By Aidan Gordley
The city of Pittsburgh, known for its working class history, has seen its ups and downs in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Despite its complex history, Pittsburgh has been relegated to the historical periphery in comparison to other northeastern American cities like New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Perhaps one of the more complex elements of Pittsburgh’s history is the experience of African American Pittsburghers. The Pittsburgh Courier, founded in 1907 by a Heinz factory worker, became the leading means for Black people in Pittsburgh to speak up about the hardships, discrimination, and oppression they faced on a regular basis. This Black weekly newspaper, throughout the early 1900’s and up until the post-World War II period, was an empowering force for a community that was constantly fighting for equality.
The Pittsburgh Courier came about during an essential time for African Americans in Pittsburgh. As American historian Laurence Glasco writes in his chapter, “Double Burden: The Black Experience in Pittsburgh:” “Despite their stress on culture, gentility, and education, black Pittsburghers faced daily indignities and threats to their personal and civil rights. They were excluded from, or confined to separate sections of the city’s theaters, restaurants, and hotels” (1). The Courier editors created a newspaper that highlighted Black success stories, spoke out against discrimination in housing, medicine, and education, and started conversations that were relevant to Black strife. As noted by Glasco, “The Courier’s masthead-‘Work, Integrity, Tact, Temperance, Prudence, Courage, Faith’-reflected the values of Pittsburgh’s black middle class and their faith in the American Dream. The paper endorsed the philosophy of Booker T. Washington: ‘Concentrate your earnings, and make capital. Hire yourselves, produce for yourselves, and sell something for yourselves’” (1). Once Pittsburgh-based politician, lawyer, and banker Robert Lee Vann joined the editing board of the Courier in 1910, the circulation of the paper took off. These ideals were spread across the country as the Courier became one of the nation’s leading Black voices.
During the 1930’s, Vann brought great financial success to the Courier because of the range of topics the paper covered. For example, he exhaustively covered topics ranging from the Italian-Ethiopian War all the way to Joe Louis’s rise to the heavyweight championship. This thorough coverage relating to Black topics resulted in the Courier’s overtaking the Chicago Defender as the nation’s leading black newspaper by 1938 (2). Historian Luther P. Jackson documents this meteoric rise in a biography of Vann, stating that, “in typography, style, and substance, Vann more fully recognized the emergence of literate blacks in American cities. The Courier’s sprightly coverage of social and sporting events and its weekly reportage of events and issues ignored by white dailies were like a revelation and a tonic in black churches and barber shops” (2). Vann was privy to the rise of the Black middle class and provided readers with what they desired most: thorough coverage of relevant Blacktopics.
But as the Black middle class began to emerge in Pittsburgh and across the U.S. after World War I, so did racism, discrimination, and bigotry. Glasco mentions that “because middle-class blacks faced many of the same problems of racism as did poorer and more recent arrivals, they championed race causes in any way they could-through the pages of the Pittsburgh Courier, through political activity, and through organizations like the Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)” (1). The Courier, in this sense, became a means of protest for Black Pittsburghers throughout the 30s. Glasco continues: “The institution most clearly committed to creating a sense of community and promoting black interests was the Pittsburgh Courier […]. Vann made it a voice of protest, crusading on the issues of housing, education, job opportunities, political awareness, crime, and Jim Crow” (1).
After Vann’s death, the newspaper began a period of financial decline. With the glory days of the Courier behind them, and a tumultuous decade in the 60s looming, African Americans turned to white daily newspapers for coverage of breaking news and contemporary discussions. Surprisingly, the rise of civil rights causes brought about the decline of Blacknewspapers like the Courier. As American historian Nikolas Kozloff notes: “Ironically, the decline of the black press coincided with the height of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The Courier and other weekly black newspapers could no longer compete with white dailies, which could offer black readers on-the-spot coverage of sit-ins, for example” (3). The young civil rights movement was more interested in radical ideologies and striking headlines as opposed to the patriotic, mindfully politically correct Courier.
In 1966 the Pittsburgh Courier was acquired by the owners of the Chicago Defender and renamed the New Pittsburgh Courier. The second half of the ’60s was controversial for the New Pittsburgh Courier, as the editing team tread very carefully so as not to offend then-President Lyndon B. Johnson, a supporter of Civil Rights causes and improving the lives of African Americans. To this day, the Courier updates its thousands of readers in the Pittsburgh region, spreading awareness for Black causes and commentating on the state of Black lives in America.
The Pittsburgh Courier intended to provide Black Pittsburghers, and more broadly all African Americans, with stories of Black success and empowerment. With this as the publication’s first and foremost goal, readers found themselves disillusioned with the lack of criticism and commentary surrounding the government and military. Especially in the later half of the 1960s, after the Courier was purchased by John Sengstacke (editor-in-chief of the Chicago Defender), subscribers to the Courier voiced their disappointment in the coverage of the Vietnam War. Even Martin Luther King Jr., a beloved figure in the young African American community in Pittsburgh, was publicly criticizing the War in Vietnam — so why did the Courier remain comparatively neutral at this juncture? I will argue that the Pittsburgh Courier’s main objectives, to empower African Americans and assert their national pride, prevented the Courier from being openly critical of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
The Courier was not as openly critical of the Vietnam War as its readers would have wanted due to the fear of losing White House support. At the time of Sengstacke’s purchase of the Courier, the publication had started to mention the war and its implications for Black Pittsburghers. As Kozloff notes, “By 1966, the paper could no longer claim that Vietnam was of no concern to African Americans” (3). When the war eventually ramps up, so does the Courier’s mention of the war—but this coverage is done very carefully by the editing team. Kozloff argues that “the New Pittsburgh Courier was typical of such newspapers as its editors, reluctant to criticize Johnson and thereby risk losing support for civil rights, attempted to remain neutral in their coverage of the war. Ultimately, this policy failed as readers, particularly younger African Americans, turned to more radical Black publications that reflected their political views” (3).
