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Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers

Indianapolis Recorder - April 28, 1962 - headline

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April - Archived Posts
Click on date to view post:
April 1, 1950: Political April Fools’ Day wishes in Pittsburgh Courier.
April 2, 1966: Pittsburgh Courier sports editor Bill Nunn Jr. on Texas Western championship basketball team.
April 3, 1954: Cleveland Call and Post reports on death of nightclub owner and numbers racket king Bennie Mason.
April 4, 1968: The front pages of black newspapers after assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
April 5, 1933: Hamilton Lodge Ball and drag performances in New York Amsterdam News.
April 6, 1972: North Carolina Mutual insurance advertisement in Los Angeles Sentinel.
April 7, 1959: Ads for Lydia Pinkham’s tablets and topics to relieve menstrual and menopausal pain in the Philadelphia Tribune.
April 8, 1939: Norfolk Journal and Guide on controversy over Louis Armstrong’s swing version of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
April 9, 197: Hank Aaron’s record breaking 715th home run covered in the Atlanta Daily World.
April 10, 1909: New York Women’s Business Club featured in Baltimore Afro-American.
April 11, 1936: Chicago Defender on a Howard University student bet gone wrong.
April 12, 1947: Jackie Robinson’s Major League Baseball debut covered in the black press.
April 13, 1948: Philadelphia Tribune reports on killing of World War II veteran George Serrell, who refused to sit in a Jim Crow train car.
April 14, 1979: Disco advertisements in the Cleveland Call and Post.
April 15, 1939: Account from a fugitive from a North Carolina prison in the Baltimore Afro-American. Guest post by Daniel Arico, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 15, 1939: Marian Anderson’s landmark performance at Lincoln Memorial reported in Chicago Defender.
April 16, 1904: Anti-profanity campaign reported in The Appeal. Guest post by Caroline Arkesteyn, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 16, 1959: Francois Andre’s male fashion show at Hollywood’s Moulin Rouge in the Los Angeles Sentinel.
April 17, 1915: Ohio Governor Frank Willis blocks exhibition of racist photoplay, reported in Chicago Defender. Guest post by Alex Bishop, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 17, 1943: African-American women protest racial discrimination at Bechtel-McCone-Parsons airplane modification plant in Birmingham, reported in Chicago Defender. Guest post by Lillian G. Page, MA student in history at the University of Memphis.
April 18, 1942: Eleanor Roosevelt calls for equality in speech at the Hampton Institute, reported in Chicago Defender. Guest post by Connor Callahan, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 19, 1958: New York Amsterdam News on dangerous apartment conditions. Guest post by Mark Speltz.
April 19, 1960: Chicago Defender on racial discrimination and student organizing at Indiana University. Guest post by Samuel Carter, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 20, 1929: Chicago Defender on teen runner killed after winning race. Guest post by Trent Cork, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 21, 1953: Washington Afro-American on discrimination in the U.S. Army. Guest post by Katelyn Culver, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 22, 1950: Housing discrimination in Los Angeles’ Leimert Park neighborhood, reported in Chicago Defender. Guest post by Austin Demers, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 23, 1960: White woman in Alabama beaten for dating black men, reported in Chicago Defender. Guest post by Thomas Esposito, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 24, 1954: Chicago Defender on discrimination in Baltimore hotels. Guest post by Mark Fowler, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 25, 1987: Indianapolis Recorder on black student demands at Purdue University. Guest post by Derek Gilman, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 26, 1930: Indianapolis Recorder on movie theater discrimination. Guest post by Ethan Hill, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 27, 1974: Chicago Defender salutes Duke Ellington on his birthday. Guest post by Luke Johnson, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 28, 1962: Police brutality reported in Indianapolis Recorder. Guest post by Samanvay Kasarala, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 28, 1988: Cleveland Call and Post endorses Jesse Jackson for President.
April 29, 1904: Iowa State Bystander reports on practical joke gone wrong. Guest post by Robert Kinser, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 30, 1960: Student protests in Greensboro, North Carolina reported in the Chicago Defender. Guest post by Samuel Kramer, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.
April 28, 1962 Guest post by Samanvay Kasarala, undergraduate student at Iowa State University.

On April 28, 1962, the Indianapolis Recorder published an article about police brutality called “Aide Balks During Brutality Probe.” This article reports on the police brutality of a man named John A. Matthews while he was locked up and at the General Hospital where he was taken for the injuries he sustained. Richard Pipkin, an x-ray technician and a key witness, told the Recorder that at a hearing a week earlier he had not divulged all of the facts about the case. The article quotes him saying that “he had only assumed police had beaten Matthews because he was ‘loud’ and ‘boisterous’ when they first took him into an x-ray room and ‘subdued’ when they brought him out. He added that Matthews told him afterwards that police had beaten him while in the x-ray room.” Pipkin continues saying, “the officers asked that the prisoner be given a skull x-ray, contending that he had fallen and cut his head…when Matthews became ‘loud’ and ‘boisterous’ one of the officers took out his billy club and hit Matthews over the head.” Pipkin quoted the officers as saying, “If we had you in Georgia we’d make quick work of you.”

This article is particularly interesting to me because it shows what police brutality was back in the 1960s and what it is now. What we have seen in the past few years is an increase in reports of police misusing their powers. In some cases, there have been allegations of racist motivations. What is shown in this article is how this was a much more open practice. Open racism seems to have been the modus operandi for police when dealing with people of color as is presented in this article. However, what has surprised me was the nature of tolerance displayed by those surrounding the situation, except for Richard Pipkin.

Further reading of the article reveals that a third officer came in and harassed Matthews, and that all three then took Matthews into a backroom and beat him. Pipkin alerted a nurse who gave him no reaction to the situation. The article says, “Pipkin asked a doctor if there wasn’t something he could do about the incident, but he said the doctor told him ‘you’d better give him another x-ray when they’ve finished.’” This is a clear presentation of a tolerance of injustice. It shows that some police misused their power for racially motivated assault. What is interesting about this is that it’s not all too uncommon now. We’ve seen so many cases like this in this day and age, and all it really came down to is race. It’s interesting to point out how things surrounding this has shifted. However, this also points to a bigger situation wherein lower-income housing was being targeted by the 1949 housing act. In the time between 1949 and 1968, 425,000 units were razed and 125,000 units (mostly luxury) were constructed. Only 10,760 units of public housing was built. What this shows is a general lack of care for lower-income citizens, and most of these lower-income citizens were immigrants or people of color. So, when looking at this article about police brutality, it’s easy to see where this concept comes from and how it impacts our entire social fabric. We see that people showed an indifference in the way they treated police brutality cases, and we see that federal housing and development plans showed an indifference of lower-income neighborhoods.

The article goes on to mention the account of an African-American employee. He said, “Many, many Negroes are beaten here every Friday and Saturday night throughout the year.” Pipkin later said “he did not tell all the facts because he felt the other witnesses involved had let him down.” This is the general air of the entire article and shows how everyone involved is showing a complete irreverence to justice for the victim. The three policemen didn’t get a conviction, and the case was closed.