The Rise and Fall of the Associated Negro Press
Cloth: 08/28/2017
About the Book
For nearly fifty years, the Chicago-based Associated Negro Press (ANP) fought racism at home and grew into an international news organization abroad. At its head stood founder Claude Barnett, one of the most influential African Americans of his day and a gifted, if unofficial, diplomat who forged links with figures as diverse as Jawaharlal Nehru, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Nixon.Gerald Horne weaves Barnett's fascinating life story through a groundbreaking history of the ANP, including its deep dedication to Pan-Africanism. An activist force in journalism, Barnett also helped send doctors and teachers to Africa, advised African governments, gave priority to foreign newsgathering, and saw the African American struggle in global terms. Yet Horne also confronts Barnett's contradictions. A member of the African American elite, Barnett's sympathies with black aspirations often clashed with his ethics and a powerful desire to join the upper echelons of business and government. In the end, Barnett's activist success undid his work. Horne traces the dramatic story of the ANP's collapse as the mainstream press, retreating from Jim Crow, finally covered black issues and hired African American journalists.
Revelatory and entertaining, The Rise and Fall of the Associated Negro Press tells the story of a forgotten pioneer and the ambitious black institution he created.
About the Author
Gerald Horne is the John J. and Rebecca Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. His many books include Black Revolutionary: William Patterson and the Globalization of the African American Freedom Struggle. He is a recipient of the Ida B. Wells and Cheikh Anta Diop Award for Outstanding Scholarship and Leadership in Africana Studies.Also by this author
Reviews
"Required reading for students of African-American journalism."--Publisher's Weekly"An immersive read, a welcome contribution to our understanding of the evolving relationship between African Americans and the media during Jim Crow and its demise. . . . Highly recommended."--People's World
"Horne offers media history students and scholars a compelling case that sheds new light on a lesser-known historical figure. There is no doubt that Horne's book will find its way onto media historians' bookshelves."--American Journalism
"Horne, celebrated author of over 30 eye-opening works on class and race history, harnesses the varied details of The Rise and Fall of the Associated Negro Press in a style that is at once academic and fittingly narrative. The work is thus an accessible treasure trove of political and social involvements and insights spanning almost all the continents. " --Publishing Research Quarterly
"An exhilarating and enlightening ride through some of the most tumultuous times in modern African American history." --Journal of American Ethnic History
"Gerald Horne's work is an important contribution to our understanding of the role of the Black press in the twentieth century. The author provides compelling evidence of the critical roles played by Barnett and the ANP, including its many skilled Black journalists, in supporting a dynamic Black press, which helped shape political discourse throughout the African diaspora during the twentieth century." --Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
Blurbs
"The Rise and Fall of the Associated Negro Press is a brilliant model for writing black transnational history and for appreciating the contradictory results of desegregation for mid-twentieth century African American media, black freedom, and Pan-Africanism."--Erik S. McDuffie, author of Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism
"This brilliant and masterfully written work broadens understandings of the vital work and historical agency of the black press, in particular the domestic and international coverage and political relationships forged by the Associated Negro Press and its astute and complicated founder Claude Barnett."--Taj Frazier, author of The East Is Black: Cold War China in the Black Radical Imagination
Awards
A Black Press Research Collective's Top Black Press Scholarship of the 2010s BookRelated Titles