The early stage coverage of the war in the Courier supports Kozloff’s argument. In a 1967 opinion piece, an editor writes: “Almost everyone I meet seems to be criticizing President Johnson for what is going on in Vietnam. We went there under the Eisenhower administration. Kennedy continued our efforts there, so LBJ is following in the footsteps of his predecessors” (3). Diverting blame for the war to previous presidents, this editor was aware of the ramifications of overt criticism of the president. Interestingly, the Courier’s support for the White House did not endure for long: “This would be the newspaper’s last editorial supporting American policy in Vietnam before Johnson announced, in the spring of 1968, that he would not run for reelection” (3). To oppose Lyndon Johnson in writing would be working against the Courier’s goal to empower: it would be putting the continued support from the White House at risk. As a result, the editing team steered clear of direct confrontation with decisions made by the president, especially in the earlier years of the conflict.
As opposed to criticizing the government directly, the Pittsburgh Courier instead opted to speak up against the treatment of Black soldiers in Vietnam. Through shifting the focus of the discussion to injustices on the battlefield, the editing team could provide readers with coverage of the war and work in line with the values of the paper to empower African Americans without the risk of losing government support. The Courier included a section dedicated to Black excellence in the armed forces in almost every publication after 1967 until the conclusion of the war. For example, a “With Our Armed Forces” column in 1969 reads: “The division was cited for exceptionally meritorious service while engaged in military operations in Southeast Asia from March 1965 to March 1968.” Almost exceedingly positive, these sections are certainly aligned with the paper’s goal to empower African Americans. The Courier dedicated significant attention to telling the stories of brave African American soldiers to divert the attention of readers away from the growing public criticism of the immorality of U.S. presence in Vietnam. Readers noticed, and the Courier lost business to white dailies and smaller publications that more directly protested the immorality of the war. However, the Courier held true to its commitment to empowering Black Pittsburghers and speaking to their patriotism, bravery, and sacrifice.
Not all of the coverage of the war effort from the Courier was positive. Also in line with the goals of the Pittsburgh Courier was to spread awareness of racial injustice and discrimination faced by African Americans. Black soldiers in Vietnam were not given equal treatment. Racism persisted during the war much to the frustration of the African Americans who thought that their service in the war would correlate to more respect and camaraderie. As Kozloff articulates it, “though African Americans faced oppression with U.S. society as a whole, the reasoning went, fighting abroad in a war would win increased respect and recognition at home” (3). When this dream did not pan out for African American GIs, the Courier spoke up about it. Tackling the prevalent issue of under-recognition of African American soldiers, a columnist wrote, “In addition to serious clashes, the Black soldiers griped about not being promoted consistent with their performance—they train and train and teach the whites who later overtake them. They are unable to communicate up the chain of command without their communications being adulterated.” As this same writer eloquently describes: “The color line disappears in the heat of the battle with the enemy, but it reoccurs as soon as the engagement is over and the men return to their quarters.”
These issues represent a civil rights struggle that extended to the physical battlefield. The movement was bound to make its way to Vietnam, given the kind of people who were drafted. As discussed in historians’ Joe Trotter and Jared Day’s Race and Renaissance: African Americans in Pittsburgh since World War II: “In Pittsburgh, as elsewhere, government officials targeted young black civil rights activists for military service during the Vietnam War. […] [One soldier] later recalled that his induction into the military, and subsequent service in Vietnam, represented a shift ‘from one war to another’” (4). While it was crucial to the Courier’s agenda to discuss this racism and discrimination on the front lines, readers were not as interested in these topics. Preoccupied with general anti-war protests, African American youth felt moved to take a more radical stance. Without a doubt, the racial inequality within the military in Vietnam did not help the War’s popularity at home. But, readers of the Courier cared more deeply about putting an end to the entire war effort, and the editors were not providing the commentary that readers wanted. American historian Lawrence Eldridge contended that “the greatest opportunity for transformation in civil rights since post–Civil War Reconstruction disappeared when the attention and resources of the United States shifted from domestic issues to fighting the war in Vietnam” (5). With a distracted audience, the Courier struggled to get readers to pay attention to the causes that once were their main focus.
The Pittsburgh Courier held true to its fundamental tenants throughout its coverage of the Vietnam War. Readers were disappointed in the editors, who shied away from discussing the morality of the war and criticizing the government for deciding to send the military overseas. Subscriptions to the Courier declined, as did the viewership of nearly every Black weekly newspaper during the Vietnam War era. Despite the financial losses, the Courier stayed true to its goals of empowering Black Pittsburghers and vouching for the patriotism of African Americans everywhere. However, the American Black press disappointed its readers, who found what they were looking for in other publications throughout the 60s.
References
- Glasco, Laurence. “Double Burden: The Black Experience in Pittsburgh.” In City At The Point: Essays on the Social History of Pittsburgh, 69–110. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7zw8rx.7.
- Jackson, Luther P. “Robert L. Vann of the Pittsburgh Courier: Politics and Black Journalism, by Andrew Buni.” Political Science Quarterly 90, no. 1 (March 1, 1975): 174–76. https://doi.org/10.2307/2148728.
- Kozloff, Nikolas. “Vietnam, the African American Community, and the Pittsburgh New Courier.” The Historian 63, no. 3 (2001): 521–38.
- Trotter, Joe W., and Jared N. Day. Race and Renaissance: African Americans in Pittsburgh since World War II. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt5vkdqp.
- Eldridge, Lawrence Allen. Chronicles of a Two-Front War: Civil Rights and Vietnam in the African American Press. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2011.
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