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Articles by E. James West
Ebony Magazine at 5619 South State St., Chicago
By E. James West On the west side of Chicago’s Washington Park neighborhood, on the right of South State between 56th and 57th Street, there are only two buildings left. The first building, located at 5625 South State Street, is typical of the one and two-story commercial storefront buildings that sprung up along Washington Park’s main thoroughfares and streetcar lines during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Comparative American Studies An International Journal
See all volumes and issues Volume 20, 2023 Vol 19, 2022 Vol 18, 2021 Vol 17, 2020 Vol 16, 2018-2019 Vol 15, 2017 Vol 14, 2016 Vol 13, 2015 Vol 12, 2014 Vol 11, 2013 Vol 10, 2012 Vol 9, 2011 Vol 8, 2010 Vol 7, 2009 Vol 6, 2008 Vol 5, 2007 Vol 4, 2006 Vol 3, 2005 Vol 2, 2004 Vol 1, 2003 Issue3-4 Issue2 Issue1 Download citations Download PDFs Download issue Browse by section (All) Introduction Research article Display order (Default) Published online date Page number Section A-Z Most read Most...
Searching for Black Santa: The Contested History of an American Holiday Tradition
ABSTRACT This article explores the contested history and complex politics of the Black Santa in the United States from the antebellum period to the present day. For white journalists and entertainers during the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the blackface Santa reinforced white dominance and the supposed inferiority of Black people.
Environmental Racism in South Carolina
The American metropolis and perceptions of the so-called “urban crisis” have loomed large in previous installments of my Race and Documerica series for Black Perspectives. In cities such as Chicago, Illinois, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Birmingham, Alabama, DOCUMERICA photographers produced assignments that highlighted the interconnected experiences of environmental, class, and racial inequality.
The Fight for Fountain Square
The intersections of race and place lie at the heart of my ongoing DOCUMERICA series for Black Perspectives. Through the work of photojournalists such as John H. White and LeRoy Woodson, who were among the handful of African Americans who contributed assignments to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) landmark photography project, we have seen how these forces combined to shape the lives of African Americans in locations such as Chicago and Birmingham during the 1970s.
LeRoy Woodson’s Black Church
As detailed in the previous installment of my series on race and DOCUMERICA, LeRoy Woodson’s work on the Environmental Protection Agency’s landmark photography project took him to Birmingham, Alabama, during the summer of 1972. Woodson’s DOCUMERICA assignment highlighted the scale of Birmingham’s environmental problems and demonstrated that its nicknames of “Smoke City” and the “Pittsburgh of the South” were well-earned.
Documenting Environmental Racism
There’s a good reason why I’ve focused on the work of Chicago-based Black photojournalist John H. White during the first few installments of my series on race and DOCUMERICA. Of the roughly 350 DOCUMERICA photographs I have identified and cataloged that center the Black experience, more than forty percent come from White’s Chicago assignment. That White’s work accounts for such a significant slice of the Black presence in DOCUMERICA reflects his own journalistic ambitions.
“Getting on the Negro History Bandwagon”: Selling Black History from World War II to the Dawn of Black Power
Abstract Drawing on a diverse range of archival material, oral histories, market research literature, and Black periodicals, this article sheds new light on the development of Black history–themed advertising and public outreach campaigns by White-owned corporations from World War II to the dawn of Black Power.
Johnson Publishing Company and the Search for a White Audience
Abstract Johnson Publishing Company, the publisher of Negro Digest and Ebony, made efforts to expand its white audience during the 1940s and early 1950s.
The Bud Billiken Parade
Over the last two installments of my series on race and DOCUMERICA, we’ve explored the contrasting visions of Black Chicago shot by African American photojournalist John H. White during the early 1970s. On the one hand, many of White’s images showcased the impact of environmental racism, with the lives of poor and working-class Black Chicagoans being shaped by deindustrialization, disinvestment, and urban decline.
