 Front page ofFreedom newspaper, Vol. 5, No. 5, May – June 1955 | |
| Editor | Louis E. Burnham |
|---|---|
| Staff writers | Paul Robeson Lorraine Hansberry Alice Childress Thelma Dale Lloyd L. Brown John H. Clarke |
| Photographer | Inge Hardison |
| Categories | African-American newspapers |
| Frequency | Monthly; bimonthly in 1954–1955 summers |
| Format | Tabloid |
| Publisher | Freedom Associates |
| Founder | Paul Robeson W. E. B. Du Bois |
| First issue | November 1950; 75 years ago (1950-11) |
| Final issue Number | August 1955 (1955-08) Vol 5 No 6 |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York City |
| Language | English language |
| Website | dlib |
| OCLC | 904283253 |
Freedom was a monthly newspaper focused onAfrican-American issues published from 1950 to 1955.[1] The publication was associated primarily with the internationally renowned singer, actor and then officially disfavored activistPaul Robeson, whose column, with his photograph, ran on most of its front pages. Freedom's motto was: "Where one is enslaved, all are in chains!"[2] The newspaper has been described as "the most visible African American Left cultural institution during the early 1950s."[3] In another characterization, "Freedom paper was basically an attempt by a small group of blackactivists, most of them Communists, to provide Robeson with a base inHarlem and a means of reaching his public... The paper offered more coverage of the labor movement than nearly any other publication, particularly of the left-led unions that were expelled from theCIO in the late 1940s... [It] encouraged its African American readership to identify its struggles withanti-colonial movements in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.Freedom gave extensive publicity to... the struggle againstapartheid."[4]
Freedom was a venture by Robeson. It was named afterFreedom's Journal, the first Black newspaper published in the United States.[5]Louis Burnham, the former executive secretary of theSouthern Negro Youth Congress (SNYC), was theManaging Editor of Freedom. Burnham was responsible for getting the monthly started.[6] George B. Murphy Jr. (vice chairman of theAmerican Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born and vice president of theInternational Workers Order), was the general manager. The monthly shared office space and staff with theCouncil on African Affairs.[7] Each issue cost $0.10; a subscription for a year was $1.[8]
WhenLorraine Hansberry, later aTony Award-winning playwright but then (in her own description) a confused 21 year old, went to work forFreedom soon after its founding, she found "an office furnished with two desks, one typewriter and a remarkably enthusiastic working staff of two": Louis Burnham, the editor, and Edith Roberts, the office manager.[9]
The periodical became a magnet for primarily African-Americanleftistactivists and artists, includingEsther Cooper Jackson, former SNYC executive Edward Strong, historianHerbert Aptheker, members of theNew York Negro Labor Council and members of the Committee for the Negro in the Arts, includingOssie Davis,Ruby Dee andHarry Belafonte.[10] It promotedAfrican-American culture, showcasing, among others, playwrightLorraine Hansberry, playwright and fiction writerAlice Childress (whose novelLike One of the Family first appeared serially inFreedom), novelistsLloyd Brown,Julian Mayfield, andJohn O. Killens, and poetFrank Marshall Davis.[11] Alice Childress recalled "Eslanda Robeson bringing in the works of young artists, introducing them to the editor, asking him to give them an opportunity to present their talents inFreedom."[5]
It supported theworking class and thelabor movement, as well as a variety of international issues, including world peace,human rights inLatin America, and theanti-colonial freedom struggle. It advocated forthird-party politics.[6] A rarity among American newspapers, Freedom consistently opposed theKorean War, linking the conflict tocolonialism, discrimination against Black people in thearmed forces, andJim Crow laws at home.[12] Presciently, in a front pageFreedom column, "Ho Chi Minh isToussaint L'Ouverture ofIndo China," Robeson asked [emphasis in the original]:"Shall Negrosharecroppers from Mississippi be sent to shoot down brown-skinned peasants inVietnam—to serve the interests of those who oppose Negro liberation at home and colonial freedom abroad?"[13]
Women on the editorial board, and among its contributors, brought a proto-feminist viewpoint toFreedom, which published pieces expressing those views. Among these women wereVicki Garvin, whose article in the first issue began, "If it is true, as has often been stated, that a people can rise no higher than its women, then Negro people have a long way to go before reaching the ultimate goal of complete freedom and equality in the United States."[14]Lorraine Hansberry started atFreedom as a subscription clerk, and subsequently worked as receptionist, typist, editorial assistant and ultimately associate editor. Hansberry covered local, national, and international stories that involved both national and international travel. Other contributors included Childress, Dorothy Burnham andEslanda Goode Robeson.Thelma Dale worked at the monthly.Shirley Graham Du Bois was part of the "Freedom Family"[7] as the paper's associates referred to themselves.[15]
Freedom put on pageants celebrating African-American history. To commemorate the newspaper's first birthday, Hansberry wrote the script for a rally at Rockland Palace, a then-famous Harlem hall,[16] on "the history of the Negro newspaper in America and its fighting role in the struggle for a people's freedom, from 1827 to the birth of FREEDOM." Performers in this pageant included Robeson, his longtime accompanistLawrence Brown, the multi-discipline artistAsadata Dafora, and numerous others.[17] The following year, Hansberry and Childress, an already produced playwright, collaborated on a pageant forFreedom's Negro History Festival, withHarry Belafonte,Sidney Poitier,Douglas Turner Ward andJohn O. Killens providing narration.[18]
Freedom ceased publication after its July–August 1955 issue, which included an appeal for financial support on its front page.[19] Ultimately, the monthly failed due not only to financial difficulties, but also toanti-communistFBI harassment.[10] Because ofMcCarthyism, most Blacks were reluctant to have any association with Robeson or his publication. Although buying a Robeson concert ticket often included a subscription toFreedom, the FBI photographed attendees and recorded their license plate numbers, which would also especially discourage government employees. State and city governments prevented large venues from hosting Robeson, further limiting concert attendance to smaller facilities such as churches and union halls.[12]
Following the failure ofFreedom, many of those associated with it were able to initiate another periodical,Freedomways. The new quarterly, energized by the revival of theCivil Rights Movement, maintainedFreedom's anti-imperialist and anti-Jim Crow stance, while continuing to supportBlack culture andfeminism.[11] In its final issue, the editorial inFreedomways acknowledged the importance of its predecessorFreedom: "The titles of two ventures in publishing helped inspire our name—most significantly, Freedom Newspaper, published by Paul Robeson and edited byLouis E. Burnham, which made such a valuable contribution to our movement in the ’50s."[20]
