutantes in the Indianapolis Recorder. Guest post by Lauren Sendlebach, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 10, 1947: Baltimore Afro-American profiles Darwin Turner, who was Phi Beta Kappa at fifteen and became a professor at the University of Iowa. Guest post by Andrew Spargo, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 10, 1919: Broad Ax reviews Eighth Regiment military band. Guest post by Katherine Garnett, undergraduate student at Manhattan College.
May 11, 1912: Chicago Defender reports on dispute in Georgia over black chauffeur using employer’s car. Guest post by Denver Studebaker, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 12, 1926: New York Amsterdam News on prohibition movement. Guest post by Filomena Matoshi, undergraduate student at Manhattan College.
May 12, 1899: Iowa State Bystander on lynching of Sam Hose. Guest post by Nathan Volkert, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 13, 1961: Cleveland Call and Post on deejay Eddie O’Jay and music in the city.
May 13, 1921: Baltimore Afro-American on racial disparities in teachers’ pay. Guest post by Jordan Washington, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 14, 1904: Booker T. Washington on African-American education in The Appeal (Minneapolis & St. Paul). Guest post by Shelby Worth, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
May 15, 1993: New York Amsterdam News celebrates Malcolm X’s birthday. Guest post by Bridget McEvoy, undergraduate student at Manhattan College.
May 16, 1935: Poet Arna Bontemps speaks at Vernon Library Book Club, noted in Los Angeles Sentinel.
May 17, 1932: Teacher and Fisk University graduate Chrystal Tulli direct play, “Ballet Beautiful,” featured in Atlanta Daily World.
May 18, 1954: Atlanta Daily World on the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision.
May 19, 1962: Advertisement for electric clothes dryers in Philadelphia Tribune.
May 20, 1948: Los Angeles Sentinel on lawsuit involving former boxing champion Henry Armstrong.
May 21, 1936: Federal Negro Theater Project production of “Macbeth” at New Lafayette Theatre in Harlem.
May 22, 1970: Atlanta Daily World reports on Essence, a new monthly magazine for black women.
May 23, 1953: Pittsburgh Courier reports that city newspapers adopted a code of classified advertising which eliminates reference to race, religious creed, color, national origin, or ancestry.
May 24, 1961: Chicago Defender reports that the Freedom Riders will continue their campaign against segregated interstate buses in the South.
May 25, 1933: Philadelphia Tribune reports on murder of evangelist G. Wilson Becton.
May 26, 1934: Torch singer Ivy Anderson in Norfolk Journal and Guide.
May 27, 1944: Recruiting black workers to war industries in Cleveland Call and Post.
May 28, 1955: Rebecca Stiles Dodson calls for release of Claudia Jones in Chicago Defender.
May 29, 1926: Pittsburgh Courier reports that U.S. Supreme Court dismisses Corrigan v. Buckley and upholds legality of racially restrictive covenants.
May 30, 1963: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leads Freedom Rally in Los Angeles. Guest post by Mark Speltz.
May 31, 1940: Burt’s Shoes advertisement in Atlanta Daily World.
May 8, 1958 Guest post by Paige Ross, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.

The California Eagle reported on May 8, 1958, a story similar to one Americans in 2016 would not be surprised to see in today’s papers. Manuel Brule, a married father of two, was brutally beaten by a motorcycle police officer by the name of T. H. Rogers. Rogers charged Brule with speeding and resisting arrest after being pulled over. Rogers said Brule was driving fifty miles an hour in a thirty-five-mile-per-hour zone, but no proof of the speeding existed because Rogers did not clock Brule. Rogers bragged after the incident, “This guy gave me lots of lip. I cooled him down” to a fellow police officer. (Click to view PDF of article’s first page and second page.)

What should a proper punishment be for providing “lots of lip?” Rogers, in the moment, thought that beating Brule so badly he received an injury that required four stitches under the eye, caused lacerations on the inside of his mouth, a potential fractured nose, and burn marks from the handcuffs on his wrists constituted a proper punishment. Brule’s shirt was torn and bloody, and his car floor was covered with blood. However, Brule denies giving Officer Rogers any lip at all. He tells a much different story of trying to deliver a sewing machine to a family friend, not speeding, pulling over when seeing Officer Rogers, showing his license to him, being wrongly accused of speeding, getting his registration card thrown at his face, and getting brutally beaten for not picking the card up off the ground. These stories differ in many ways, yet only one side has actual proof to back up their stories.

Brule was not the only black American who encountered this harsh treatment from police in 1958. Gina Barton of the Journal Sentinel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wrote about the fiftieth anniversary of Daniel Bell’s death. Bell, a southern immigrant, was illiterate and traveled with his family north to escape racism. He was pulled over for a broken taillight on this trip. When he fled the scene by foot because he did not have a license, he was shot from close range and the police planted a knife in his left hand.

Both Brule and Bell seemed to fall victim to the same phenomenon—hope. Hope that with migrating from the South, they could leave the ever-so-prevalent racism they encountered. They were not the only black Americans who had this same hope. After the Civil War, many black Americans moved north during the Great Migration to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland to escape racism. Unfortunately for them, it was not that easy. They had trouble finding jobs, finding places to live, and feeling safe in their surroundings. Many could only afford to live in what became poor inner-city neighborhoods, as many white families vacated the city and moved to the suburbs. The city, as well as many other locations, is where black Americans have fought racism and continue to do so today.

Recent protests in Baltimore and Chicago over the deaths of Freddie Gray and Rekia Boyd show that the fight for equality among all races is not over, neither are all the instances of police brutality. As people look back upon America’s history, it is obvious that we have come a long way from the living conditions and treatment of other races in the past. However, when someone can go back to May 8, 1958, and read an article that could have believably appeared in a paper today, it is obvious America still has a long way to go.