Year: 2014

Delaware has a strong collection of old newspapers available for historical and genealogical research.  These serials, including the city dailies in Wilmington and many weeklies in communities all over New Castle, Kent, and Sussex counties, provide an invaluable resource for those studying the past.  But, too, there is a seldom-used collection of African-American newspapers published by and for the Black community in the First State.

The Wilmington Herald Times was one of those.  Published every Friday in Wilmington in 1941 and 1942 by Eustace Gay, the weekly said it was “Delaware’s largest colored newspaper.”  In 1942 it became an edition of the Philadelphia Tribune, although Editor Gay continued his local responsibilities, covering the Delaware beat.

The Delaware Reporter, published by J. Alexis DuBois, was another product.  In the July 12, 1940, issue, it said it was “born today for the purpose of filling a long felt need, a newspaper in Wilmington and downstate that gives the essential news of the various activities of Colored people and their white friends . . .   Heretofore the space given to Colored people’s activities by the out-of-town papers and the daily, has been lamentably meager.  Too many of the interesting social, fraternal, religious, and political activities among the colored people of Delaware have remained unchronicled.  So the Delaware reporter comes to you today for the first time to publish some of the important news that its publisher can gather.”

There are other briefly published titles on microfilm reel 619 at the University of Delaware, including the Delaware Abolitionist, published by the Delaware Anti-Slavery Society, and “devoted to Emancipation in Delaware, which circulated in 1848.  The Advance, another Wilmington paper, was distributed around the turn-of-the-twentieth-century, the Delaware Spectator (1974-1975), Delaware Observer (1968) and the Front Page (1945) published by Eugene K. Ross,

Here are two examples of front-page news from the volumes.  The issue before the Wilmington City Council in December 1941 was the employment of African-Americans as city firefighters.  When the Board went on the record as favoring the appointment of African-American firefighters, the newspaper observed that the “startling pronouncement was a direct reversal of the former attitude.” Still, the city did say it might create a segregated firefighting unit. Hospital reform was the subject covered by the Delaware Reporter in July 1940 since the City lagged “far behind in its hospital provisions” for the African-American Community.    Of course, there was plenty of social, personal, civic, and family news, which a researcher will find helpful.

The nation’s large cities, places such as nearby Baltimore and Philadelphia, had strong, long-running  Black papers, providing unique coverage of interest to the community.  And while those papers sometimes covered Delaware, these broadsheets were based here, chronicling the local story.  Although their existence was brief, they are helpful products for understanding the past during the time they rolled off the printing press.

In the years subscribers received these titles, they provided a wealth of information as the editors and reporters worked to cover Delaware events of the day of interest to the Black community.  In those old pages are political and social news, obituaries, letters to the editor, and fresh insights.

These newspapers are found at the University of Delaware and microfilm reel 619.  If you need an African American newspaper from Delaware, check out these titles.

As a visiting scholar and member of the speakers’ bureau at the Delaware Humanities Forum, I lecture on several subjects examining the past in the First State.  The one on temperance and prohibition has received lots of attention lately, as organizations invite me to outline historical attempts to regulate the consumption of alcohol.  This subject often sparks a lively, engaging conversation about the “noble experiment.”

“Pass the Rum:  The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” explores the centuries-long attempt to regulate the consumption of alcohol from a Delaware perspective.  It’s a colorful period and we share the stories of rumrunners, moonshiners, bathtub gin, intriguing personalities, complicated First State Politics, organized crime, outgunned lawmen, and the temperance ladies.

Three Gun (Harold D.) Wilson was one of those intriguing personalities.  A Federal Prohibition Agent, he was sent here to try to keep the spigot turned off after local teetotalers demanded stronger enforcement. Hoping he would “be able to take the word bootlegger out of Delaware’s dictionary,” one Dover newspaper wished him well as he arrived.

But his efforts “rocked the first state” once he started swooping down on rum joints and raiding speakeasies while smashing stills and chasing rumrunners. After a 15-month stay in Wilmington, the orders came to move on to Nebraska.

While participating in a thought-provoking discussion at a downstate organization recently, some of the audience had an interest in investigating temperance and prohibition more deeply, so I promised to share some virtual resources.

The Medical Heritage Library, a digitally curated collaborative among some of the world’s leading medical libraries, provides free and open access to quality historical resources in medicine.  Several early works on alcoholism and temperance are found in this virtual collection of rare books, pamphlets, and journals, which are representative of centuries of increasing knowledge.

Google terms such as prohibition, temperance, alcohol, drunkenness and others.  You will find plenty of texts from earlier times to help you with your examination, including titles as such “The Cold-Waterman or a pocket companion for temperance” by Doctor Springwater (1832).  “Beer, its history and its economic value as National Beverage” by F. W. Salem (1880) is another one.

Three Gun (Harold D.) Wilson also published materials.  One was “Dry Laws and Wet Politicians,” published in 1922.  Another title with a strong Delaware perspective was “Dry Law Facts Not Fiction, 1890 – comparative facts – 1931 sensational dry fact, Delaware fact finder.  It was published by the Press of Kells in Newark, DE. In 1931.

Don’t forget the Wilmington Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Star.  The Google newspaper archive has made it available.