The Black Press

Abstract

Much like the black church, the black press has been instrumental both as an organizing and as a consciousness-raising tool in the black community. It is important, however, to emphasize at the outset that although African-American newspapers were not created for the sole purpose of advancing the Pan-African ideal, they helped inform the public and shape ideas about Pan-Africanism in ways that their creators might not have perhaps intended. Indeed, their primary raison d’être was as information sources and organizing devices within the African-American community. However, what started as an information venue for African-Americans would turn into a formidable tool at the hands of Pan-Africanists, initially in the U.S., and subsequently across the Diaspora. In this sense, what Swedish Sociologist, Gunnar Myrdal, (An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. New York: Harper and Row, 1944, 924) dubbed the “greatest single power in the Negro race” would gain its meaning beyond the author’s original intent.