A House for the Struggle
About the Book About the Author Reviews Awards Supplemental Links About the Book Buildings once symbolized Chicago's place as the business capital of Black America and a thriving hub for Black media. In this groundbreaking work, E. James West examines the city's Black press through its relationship with the built environment. As a house for the struggle, the buildings of publications like Ebony and the Chicago Defender embodied narratives of racial uplift and community resistance.
Chicago's Murals and Block Clubs
Artist Ron Blackburn Painting An Outdoor Wall Mural at the Corner of 33rd and Giles Streets in Chicago, IL, June of 1973 (Wikimedia Commons) In the last installment of my series about race and DOCUMERICA, we were introduced to the work of Black photojournalist John H. White. A recent transplant to Chicago, White used his DOCUMERICA assignment to center the city’s African American communities.
A House for the Struggle
The Johnson Publishing Company building at 820 South Michigan Avenue, complete with rooftop sign, photographed in 2022. [E. James West] In June 1922, to mark the occasion of its 75th anniversary in print, the Chicago Tribune — the leading daily paper in the “Midwest Metropolis” — revealed plans for an architectural competition to design its new headquarters on North Michigan Avenue.
How Budweiser Pioneered the Year-Round Use of Black History to Sell Stuff
History For a while, these posters were everywhere. Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Getty Images Plus, Brands of the World/Budweiser, and Amazon. Stop me if this sounds familiar: an oversize poster featuring spectacular portraits of Black African leaders, set against an impressionistic backdrop of military exploits, technological advancement, or civilization-building.
UI Press | University of Illinois
The Black Intellectual Tradition Author: Edited by Derrick P. Alridge, Cornelius L. Bynum, and James B. Stewart Pub Date: 08/03/2021
Meet the Buildings That Housed Chicago’s Black Press | Nieman Reports
Books January 24, 2022 E. James West’s new book, “A House for the Struggle: The Black Press and the Built Environment in Chicago,” traces the history of Chicago’s Black media buildings In this Dec. 10, 2001 file photo, Linda Johnson Rice, president and chief operating officer of Jet magazine, looks over awards and recognitions won by the magazine in its 50-year lifetime at Jet's Chicago headquarters.
Highways, High-Rises and Food Deserts
Stateway Gardens Highrise Housing Project On Chicago’s South Side, May 1973 (Flickr) This is the second part of our series about Race and DOCUMERICA. For many DOCUMERICA photographers, images of Black life were at best an incidental or marginal part of their larger assignments for the Environmental Protection Agency. In some cases, location helped to shape such disparities.
Race, Environmental Justice, and DOCUMERICA at 50
Coalition to March on the DNC where Black Lives Matter and climate change activists protested through the streets to the Wisconsin center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, August 20th, 2020 (Shutterstock) In April of this year at a press conference staged in front of the National Mall, Democratic Party politicians Ed Markey, the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the US Representative for New York’s 14th congressional district, reintroduced the...
The Radical And Transnational Roots Of Black History Month In Britain
A year on, we publish E. James West's Black Perspectives article on the journey to Black History Month becoming established in the United Kingdom In 1926, Carter G.
The Tears of Carl Lewis
Carl Lewis at Moment of Peace, London 2012 Olympic Games (Andy Miah/Flickr) A few weeks ago marked the 30th anniversary of perhaps the greatest track and field duel of all time. On Friday, August 30, 1991, American athletes Carl Lewis and Mike Powell competed in the long jump final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Lewis was the prohibitive favorite for the title.
British Racial Violence and Transatlantic Black Activism
Protest in London on June 6, 2020, after George Floyd’s murder (Socialist Appeal, Flickr) February of this year marked the thirtieth anniversary of the killing of Rolan Adams, a Black British teenager who was stabbed to death by a gang of white youths in southeast London. The circumstances of his death are strikingly similar to that of Stephen Lawrence, another Black British teenager who was killed two years later and just a few miles away.
