"Soldiers Without Swords"

In class we viewed the movie "Soldiers without Swords." This documentry was about the black press in the early 20th century. These were newspapers established by black people for black people. The film takes you from the very beggining to the end of the black press when african americans were able to join the bigger more established "white" newspapers. The black press was needed at this time becasue it was after the civil war and althought black people were free there were no civil rights. No one was speaking for the black community. Many of the first black newspapers were established in the North but made their way down south. People in the south embraced these newspapers because most of these black people were from small towns and these newspapers allowed them to see how things were in other parts of the counrty as well as the World. These newspapers provided entertainment as well as hope. Many of these newspapers promoted for blacks of the south to migrate to the north where there were more job opprotunities, and better living conditions. At first the white people did not pay the black press any mind but as soon as they realized there was this mass exodus from the south to the north, and they realized the south's economy was being effected by this exodus, these white men began banning the black press. Much like many strong and important causes, the attemt to stop the black press was a failure.
From this black press emerged many great journalist and photographers. Before this time black people were not given the opprotunity to do much things because they were seen as inferior. These newspapers showed that there were black people smarter than most white people. It5 gave the black community a sence of "self" and also encouragement that they could do anything they wanted and that the steryotypes were wrong.