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Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers

Chicago Defender - July 21, 1951 - Front Page

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July - Archived Posts
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July 1, 1944: Cleveland Call and Post highlights Annie Booker, a mother with three sons serving in Army during WWII.
July 2, 1991: Clarence Thomas nominated to U.S. Supreme Court by President George Bush, reported in Philadelphia Tribune.
July 3, 1976: Women fight sex bias, reported in Pittsburgh Courier.
July 4: Frederick Douglass’ speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?“ in Philadelphia Tribune (1933 & 1993), Chicago Defender (1971), and New York Amsterdam News (1983).
July 5, 1947: Eviction crisis reported in Cleveland Call and Post.
July 6, 1950: African-American swimmers in Los Angeles Sentinel.
July 7, 1977: African-American Family History Association meets in Atlanta, reported in Atlanta Daily World.
July 8, 1933: Soprano Matilda Sissieretta Jones mourned in Norfolk Journal and Guide.
July 9, 1927: Alain Locke returns to Howard University, reported in Baltimore Afro-American.
July 10, 1971: Ophelia DeVore and Florynce Kennedy sue Life Magazine, reported in New York Amsterdam News.
July 11, 1914: White neighbors harass black homeowner in West Philadelphia, reported in Philadelphia Tribune.
July 12, 1930: Telephone advertisement in Norfolk Journal and Guide.
July 13, 1963: Chicago Defender editorial on Maryland civil rights activist Gloria Richardson.
July 14, 1926: New York Amsterdam News reports on Empire State Federation of Women’s Clubs.
July 15, 1937: U.S. Navy sailor Robert Starks Jr. helps search for Amelia Earhart, reported in Cleveland Call and Post.
July 16, 1948: African American men involved with United Nations profiled in Atlanta Daily World.
July 17, 1909: Richard Robert Wright Sr. and the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools, reported in Baltimore Afro-American.
July 18, 1966: Chicago Defender on West Side conflicts between residents and police. Guest post by Catrien Egbert and Yasmin Mitchel, DePaul University and Chicago History Museum.
July 19, 1951: Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s epic wedding covered in Los Angeles Sentinel.
July 20, 1929: Advertisement for Auburn Straight Eight cars in Pittsburgh Courier.
July 21, 1951: Air Force veteran and family face violence in all-white Cicero, Illinois, reported in Chicago Defender. Guest Post by Mark Speltz.
July 22, 1969: Black press coverage of Apollo moon landing.
July 23, 1927: Baltimore Afro-American on the sinking of the ship Majestic in Chesapeake Bay.
July 24, 1977: Atlanta Daily World reports on a conference at Howard University regarding Regents of the University of California v. Bakke affirmative action case.
July 25, 1981: New York Amsterdam News on Black and Hispanic construction workers protesting at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
July 26, 1947: Cleveland Call and Post reports on WWII veteran and family living in garage.
July 27, 1939: Los Angeles Sentinel announces opening of new dress shop.
July 28. 1939: Actress and singer Abbie Mitchell returns from three years performing abroad, reported in Norfolk Journal and Guide.
July 29, 1944: Dr. Lonnie Smith (of Smith v. Allwright case) goes to the polls in Texas, reported in Philadelphia Tribune.
July 30, 1955: “Heroes in Blue” series profiles black police officers in Pittsburgh Courier.
July 31, 1909: Rail travel over Santa Fe Trail featured in Chicago Defender.
July 21, 1951 Guest post by Mark Speltz, author of North of Dixie: Civil Rights Photography Beyond the South (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016).

On July 21, 1951, the Chicago Defender headline announced “Cicero Riots Over Vet.” The white riot, or “five day orgy of violence,” began on Tuesday, July 17 when Harvey Clark Jr., his wife, and their two children attempted to occupy their new apartment in the all-white suburb of Cicero. The Mississippi-born, Air Force veteran encountered a crowd of curious youth and angry housewives. Fearing for their safety, the Clark family left as night fell and the situation grew more dangerous. (Click to view article PDF.)

The menacing crowd continued to grow reaching upwards of 6,000 before a group of “yelling hoodlums” smashed their way into the building. Once inside the Clark’s new third floor apartment, rioting youths overturned appliances, kicked holes in walls, and tore the radiators from the walls. All of the family’s belongings were broken or tossed out the busted windows. Not even the family’s $900 piano was spared. The massive heap of furniture, rugs, and clothing outside the building was set afire to the delight of the cheering crowd. The building’s hallways were wrecked and several other apartments, all rented by whites, suffered damage and were evacuated.

The Clark family was not physically harmed, but lost everything they had accumulated during the previous nine years in less than an hour. Clark and his wife were stunned by the reaction, “I keep asking myself why all this just to keep Johnetta and me from moving into the apartment.” He vowed to return and said “I would be less than a man if I didn’t go into that apartment if it becomes available to us. If I should back down now, I would be letting down the 13 million Negroes in this country.”

Local and county police did little to curtail the rioting which continued for nearly two days before the National Guard were called up—the first time since the 1919 Chicago race riots. Five hundred soldiers arrived on the scene with two rounds of ammunition each and endured flying bricks and stones before moving in with fixed bayonets and plenty of prodding with gun butts. Soldiers encircled the building with barbed wire and made 157 arrests while establishing order.

The Chicago Defender’s national edition provided its readers with extensive photo coverage of the Cicero rioting and aftermath. Because the newspaper was published on Saturdays, the weekly edition was able to select pictures taken during the course of the week documenting the Clark family’s arrival and crowds of curious onlookers early the first day along with the raging fire outside the apartment building at the height of the melee. Other views include the ransacked apartment and the National Guard establishing control over the unruly mob. In the end, the Defender published a total of thirteen pictures—four above the front page’s masthead, one on page five, and seven images on a single inside news photo page—signaling not only the paper’s commitment to reporting on the “wild racist binge” but also making it visible for all to see.

Those interested in learning more about the well-known newspaper should see Ethan Michaeli’s 2016 book, The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America.