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[ 3 ] The Quest to Cover Our Fighting Men In August 1914, Carl James Murphy boarded the steamship Bremen in Baltimore , bound for the University of Jena in Germany. Soon after he arrived, he turned his attention to the tense situation in Europe, where the world was on the verge of its first major war. The Afro-American ran his letters home as front-page stories. Murphy was not a journalist but a traveler and an instructor of German. As the son of John H. Murphy Sr., the former slave who founded and published the newspaper,1 he had the resources to travel abroad to further his education. Murphy’s articles took the reader to Old World cities as he traveled by rail through Germany.2 They learned that he was treated well everywhere he traveled. They also read his views of the impact of developments in Europe on people of color, including the participation of darker peoples in the brewing conflict. In one story, Murphy wrote that he and other “prominent personages ” of color were among the 150,000 Americans whose travel in Europe was restricted.3 In September, The Afro-American reported that soldiers of color were fighting valiantly for France and England. When Murphy returned from Germany, he had an interesting take on the war in Europe. In an article published on October 4, 1914, he stated that Germany would “ultimately win this war” and that media reports did “not fairly represent Germany.”4 He based his assertions on the fact that Germany had ten million men “ready to fight,” stating that the Indian people under Great Britain’s rule “would revolt against England, if they knew the real conditions.”5 As had black correspondents before him, Murphy criticized the subjugation of a darker nation by a European power. This theme would continue in African American foreign correspondence for decades. Based in Baltimore, The Afro-American was an influential publication when the war began. The weekly newspaper had made a commitment at its incep- the quest to cover our fighting men 41 tion in 1892 to be a voice for blacks and to uplift the race. Four years later, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson established the doctrine of separate but equal and effectively made segregation the law of the land. In the face of ongoing racial exclusion and degradation, The Afro-American challenged inequities and sought to advance the race. Its pages brimmed with news and commentary about the condition of blacks and criticism of the dominant power structure. The newspaper recognized the impact of international affairs on the black community in the United States, signaled by the prominence it gave to Carl Murphy’s articles. Four years would pass before another black journalist reported from abroad, but that was not because the press had lost interest. As soon as the United States entered World War I, The Afro-American focused on black servicemen as they prepared for war. The emphasis was on how troops were faring at army training camps now that the U.S. military allowed them to serve. The publication advocated for African American rights and protested American policies. A July 7, 1917, piece compared the United States unfavorably to France because America did not allow blacks in military academies but had bowed to pressure and established a segregated training camp. In another editorial the newspaper argued that the “success of the cause of the Allies should not only be [blacks’] fervent wish, but also the triumph . . . of the real principles of democracy.”6 Letters from “Our Boys” When black troops finally went to war, The Afro-American, the Chicago Defender , and other black publications were unable to report directly from overseas . They reprinted articles from white dailies that had correspondents on the ground, or they printed the letters of black soldiers. (Some soldieries wrote directly to the newspapers; others wrote to loved ones who sent their letters to the publications.)7 Foreign coverage overwhelmingly highlighted the accomplishments of soldiers. On May 24, 1918, The Afro-American reprinted an article from an unidentified newspaper highlighting “the fine heroism of two Negro soldiers who, although wounded, beat off a raiding party of twenty-five Germans, killing and wounding five of them in a fierce hand to hand fight.”8 Two months later, another reprinted dispatch revealed that black troops in France had “held their lines well” when they “participated in the American [18.119.111.9] Project MUSE (2024...

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