African American Foreign Correspondents: A History

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments This book began as a result of a conversation that John “Jack” Maxwell Hamilton and I had when he was working on his history of American foreign reporting . Jack, who was dean of the Manship School of Mass Communication at the time, asked if I had ever heard of John “Rover” Jordan, an African American foreign war correspondent for the Norfolk Journal and Guide. Of course I had not, but my research on Jordan led to the discovery not only of black war correspondents, but numerous others who reported from all over the world. Jack and I wrote and published an article in American Journalism on some who wrote from abroad during World War II. Following that, he suggested I write what has become this book. My thanks, therefore, goes first to him for starting me on this journey. I also thank the Manship School and the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs at Louisiana State University for resources and other support that enabled me to travel to conduct research and present my findings. I am indebted to the graduate research assistants who spent numerous hours looking at microfilm, finding material about unheard of correspondents, locating and digesting news articles from abroad, and providing valuable input. A special thanks goes to Skye Chance Cooley, Benjamin Rex LaPoe, Cristina Mislan, and Masudul Biswas, who wrote articles with me based on our research, as well as Erica Taylor and Lyle Perkins. The Chicago Defender gave me access to the files of its foreign correspondents, and the archivists at The Afro-American and several libraries and research centers directed me to sources and assisted me after my visits. They include Michael Kluge and Beverly Cook of the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature of the Chicago Public Library, and the staff at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, the Peabody Collection at Hampton University, Morgan State University, the Chicago Historical Museum, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library. I owe my gratitude to them and to Raymond Boone, x acknowledgments a former editor and foreign correspondent for The Afro-American who now publishes the Richmond Free Press. Without his assistance, I would never have heard of or met William Worthy Jr., nor would I have learned so much about how and why the black press engaged in foreign news gathering. Finally, I thank my family members for their support and cheerleading, and for trying to provide a sense of balance as I devoted years to this book. African American Foreign Correspondents This page intentionally left blank ...