Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 September 2005 — Page 8

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THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2005

EDITORIAL Katrina’s devastating blow to Gulf Coast By SHANNON WILLIAMS Recorder Editor

EYEWITNESS TO A CENTURY: THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

The devastation that residents of Louisiana and Mississippi experienced due to the effects of hurricane Katrina truly goes beyond words. I write this editorial with aheavy heart as I think of the lives lost and the tremendous circumstances that thousands of survivors had to endure to save their lives. Sometimes it can be hard to visualize what something like hurricane Katrina could not only do, but also be. Weather experts explained Katrina to have had 20-30 feet high tides in addition to winds at 145 mph. I could not imagine the terror I would feel looking outside my window to see 30-feet high tides rushing towards me. Can you imagine what went through those people’s minds? As I continuously watch the news in awe, disbelief and utter sadness, I’m constantly reminded howfortunate and truly blessed so many of us are. The victims of Katrina have already lost so much; their homes, possessions, and for many - their family. At times like these, it’s hard to even consider moving forward, but it’s my hope that they understand that there is a higher power that they can lean on for strength and support. The story of Katrina survivor Harvey Jackson is one that I will always remember. A news reporter randomly saw Jackson walking bewildered in the street and asked him to share his experience. Jackson, in the midst of tears and confusion frantically told the reporter how he was holding his wife’s hand as tightly as he could with water swirling all about them when she told him “You can’t hold me. Take care of the children and grandchildren.” Can you imagine the pain, the helplessness, the sorrow that Jackson felt? His wife’s life literally in the palm of his hands, but suddenly slipped through his fingers. How truly sad. I attended college in Mississippi and have several friends that still live there and on the Gulf Coast. I spoke with some on Monday, but as of Recorder press time, have been unable to make contact with them again. The phone lines are constantly busy and when I do get through, the phones just ring and ring. It’s scary not knowing their whereabouts, but I can only pray that they are safe. Several reporters and relief workers equated Katrina’s devastation to that of the tsunami last December. One even said when she flew over parts of Louisiana; there was no distinction between that and the destruction in Asia. At press time, I was amazed that a vacationing President George W. Bush had yet to visit the sites of Katrina’s aftermath. During challenging and desperate times like these a president’s presence says a lot, but the absence of one says a lot more. Now is a time for Bush to respond and react with vigor and determination. Now is also a time for other world leaders to lend their support to the United States, a nation that has done much for other countries. It will be interesting to see what celebrities, organizations and countries contribute to and support the victims of Katrina compared to those that aided tsunami sufferers. Since hurricane Katrina is now considered the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States, we’re going to need all the help we can get. In the interim however, the most important part continues to be to save lives and rescue those that are in need. With the massive flooding there is a great health concern considering that the sewage system has erupted with the tides. Rescuers are going to have to act fast to prevent the spread of disease and contamination. Although Katrina victims are suffering greatly, there is still no cause for them to loot stores. I was amazed to see people so blatantly looting, but perhaps more amazing were the items that were being stolen. Among the looted items were televisions, radios, computers, and blenders...things that had absolutely no significance considering that there is no electricity in the city. In addition, a vast majority of the evacuees’ homes were destroyed, so where is the merchandise going to go? It’s unfortunate that considering the fate that many Katrina survivors could have been dealt, that they didn’t even stop to weigh in on right vs. wrong and opt to make a better choice. It’s obviously a mentality issue that needs to be addressed within our community. If hurricane Katrina wasn’t a wake-up call for its survivors and others around the country to get themselves in order I don’t know what it will take to institute a positive change within them.

INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER DIRECTORY

George P. Stewart

Marcus C. Stewart Sr.

Eunice Trotter

William G. Mays

Founder-Editor-

Editor-Publisher

Editor-in-Chief

Chairman-

Publisher

1925-1983

Publisher

Owner

1895-1924

1988-1990

1990-present

Publisher/General Manager. Carolene Mays ADVERTISING Administrative Assistant Kelly Sankowski Sales and Marketing Manager. LeRoy Lewis Classified Advertising Sharon L. Maxey EDITORIAL Local Display Advertising Lisa Shoemake Shannon Williams Rita J. Wise Brandon A. Perry C. Denise Petty Ericka P. Thompson Ericka C. Wheeler BUSINESS/CIRCULATION Jack Sales Business Office Manager. Angela Kuhn Interim Controller. Arthur Carter ART & PRODUCTION Business Office Crystal Dalton Production Manager. Jeana M. L. Ouattara Kay Toliver Senior Designer. John L. Hurst Jr. Shirl Williams Designer. Jessica R. Holman Circulation Bruceil Mays Designer. Brandon M. West The Indianapolis Recorder encourages short, concise letters to the editor and opinion articles from the public. Letters and opinion articles will be used at the editor's discretion and are subject to editing. We will not guarantee publication of material received. We cannot guarantee dates of publication. Letters containing libelous or untrue statements will not be published. All letters and opinion articles must include a verifiable full name, address and telephone number. This information will not be published at the reguest of the writer. Letters and articles should be typed but will be accepted if handwriting is legible. (317) 924-5143 P.0. Box 18499, Indianapolis, IN 46218-0499 [email protected]

Editor. Staff Writer. Copy Editor..

