This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers

Cleveland Call and Post - May 21, 1936

This page is referenced by:

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 21, 1936 On May 21, 1936, the Cleveland Call and Post ran a picture of Edna Thomas, who played Lady Macbeth in the New Lafayette Theatre’s production of “Macbeth” in New York. The New York Amsterdam News ran several stories on Thomas and this production of Macbeth. In early April, the Amsterdam News described the Federal Negro Theater Project play as “the long-heralded opening which will attempt to break down the stereotype of the Negro in the theatre,” and said, “the Negro Theater is anxious to disprove for all time the palpably common belief that Negro actors are adapted only for special character parts or for dialectical bits.” Roi Ottley, a well known Amsterdam News journalist, described the premiere as a “magnificent and spectacular production” and noted that the play was a Haitian-themed version of “Macbeth.” Ottley warned “downtown visitors” from Broadway and Park Avenue that “the play is purely for Harlem consumption, and is geared and produced accordingly.” Civil rights leader and politician Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. also praised the production: “‘Macbeth’ couldn’t have been better if produced by the Ministers’ Conference and Brother Divine...New tops were reached in direction, lighting, costuming, scenery, and acting.”

In his year end drama review, Ottley rated Edna Thomas’ performance as Lady Macbeth as the best performance of the year. “Footprints on the sands of the theatre were made this year by the Negro,” Ottley wrote. “True, they were at times halting, timid steps, but they left definite and unmistakable impressions. The trail blazed, the succeeding seasons should give us a developed art form in the theatre—and thus injecting a needed virus in a wan and failing American theatre.” Ottley noted that John Houseman, a white producer who initially led the Negro Federal Theatre project and helmed the “Macbeth” production, had been replaced by black personnel. Ottley thought the new theater would “be distinguished for its authenticity and audaciousness at getting to the kernel of the subjects it treats.”