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Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers

Chicago Defender - May 1, 1954

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May - Archived Posts
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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 1, 1954 Guest post by Caitlin Sullivan, undergraduate student at Manhattan College.

The May 1, 1954, issue of The Chicago Defender reported on the plan to hire four African-American police officers by the Montgomery, Alabama, police department. The short report explains that these police officers will only be assigned to patrol African-American neighborhoods. It also notes that “they will arrest white people only in an ‘extreme emergency.’” The inclusion of African Americans to the police force was done on a trial basis and after much consideration.

Even though this article is short, it presents the stark contrast between giving authority to African Americans in the 1950s but making sure that it was extremely limited. Montgomery, Alabama, during the 1950s was the capital of one, if not the most, anti–civil rights for African Americans states in the country. The fact that it is Alabama where this is taking place is what makes this a progressive step forward for African Americans. Even though authority was limited and only a very small number of officers were included, it was the beginning of breaking down small barriers. This was especially important during a time where law enforcement targeted African Americans.

The limitations on this small advancement become the reminder that segregation was still a large part of everyday life in the United States. The most blatant limitation comes from the authority of African-American police officers to arrest whites in Montgomery. The article says in “extreme circumstances” this would be allowed but does not clarify what these extreme circumstances include. This meant that in most cases, possibly all cases due to the ambiguity of “extreme” cases, white citizens would hold power over African-American police officers.

This small article poses many questions about how advanced the inclusion of four African-American police officers really was. Were these police officers ever able to be successful with the limitations imposed on them? Would they actually arrest other African Americans, especially when African Americans had been targeted by the police for decades? Did they ever even try to arrest white people, and what happened if they did? This article speaks to the time period, where separate but equal was being touted but the practice was not there at all. These questions would further explain whether this inclusion was an advancement or just another way to limit African Americans.