Irving Garland Penn's "The Afro-American Press and its Editors" (1891)
Commentary by Chitown Kev
I caught the mention from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and professor of investigative reporting at American University Wesley Lowery writing for The New York Review of Books.
I’ve found myself revisiting an essay on the journalist’s role in a free society by the Reverend Levi Jenkins Coppin, editor of the AME Church Review, included in Irvine Garland Penn’s influential 1891 volume c...
Waitaminute, did I read that right? 1891?
I did know that the history of African American journalism stretched back to the early 19th century, that there were even Black correspondents during the Civil War, that Frederick Douglass founded his own paper,
I was not aware that such a history of African American journalism— and journalists— was anthologized in the 19th century
After reading Coppin’s essay, I looked up and down the internet and, sure enough, I did find a digitized copy of The Afro-American Press and its Editors by Irving Garland Penn; perhaps the most invaluable collection of Black journalism ever produced. One of the more interesting figures in the volume might be Mr. Penn himself.
Herb Boyd/The New Amsterdam News
Penn was born Oct. 7, 1867 in New Glasgow, Virginia and his family moved to Lynchburg, Va. when he was five. By his senior year in high school, his journalistic career was underway. He received a master’s degree from Rust College and his doctorate in journalism later from Wiley College in Texas in 1908.
Even as he acquired academic standing, Penn was writing for several publications, including the Richmond Planet, where he was a correspondent.
He was also a regular contributor to the Knoxville Negro World and the New York Age, where his coverage of African American affairs was a staple and well-received. In 1886, he was the editor of the Laborer, a small Black newspaper, before becoming a teacher in Lynchburg. Within a decade, he was promoted to principal. Three years later, he married Anna Belle Rhodes, herself a distinguished activist and writer, and a graduate of Shaw University, where she taught for several years. They had seven children.
In a forward to the anthology, classics teacher Daniel B. Williams (a young man himself who died !) commented that Penn's youth was no obstacle to his work on the volume.
An investigation of Colored American literature reveals the fact, that most of our literature was produced before our authors were thirty-five years of age. This is certainly true of the works of B.T. Tanner; W.S. Scarborough; R.C.O. Benjamin; Phillis Wheatley; A. A Whitman; T.T. Fortune; E.A. Randolph; J. J. Coles; C.W.B. Gordon; and others whom I might mention...
After listing a few of his own publications before he was 26 years old, Williams concludes
In light of these historic facts, let no one think or say that Mr. Penn is too young and inexperienced for the compilation of his valuable work. Let us be thankful that among us are young men and women who are able to think and pen thoughts worthy of themselves and their race. Let us encourage, by word and deed, every intellectual and moral effort put forth by our young men and women for the enlightenment and advancement of our people.
The only names that I’ve even heard of in that listing of Black American literature of the 19th century are Phillis Wheatley and T. Thomas Fortune.
I will note here that this volume also comes to my attention at a time of the systemic devaluing and attempted erasure of any Black achievement in any field, including in journalism; at a time when the mal-administration considers any Black achievement (such as the ability to fly a commercial plane!) to be the sole product of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts.
In truth, the “systemic” portion is only glaringly obvious now. I studied three years of high school journalism. I knew of journalistic ancestors like Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and W.E.B. Dubois. I knew of people that were working in journalism like Carl Rowan and Bob Herbert. I did not have an inkling that a historical record like this even existed.
I did not know that prior to the founding of his own publication, The North Star, Frederick Douglass also edited a short-lived publication called The Ram’s Horn. I didn’t know anything about William H. Day, a graduate of Oberlin College that founded a short-lived weekly called The Alienated American and who also delivered a speech on White House grounds where 10,000 newly emancipated slaves gathered on the 4th of July, 1865. I did not know that one publication, The Citizen, was for Black Union soldiers.
I am currently savoring The Afro-American Press and its Editors as if it were the finest of wines. It’s history. It’s journalism. It’s journalism history that one wishes were reprinted by, say, an academic publisher for the use of journalism students at Howard or, for that matter, Columbia, Missouri, or Medill journalism schools or even for high school journalism students.
After all, for all of this administration’s babble about DEI, Black people have been working our way into the history books long before DEI even existed. It is the responsibility of my generation and the generations to come to ensure that history is never erased, as Mr. Penn did so exquisitely for his own generation over a hundred years ago.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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After nearly five years, Joy Reid’s evening news program on MSNBC is coming to a close next week.
The 56-year-old progressive political commentator’s program “The ReidOut” has been canceled at MSNBC amid a dramatic overhaul launched by the network’s new president, Rebecca Kutler, sources familiar with the situation told the New York Times.
Her show, which held the 7 p.m. primetime slot, will be replaced by a new panel show featuring co-hosts Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele, and Symone Sanders Townsend, Deadline reported.
Debuting on the air in July 2020, “The ReidOut” marked MSNBC’s first primetime show anchored by a Black woman. During its nearly five-year run, the show delivered bitting and witty commentary as Reid dived deep into some of the biggest headlines in news and politics, amplifying underrepresented voices with her platform. Reid has also become known as a vocal critic of Trump and his administration.
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President Donald Trump abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign led by his defense secretary to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.
The ouster of Brown, only the second Black general to serve as chairman, is sure to send shock waves through the Pentagon. His 16 months in the job had been consumed with the war in Ukraine and the expanded conflict in the Middle East.
“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family,” Trump posted on social media.
Brown’s public support of Black Lives Matter after the police killing of George Floyd had made him fodder for the administration’s wars against “wokeism” in the military. His ouster is the latest upheaval at the Pentagon, which plans to cut 5,400 civilian probationary workersstarting next week and identify $50 billion in programs that could be cut next year to redirect those savings to fund Trump’s priorities.
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A federal scholarship aimed at boosting students from underserved and rural areas attending historically Black colleges and universities has been put on hold.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended the 1890 Scholars Program, which provided recipients with full tuition and fees for students studying agriculture, food or natural resource sciences at one of 19 universities, known as the 1890 land grant institutions.
It’s not clear exactly when the program was suspended, but some members of Congress first issued statements criticizing the suspension of the program on Thursday.
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