 Cover of the November 15, 1964, issue | |
| Type | Initiallyweekly, later biweekly |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner(s) | Warren County, Mississippi, chapter of theMississippi Freedom Democratic Party |
| Founder(s) | Paul Cowan Dilla Irwin Aaron Shirley |
| Publisher | Hill City Publishing Corporation |
| Editor | Ollye Shirley Dilla Irwin |
| Founded | August 22, 1964 |
| Ceased publication | 1967 |
| Political alignment | Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Vicksburg, Mississippi |
| City | New Orleans |
| Country | United States |
| OCLC number | 10666472 |
TheVicksburg Citizens' Appeal was an American newspaper that served theVicksburg, Mississippi, area from 1964 to 1967. It was published by theWarren County, Mississippi, chapter of theMississippi Freedom Democratic Party. It was established by several civil rights activists, includingPaul Cowan andAaron Shirley, in order to provide coverage of the ongoingcivil rights movement in the state.
TheVicksburg Citizens' Appeal was established by theWarren County, Mississippi, chapter of theMississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) in August 1964.[1] Founders includedPaul Cowan,[2] Dilla Irwin,[3] andAaron Shirley,[4] with aid from severalFreedom Riders.[3] Shirley had been a founder of the MFDP the previous year and served as the chairman of the county chapter.[5] Initial funding was provided in the form of a $400 (equivalent to $4,055 in 2024) loan provided by a local activist, while ten shares of the company were sold at $40 ($406 in 2024) each.[6] According to Cowan, during a meeting with activistBob Moses, Moses requested that the newspaper come under the direct control of theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, though Cowan refused on the basis of avoiding any potential censorship.[7][8]
The goal of the newspaper would be to publish information on happenings in theblack community at a local, national, and international level.[9]Civil rights activists started the newspaper because of an inability to get existing localmedia outlets to cover civil rights activities.[6] In particular, the local newspaper serving theVicksburg, Mississippi, area,The Vicksburg Post, largely avoided coverage of theAfrican American community at large.[5] In discussing theCitizens' Appeal, theColumbia Journalism Review stated that in March 1964, the African American community of Vicksburg hadboycotted thePost after it refused to usecourtesy titles for African Americans.[10] Following the boycott, thePost began to use titles, but confined coverage of the African American community to a section of their paper titled "AmongColored Folks".[10] Additionally, Shirley specifically stated that local media censorship regardingviolence by white people against black people as a primary reason for starting the newspaper.[11]
According to Cowan, the people who established the newspaper referred to it in fundraising efforts as the "first community civil-rights newspaper in Mississippi".[2] The newspaper was one of several established by civil rights activists in the state during thecivil rights movement,[12] with historian Julius E. Thompson stating that the number of commercialAfrican American newspapers in Mississippi increased from three in the 1950s to ten in the 1960s.[13] The growth of these newspapers was also due in part to the conservative nature of the state's largest African American newspaper, theJackson Advocate, which had limited coverage on the ongoing civil rights protests occurring in the state.[14][15]
The newspaper was in the form of an eight-pagetabloid.[1][16] While its first issue was released on August 22, 1964, its next issue would not be published until October, when the publishers were able to assemble a journalism team and secure enough funding for sustained publication.[10] Initially published as aweekly,[1] it became a biweekly publication on November 2.[10] Individual issues cost 10¢ ($1.01 in 2024), while a yearlysubscription cost $3.50 ($35.48 in 2024).[1][17] It was published by the Hill City Publishing Corporation.[1] While the newspaper served the Vicksburg area, it was printed inNew Orleans at a cost of $200 ($2,028 in 2024) per edition.[6] According to two activists who worked on the newspaper, this was because no one in the local area would publish the newspaper.[9] According to Thompson, the newspaper had an averagecirculation of between 300 and 500, though at various points it peaked to about 3,000.[1] However, reporting on the newspaper in December 1964,Jet magazine stated that the newspaper had apress run that peaked at about 4,000 copies.[6]
The newspaper's firsteditor was Ollye Shirley, Aaron's wife.[9] During its run, Dilla Irwin also served as an editor.[1] Irwin was a member of theNAACP and a full-time activist who had previously served as an assistantdean of women atGrambling College.[18] The editorship of two women on the newspaper was not uncommon for similar African American newspapers published in the state during this time, with several other newspapers also being led by women.[19] According to Irwin, news was sourced both locally and from individuals who were sympathetic to the civil rights movement, such asRalph McGill, the editor and publisher ofThe Atlanta Constitution.[20] Reporting was performed by both local African Americans and by volunteers present with theCouncil of Federated Organizations.[10] The address for the newspaper offices was not made public and instead it received mail via apost office box.[10]
The newspaper ceased publication in 1967.[1][21][note 1] According toEbony magazine, the newspaper folded due to a lack of funds.[18] In discussing the newspaper's financial difficulties, Irwin later said that, while the publication was initially well received by the African American community of Vicksburg, it struggled to sell, due in large part to the highpoverty present in the community.[1] Irwin said that a significant factor in the newspaper surviving for as long as it did was its advertising, with businessmen purchasing space in the newspaper for about $2 ($20.28 in 2024) per advertisement.[1] In a 1965 analysis of the newspaper, theColumbia Journalism Review reported that the publishers of theCitizens' Appeal said that theirbreak-even point for each issue could be reached by selling $50 ($499 in 2024) of advertising and selling 2,000 copies at 10¢ ($1 in 2024) each.[10]
In his discussion of theCitizens' Appeal and other related newspapers, Thompson said that these newspapers suffered from a reliance on donations from liberal activists outside of the region and from work—often unpaid—from volunteers.[20] As a result, many of these newspapers only published for an average of three to four years, whereas the more conservative African American newspapers in the state—which, according to Thompson, received support from both black and white advertisers and theMississippi State Sovereignty Commission—were more successful and, on average, more long-lived.[20]
In the 2017 bookThe Mississippi Encyclopedia, academic Margaret Bean of theUniversity of Mississippi said regarding the newspaper:[17]
Despite its short life, theVicksburg Citizens' Appeal was a significant presence in mid-1960s Mississippi. When many historically white newspapers were ignoring or belittling the civil rights movement and when some African American-run newspapers were counseling slow change, theCitizens' Appeal was an activist newspaper.
In the early 1970s, David Riley, who had served as an associate editor for theCitizens' Appeal, cofounded anotherindependent newspaper inWashington, D.C.: theColonial Times.[24] In 2023, Vicksburg native and scholar Donald Field Brown held an event at the Catfish Row Museum in Vicksburg discussing the history and legacy of theCitizens' Appeal as part of a lecture series supported by theSmithsonian Institution called "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America".[21]
