The Huntsville Gazette: The African American Perspective

Abstract

The Huntsville Gazette: The African American Perspective By Mike Steele T he Reconstruction era of the United States, after the Civil War, was one of the most tumultuous and uncertain times in American history. This period could best be described as a perpetual roller coaster ride of hope, fear, triumph, failure, optimism and angst. For the first time in their collective history, African Americans would have no master beyond themselves. Adjusting to a life of emancipation however, was by no means a simple task. It can be argued that moving on from a life of servitude and hopelessness to a life of equality and advancement was akin to washing away a mountain, especially given that when the Reconstruction Era ended, any hope of creating a new and better world for the African American in the South was effectively extinguished. However, in the case of The Huntsville Gazette of Huntsville, Alabama an African America newspaper that was every bit as informative and engaging as any white newspaper of the day can be observed. This acts as a direct contradiction to the belief that African Americans were racially inferior and unable to advance themselves to the point that they could compete with whites. Still, there are still questions that warrant further investigation such as: what messages or attitudes did the paper try to express, if any? What matters did the paper consider important at the time? In addition, other topics of interest were encountered over the course of my research such as: the lack of condemnation for violence committed against African Americans in the city and how the paper was able to cater to a population that had a staggering illiteracy rate. A combination of the efforts of the stories told in this paper, the efforts of prominent names in the field of race and ethnicity and personal theories will attempt to address each of these issues while at the same time providing a unique window into the past. The Huntsville Gazette began its publication in 1881 and operated until 1894, covering a wide range of topics from domestic and international affairs to politics and advertisements. The year 1881 was an interesting one for the United States and the beginnings of several important chapters in American history such as the beginning of what would become Prohibition in Kansas, the creation of the Red Cross by Clara Barton, and the forming of the Oriental Telephone Company by Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. The Reconstruction Era in the post-Civil War South formally ended in 1877, and the white population wasted little time in engineering the near complete disenfranchisement of African Americans. Alabama during this time had experienced social and economic hardships that were similar to several southern states but in time, unfortunately, Alabama would emerge as a shining example of life under the Jim Crow laws, which established the segregation of blacks and whites on the social level. As outlined by Rob Dixon in the Encyclopedia of Alabama, “The period is also characterized by civil and social upheaval; farming hardships and exploitative labor practices led to the emergence of labor unions, and Jim Crow laws allowed racism to flourish under the guise of a policy known as ‘separate but equal’.” 1 Over the course of this research eight consecutive issues of the paper were consulted and the results consisted of stories that covered a wide range of topics that reached beyond domestic affairs in the South, such as the story about how “Belgium promises to become the great industrial teacher of Europe. She has fifty nine technical schools, thirty two industrial schools and a higher commercial school, all receiving funds annually from Rob Dixon, “New South Era” Encyclopedia of Alabama. Accessed November 20, 2013. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2128