The Cleveland Gazette
The Cleveland Gazette was a
The Gazette became the longest-publishing
Background and establishment
Cleveland
Many African Americans moved from the South to northern cities, such as
Harry Clay Smith
Known as "The Forgotten Warrior," Harry Clay Smith (1863–1941) [4] received an education from the Cleveland Public School System, which was integrated at the time. Smith was a writer for "the weekly Cleveland Sun, a white paper" and was a "leader" as an athlete and musician during his high school years.[2] After high school, Smith helped create The Cleveland Gazette and served as an Ohio legislator from 1883-1899. He was heavily involved in the passage of the Ohio Civil Rights Law of 1894 and an "anti-lynching law" in 1896.[5]
The Cleveland Gazette
Striving to better represent African Americans and the issues they were facing at the time,[3] Smith created The Cleveland Gazette, "Cleveland's first black newspaper," with three other men in 1883.[4] Smith became the "sole owner" in 1888, and he financed the paper through "Republican party contributions" and earnings from rental property ownership and "job printing."[2] The newspaper "advocated that blacks should aggressively demand their equal rights without compromise," which represented Smith's values.[6]
Beginning years
Content
When The Cleveland Gazette first started being published in the early 1880s, it "presented itself as a partisan Republican organ" since the
Audience
The Cleveland Gazette strove to reflect the values of "Cleveland [African-American] natives or longstanding residents," known as "old elites." Members of this population often intermingled with whites in public spaces and were known for being "well-educated and articulate."[6] Cleveland's "old elites" represented merely a fraction of the 96,901 Ohio African Americans being targeted for subscription in the mid-1880s. At the end of July 1886, Smith announced that 3,500 copies of the newspaper were in "circulation," which was below the 5,000 goal.[2]
Content shifts
Mid-1890s
Political content in the newspaper decreased, and more social news began to appear on the front page in the early to mid-1890s. By 1896, the newspaper's name had been shortened to The Gazette. As Cleveland's African-American population continued to grow, The Gazette and other African-American newspapers began focusing on "shaping and especially reflecting the values of black communities." In a typical 1896 issue, the first two columns on the front page, which had contained information about remarkable black actions in 1883 issues, were "devoted to a weekly women's apparel column." Attempting to better represent African Americans, Smith was also replacing the term "Negro" with "Afro-American" by 1896.[2]
World War I
After the turn of the century, The Gazette often changed its position about African-American migration to the North. Before and after World War I, the newspaper contained material that criticized the "behavior" of the migrants. During World War I, African Americans migrated to Northern cities to fill vacant factory jobs, and The Gazette lessened its criticism of the needed migrants.[6] It was around this time that incidents of racial discrimination, such as African Americans "being denied service in hotels and eating establishments," became more prevalent. In response, The Gazette published more material about discriminatory acts in the early 1900s than it had in previous years.[3]
Demise
Smith's Republican support started to decline after the election of 1896; during the election, Smith, an advocate for Republican William McKinley, criticized "George A. Myers, another black ally of McKinley." After this incident, Smith's chances of getting "a job in the McKinley administration" were ruined by Columbus leader Ralph Tyler, who responded to Smith's criticism of Myers in the Colored American. At this time, Smith was also struggling to finance The Gazette. Along with the loss of Republican support and a lack of financial backings, The Gazette's popularity declined when the Call and Post was created around World War I.[2] Smith died in 1941, and publication of The Gazette ended in 1945.[4]
See also
- The Aliened American, a newspaper in Cleveland from 1853-1855
References
- ^ "Cleveland Gazette". The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Case Western Reserve University. August 29, 2009. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
- ^ S2CID 144130048.
- ^ .
- ^ a b c Atkinson, Edward; Cash, Kenneth P. (February 3–9, 2005). "Harry Clay Smith: The Forgotten Warrior". Call and Post. 89 (5): C.9 – via ProQuest.
- ^ "The Gazette". The African-American Experience in Ohio. Ohio History Connection. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
- ^ S2CID 145764333.
- ^ "Harry Smith and the Cleveland Gazette · The Ohio Black Press in the 19th Century · The 19C Ohio Black Press". ohioblackpress.org. Retrieved 2023-02-08.
- S2CID 144130048.