By WILMA L. GIBBS

This year, the Recorder is observing its 110 anniversary. A special celebration will be held in October. Amos Brown’s column, which usually appears in this space, will return next week. The Black press began in New York City with the publication of Freedom’s Journal by Samuel Cornish and John Russworm in 1827. Another partnership, George R Stewart and Will Porter, co-founded The Indianapolis Recorder about 70 years later. The forerunner of the Recorder was a news sheet and a church and business directory. By 1897, the co-founders of the newspaper decided to expand their already successful news sheet into a weekly newspaper. The earliest existing issues of the Recorder date to 1899 - the year Porter sold his share of the newspaper to Stewart. Realizing the importance of local news, Stewart captured that market, outdistancing his competitors, the publishers of the Freeman and the Colored World. Both the Freeman and the Colored World, published in Indianapolis, had national reputations. With its emphasis on local news, the Recorder weekly set itself apart from other Black newspapers. It had an immediate and an enduring impact on the Indianapolis community. Though the focus of the newspaper was local people and events, the early Recorder also reported national events. It solicited news from communities throughout the state, as well as from around the country. Sales agents, who dually served as local correspondents, sold issues in their cities and hamlets. The early Indianapolis Recorder correspondence files are replete with letters to and from sales agents and reporters. At the turn of the century, the Recorder reported the athletic feats of world bicycle champion and Indianapolis native, Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor. In 1901 the paper listed African Americans doing business in Indiana, and the following June it published the names of Black Indianapolis residents whose wealth was estimated at more than $5,000. Visits ofnationally known individuals to Indiana were considered especially newsworthy. Accounts in the Recorder indicate that Booker T. Washington was in Indianapolis on numerous occasions after his 1895 “Atlanta Compromise” speech of social passivism catapulted him into the national limelight. He spoke to the Planner Guild on May 7,1903. In 1904 the National Business League, of which he was president, held its annual meeting in Indianapolis. He spoke in 1906 and again in 1909 to help raise funds for the Senate Avenue Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Serving as keynote speaker, he along with newspaper publisher George Knox and Alexander Manning, businesswoman Madame C. J. Walker, attorney F.B. Ransom, and Dr. Joseph Ward attended the dedication ceremony for the institution in July 1913. Newspaper stories indicate that Washington’s ideological rival, William Edward Burghardt DuBois, also visited Indianapolis duringthe early1900s. He spoke at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, under the auspices of the Woman’s Improvement Club. Also during the first two decades of the 20th century, the Recorder reported on the work of many community organizations and institutions. It heralded the achievements of individuals in various spheres. It commented through news stories and editorials on the socio-eco-nomic and political climate that affected the daily lives of its community. It provided a forum for advertisers. The newspaper advocated for American support of World War I. It assumed that Black participation would bring better jobs and a better quality of life for patriots and their families. Instead, the end of the war brought an escalation of lynchings and race riots, and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. The Recorder and other Black news organs devoted much ink to stories reporting these activities. The post World War I era crystallized the concerns for better education, housing, and health care for Indianapolis African Americans. The Indianapolis Recorder, in a social reform mode, editorialized on several specific issues including lynching, public accommoda-

