Race Reading

To stimulate their interest in racial advancement, U. S. Negroes have Crisis and Opportunity monthlies;* for their religious, fraternal and educational interests, about 60 less potent journals; for general Negro News, some 110 weekly papers. /-But for magazine reading the Negro had to turn to the "white" press until last fortnight when appeared Abbott's Monthly, "A Magazine That's Different." Published in Chicago by Robert Sengstacke Abbott, founder and owner of the Chicago Defender (weekly), Abbott's Monthly from its "pretty girl" cover of yellow, red and lavender to its book review department is a curious mixture of Cosmopolitan, Liberty, American, True Story Magazine, World's Work. Editor Lucius Clinton Harper readily admits it is patterned after any number of magazines and is intended to be the all-inclusive Negro publication. Black and white contributors alike are solicited, but only two famed authors, no original drawings by famed artists of either color were represented in the first issue. (An article by Clarence Darrow, "John Brown--He Who Struck the First Blow," is scheduled for November.) Besides four stories and eight bits of verse there were 16 special features, among them an "expose" of U. S. rule in the Virgin Islands; an account of primitive African musical instruments; a success biography of Samuel Winningham, watermelon tycoon; notes upon Alexandre Dumas, pere (he was a quadroon) and Ignatius Sancho, "the forgotten man of letters"; an argument against birth control with detailed objections to contraceptives; a debate, "Is It Possible for the Church to Serve the Modern Youth?" Jokes were also included. Sample: Big Congo Chief--"Waiter, where's that roast white meat I ordered an hour ergo?" Congo Waiter--"The missionary ship is an hour late, sir!" Nearly 50,000 copies of the first issue were quickly grabbed up. But not all Negroes heaped praise upon the magazine simply because it is by and for Negroes. Said Colyumist-Critic Theophilus Wells of the Amsterdam News (Harlem): "Probably it will be an interesting magazine when it makes up its mind just what type ... it wants to be. Its first issue is a mongrel affair . . . should have prominent writers among its contributors. . . . The only explanation [of the crude art work] I can suggest is the somewhat improbable one that Editor Abbott himself drew the pictures." The Publisher. Amiable, courteous Robert Sengstacke Abbott is 60 years old, has three automobiles (Rolls-Royce, Cunningham, Fierce-Arrow) ; has traveled extensively in Europe and South America. A Republican, he does not dabble in politics, refused to run against Chicago's Negro Congressman Oscar De Priest. He was educated at Beach Institute (Savannah), Claflin University (S. C.) and Hampton Institute, of whose alumni association he is president. He received his Baccalaureate in Law from Kent College of Law, his honorary doctorates from Wilberforce University and Morris Brown University. Twenty-five years ago, with a 25-c- capital, Lawyer Abbott bought some tablet paper, borrowed money to pay a local printer, wrote the first issue of the Chicago Defender. Today, with a circulation of 110,000, of which about 42,000 is in and about Chicago, the Defender is the largest Negro paper in the U. S.

Negro Newspapers. Leading Negro weeklies are: Pittsburgh Courier (38,760) ; Baltimore Afro-American (24,300); Chicago Defender (110,000); Norfolk Journal & Guide (17,000) ; New York Amster dam News (26,458); New York Age (45,000); Boston Chronicle (not est.); Kansas City Call (16,661); St. Louis Argus (not est.) ; Atlanta Independent (30,000).

Intensely race-conscious, Negro press devotes itself exclusively to Negro news, or to news as it affects the Negro. Unless otherwise specified (e. g., "Helen O.

Crowe, a white woman"; "Claude Pruitt, white") a person mentioned in the columns is assumed to be colored. Most of the news, most of the editorials are devoted to aspects of race prejudice, notably to lynchings. Recent headlines: "Teacher Arrested for Riding Front Seat of Jim Crow Car"; "Georgia Takes Lead This Week in

Lynching Race With Three Mob Murders"; "College Girls Stoned Out of Residence on Campus"; "White Youths Held for Attack; No Mobs." Serving some of the no Negro papers is the Associated Negro Press which sends out not wired stories but weekly letters from its Chicago offices. Some of the papers also receive the Colored News Service. Also there is a National Negro Press Association, about 30 years old, which confines its activities mostly to discussion of policy and racial problems at its annual convention.

*Published respectively by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the National Urban League.

/-Only the Chattanooga Defender (semiweekly) issues more frequently. There are no dailies.

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