By Charles Lauer
Reading #1 – Alan D. DeSantis, “Selling the American dream myth to black southerners: The Chicago defender and the great migration of 1915-1919,” June 6, 2009, Pg. 474-511
(Response 2 out of 5)
“… No rhetorical text was more pervasive, more overtly dedicated to encouraging the mass exodus of blacks out of the south, or more fervent in its promotion of northern virtues than was the black, weekly newspaper, the Chicago Defender.” (DeSantis, 476-477)
The Reconstruction Era had ended by 1877 and many promises from the time period still hadn’t materialized decades later. By 1915, done waiting for the proposals of yesteryear, nearly 10% of the South’s African American population fled North-bound. As a result, between 1910 and 1920, New York’s black population grew 66%, Chicago’s black contingency grew 148%, and Detroit’s small black community mushroomed to an almost unbelievable 611% increase. This mass movement north would later be labeled as the “Great Migration”.
When asked what were the motivating factors behind the “Great Migration” there seems to be a lot of self-evident answers. The first being the prospect of better economic opportunities. It’s no secret that being Black up north, during the early 20th century, afforded you things you’d be lucky to find back South, like fair pay, increased employment options, and fair distribution of property. Finding jobs, buying food and securing shelter, was simply easier once out of the South.
The second reason was escape. The south, even though it was many decades removed from slavery, was still a hostile place for almost anyone with a darker complexion. It’s near common knowledge, that during the beginning decades of the 20th century, political and social oppression were rampant, lynching was common and black citizens could rarely rely on a fair day in court or a just trial. They couldn’t trust the climate they lived in, and therefore felt collectively motivated to leave. Again, completely understandable.
The last motivation was the prospect of joining friends. Many people still in the South had family and/or friends up North that they couldn’t wait to join. This motivation isn’t unheard of either, as it very common for people looking to emigrate to be motivated by family or friends who have already known so.
So, these reasons (succinctly summed in both the “Push-Pull Economic” Theory and the “Socio-Emotional” or “Sentimental” Theory) almost seem like common sense to anyone with a general understanding of American History. Of course, African Americans wanted to leave a place that was notoriously unfair, prejudiced, and harmful towards them. But what many people gloss over when it comes to their understanding of this time period is what actually motivated the great migration and spurred it into action. They gloss over the single black newspaper that turned Chicago into a post-Reconstruction Meccah and sparked one of the largest cross-country emigrations in American history: “The Defender”.
Black newspapers usually appealed primarily to the “black intelligentsia”, with the occasional “sympathetic white” prone to pick up a copy, but “The Defender” was different. It was the first major African American newspaper to appeal to the masses. It was the first major newspaper to catch the attention of the majority and with that came the potential for change. And change was just what “The Defender” was looking to inspire.
With their, previously unheard of, widespread appeal “The Defender” started a migration campaign, divvied up into three distinct stages: “The Southern Discontent Phase”, “The Land of Hope Stage”, and “The Call to Action Stage”. Throughout the “Southern Discontent Phase”, “The Defender” run extensive coverage on the deplorable conditions and human rights violations that were almost commonplace throughout the South. Throughout the “Land of Hope Stage”, they painted the North, and often times specifically Chicago, as a quote-on-quote “promised land”. And throughout the last stage, “Call to Action”, they did just that, urging all African Americans still living in the south to migrate up the country.
There’s one specific stage in this process that I want to highlight and that’s the “Land of Hope” stage. See, before the “The Defender” had taken upon this migration campaign, they would publish honest stories about life up North. Some of these painted the North in a positive light and some did not. (As is inevitable when it comes to a multitude of news-stories coming from any single location) But during the “Land of Hope Stage”, in an active effort to get people excited by the prospect of moving up north, The Defender would routinely omit or reshape stories that shone a less-than-flattering light on the region.
This is dishonest journalism, bordered on propaganda. But interestingly, unlike classical instances of propaganda (Like Nazi Germany or modern-day North Korea) “The Defender”‘s use of slanted journalism actually led to a positive outcome and the diminishing of human rights violations. (Namely, “The Great Migration” and the mass exodus from the lynching-prone South) The ethics of the “Land of Hope” stage are still somewhat questionable in my eyes, but it’s interesting, to say the least, to see propaganda essentially flipped on its head.
The second thing I’d like to draw attention to is the use of the American Dream rhetoric within The Defender’s migration campaign. The aforementioned “Land of Hope” stage attempts to, for lack of a better word, “market” Chicago the same way the Founding Fathers “marketed” our country: With the Prospect of the American Dream. The Defender’s campaign borrows heavily from our forefathers’ rhetoric and that was interesting to me, because, at least in my head, the American Dream seemed like a concept that almost exclusively motivated immigrants, people coming from outside the country. To see the same tactics used to promote in-country relocating, seemed almost odd. But then, I came to a different realization.
African Americans in the Jim Crow-Era South, were ostensibly living in a different country. They were subject to different rules and living conditions than my white great-great-great-grandparents, and because of that, they might have lived in America but they never truly deemed to be an American. It was only after the North had progressed and human rights became more abundant, that it was even a possibility for African Americans of the time. So while it might literally have been in-country relocating, when it came to rights afforded and improved treatment and being regarded as an “American”, moving north was something of an Immigration.
Questions:
Do you believe there’s such thing as “positive propaganda”?
If so, can you name another historical instance of it?
Would you describe The Defender’s news tactics during their “Land of Hope” stage (namely, running only stories that painted Chicago, and the larger “North”, as a “promised land” and omitting the ones that didn’t) ethical?
Why or why not?