Naming and Self-identification in the Black Community
Shutterstock.com Naming is a complicated business. Names play a vital role in defining group identity and the identity of individuals who belong to that group. Naming can be a tool for empowerment and/or oppression – a means of projecting ideas of social inferiority; a tool to reclaim and redefine individual and collective identity. For perhaps no group is this legacy as relevant or as complex than African Americans.
Hunt the Wizard! Race, Immigration, and British Tabloid Coverage of David Duke’s 1978 Tour
Introduction On the front cover of the 8 March 1978 issue of the Daily Express, readers were greeted with a striking photograph of American neo-Nazi, white supremacist and Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
Perspective | Black Santas have a long and contested history in the U.S.
In North Little Rock, Ark., a family recently received a racist letter after installing an inflatable Black Santa Claus on their lawn. Signed by an anonymous “Santa Claus,” the letter admonished the family for attempting “to deceive children into believing that I am a Negro.
African American newspapers are a vital source of public health information
Updated September 2, 2020 4:00 PM As the racially disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic becomes ever more apparent, the media has scrambled to keep up. Responding to demands for greater government transparency on COVID-19 data, the Atlantic launched the COVID Tracking Project, which includes a "racial data tracker" developed in collaboration with Ibram X. Kendi's Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University.
Perspective | African American newspapers are a vital source of public health information
As the racially disproportionate impact of the covid-19 pandemic becomes ever more apparent, the media has scrambled to keep up. Responding to demands for greater government transparency on covid-19 data, the Atlantic launched the COVID Tracking Project, which includes a “racial data tracker” developed in collaboration with Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University.
Eldridge Cleaver and the Afterlives of 1968
*Fifth and final instalment of E. James West’s article series on the 1968 Presidential campaign* Eldridge Cleaver, Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party and presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party. speaking at the Woods-Brown Outdoor Theatre, American University (Library of Congress).
A Black Woman Communist Candidate: Charlene Mitchell’s 1968 Presidential Campaign
This piece is the third installment of E. James West’s article series on the 1968 Presidential Campaign. Click these links for part one and part two.
Pushing Beyond the Two-Party System: Dick Gregory’s 1968 Presidential Campaign
“President of the United States in Exile,” Dick Gregory (Library of Congress: Yankee Poster Collection) In a March 2011 profile of African American comedian Dick Gregory written for GQ magazine, journalist Robert Chalmers mused, “it’s fortunate that his life has been played out so publicly, because Dick Gregory is a character it would be impossible to render credible in fiction.” It is an apt a description as any for Gregory, a skinny boy born into a poor Black family in St. Louis, Missouri,...
Queering the Black Press: Remembering BLK Magazine
Man Operating A Newsstand In Chicago, July 1973 (John H. White, The U.S. National Archives via Flickr). In a 2012 article for History Compass, historian Kim Gallon highlighted the continuing neglect of gender and sexuality by scholars of the Black Press. As Gallon noted, an array of factors including an over-emphasis on the role of heterosexual Black male publishers, such as John H.
Spike Lee, Nike, and Corporate Activism
In early September, Nike unveiled a new advertising campaign to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of its “Just Do It” motto, a slogan that still ranks as one of the most famous in advertising history.
“History is Knowledge, Identity, and Power”: Lerone Bennett Jr., 1928-2018
When I found out about Lerone Bennett, Jr’s passing, I was immediately struck by his sense of poetic timing. In life, Bennett had been an eloquent defender of Black history and a strident advocate for Black rights. His ability to turn a phrase was as obvious on the page as it was on the stage. As the senior editor and in-house historian of EBONY magazine, Bennett’s incisive commentary helped to popularize Black history among millions of dedicated readers.
Online Forum: W. E. B. Du Bois @ 150
Black Perspectives, the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), is hosting an online forum on W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) in recognition of the 150th anniversary of his birth. The forum on Du Bois’s sesquicentennial will reassess well-known works such as his book The Souls of Black Folk.
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