tions, voting, unemployment, crime and health concerns. It continued to report on the activities and attributes of Black organizations and institutions including Crispus Attucks High School, Walker Manufacturing Co., Colored Speedway Association, and women’s clubs and fraternal groups. At the end of Prohibition, the Recorder reported extensively on the nightclubs and musical entertainment on Indiana Avenue. During the 1930s, it reflected a Depression driven community. With the formation of The Indianapolis Recorder Charities, the newspaper was an active participant in supplying relief to its constituency. RememberingtheaftermathofWorld War I, The Indianapolis Recorder was more cautious in lending its overwhelming support to American involvement in World War II. Though slow in coming, the support was enthusiastically given. Capitalizing on a phrase coined by the Pittsburgh Courier - the Double V Campaign, victory abroad and victory at home - the Recorder published the Victory Progress edition to celebrate the end of the war. The issue was cited in the Congressional Record. It remains as a useful chronicle of national and local Black history. Crispus Attucks High School dominated Indiana basketball tournament play during much of the 1950s. School sports stories were prevalent in the Recorder. As it had rallied around Jackie Robinson when he broke national baseball’s color barrier in 1947, the Recorder took ownership of the winning basketball feats of the city’s only Black high school. The Indianapolis Recorder diligently reported the activities of the civil rights movement. It profiled national figures including A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Edgar Evers, Thurmond Marshall and John F. Kennedy. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the front page of the Recorder was often saturated with reports of brawls, stabbings, shootings, drug deals and other illegal and illicit activity. In a 1955 editorial, the Recorder addressed why the paper placed murders on its front page. It announced that sales increased because the public would readily read about crime — it was good business. The 1960s and 1970s were times of great social change in America and nothing demonstrated the metamorphosis more than the Black press and media outlets. In the mist of racial conflict, civil unrest, assassinations, the Vietnam War, urban renewal and a war on poverty, there were dramatic changes in language, hairstyles, fashion, music, and imagery on the big screen. Early in the 1960s, ads and articles in the Recorder included words like tan and sepia. Readers were informed that tan Tribesmen (Indianapolis Indians) would not be Jimcrowed in Little Rock; tan coach voted into Florida Hall of Fame, Oscar Robertson was in a movie abouttan athletes, and Willie Mays was expected to become the first $100,000 tan player. Consumerism proved thatwe were a nation consumed with buying during a booming wartime economy. Black was in - on television, Stokely Carmichael, the leader of the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee, talked about Black Power; on the radio, James Brown sang “Say it Loud ... I’m Black and I’m Proud;” and in the Recorder, Flori Roberts ads told readers that Black beauty began at Wassons, a downtown, white department store. While the Vietnam War that raged a half a world away was brought horrifically, by television, into local living rooms every evening, the Recorder soothed the Indianapolis AfricanAmerican community with still shots of proud, local patriots who dutifully served in every branch of the American military. Duringthe 1980s and 1990s,theRecorder continued its extensive reporting of Indiana Black Expo and the Circle City Classic, two nationally popular events held in Indianapolis. It reported on several local police action shootings. The majority of them involved white officers and AfricanAmerican males. Richard French was killed late at night in a bank parking lot. The police officer that shot and killed Clarence Barnett,arobberysuspectwas named policeman of the year. While illegally parked on Monument Circle,

unarmed Joseph Griffen was shot at point blank range as his wife and child witnessed his death. The most controversial incident involved 15-year-old Michael Taylor, whom police alleged, shot himself while he sat, alone, handcuffed in the back seat of a police car. Eunice Trotter’s purchase of The Indianapolis Recorder in 1988 marked the first time in the paper’s history that the George Stewart family did not own the controlling interest. She computerized the news operation and had multiple sections. She sold the Recorder to businessman, William G. Mays in 1990. Mays, who was concerned about the newspaper reaching its centennial anniversary, provided resources to revitalize the weekly. In 1998, Mays’ niece, Carolene Mays took the leadership role as Publisher and General Manager, with the challenge to give new direction and further elevate the publication for survival and success in the new millennium. Concentration immediately was placed on the reputation, quality, integrity and financial stability of the Recorder. A commitment was made to exceed the expectation of the readership, improve the quality of writing and appearance, strive for a zero defect paper, and actively support local community service efforts. Through the years the changes have been significant. They have included structured business policies and procedures, majorproduction and technology advancements, financial restructuring, personnel reorganization, additional training and support, and building renovations. The reconstruction focused on decreasing the amount of negative news and increasing the level of positive, educational and empowering news that would offer encouragement and support to the community. The Recorder has a legacy of articles and columns written to report the activities and promote the achievements of African Americans. It is the single, most important publication that captures a panoramic view of 20th century Black Indianapolis. It has supplied remarkable help to graduate students working on theses and dissertations, news reporters looking for historical perspectives, and the general public seeking details about an event, not provided by the dailies. Former graduate students Richard Pierce (dissertation - “Beneath the Surface: African-American Community Life In Indianapolis, 1945-1970”) and Amy Wilson (thesis - “The Swing Era on Indiana Avenue: A Cultural History of Indianapolis’ African-American Jazz Scene, 1933-1950”) relied heavily on The Indianapolis Recorder for support of their topics. Authors Randy Roberts and Stanley Warren, no doubt, found The Indianapolis Recorder their most useful source when they researched details about Crispus Attucks High School’s state basketball reign during the 1950s for their recent books. The Recorder served as a training ground for many reporters who later went to the daily newspapers or other weeklies. Lynn Ford, Kim Hooper and Eunice Trotter left the Recorder to work for the Indianapolis Star. Steve Hammer became a columnist at NUVO, and Opal Tandy became publisher of the Indiana Herald. Nationally syndicated Washington Post columnist William Raspberry received early training at the Recorder. University of Notre Dame historian Richard Pierce has stated that the Recorder fulfilled a dual role as advocate for and reporter ofthe Black community and as a voice to the larger community, interpreting the concerns of African Americans. He has suggested that the main goal of the newspaper at the end of the century is the same as it was at the beginning: “We are an advocate. We are fighters for freedom.” From slavery to the digital age, the Recorder continues to be a voice for and to the people. Back issues of the newspaper reflect the history, issues, culture and concerns of a community. It poignantly gives the tenor and tone of the times. The Indianapolis Recorder has served as an eyewitness to a century. WihnaL. Gibbs is program archivist for African-American History, Indiana Historical Society.

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