Introducing (again), The Associated Negro Press
- Details
- Category: Business
- Published: Saturday, 16 May 2015 20:23
- Written by Urban Community Research
by Urban Community Research
On Sunday, March 3, 1919, the Associated Negro Press (ANP), the first national news services for African Americans, was established. Yeah that's right, there was an entity called the 'Associated Negro Press.'
The Associated Negro Press was the oldest and largest Black press service in the United States.
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Founded in Chicago in 1919 by Claude A. Barnett, a young Black entrepreneur who remained its director for the next four and a half decades.
The Associated Negro Press supplied news stories, opinion columns, feature essays, and reviews of books and movies to black newspapers throughout the country.
Claude Albert Barnett, entrepreneur and founder of the Associated Negro Press (1919-1967), was born in Sanford, Florida, right again,,, THAT Sanford, Florida, to William Barnett and Celena Anderson. At nine months he was brought to Mattoon, Illinois to live with his maternal grandmother. Barnett grew up in Illinois, attending schools in Oak Park and Chicago. In 1904 he entered Tuskegee Institute, yes, an HBCU. Two years later in 1906 he received a diploma and was granted the Institute's highest award.
See more about Claude A. Barnett at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/barnett-claude-albert-1889-1967#sthash.ACkvYClL.dpuf
related: BootStrapping The Central Florida Black Community: Prologue
The Associated Negro Press's service enabled its membership, which included nearly all of the major Black newspapers in the United States as well as many of the smaller ones, to offer their readers detailed coverage of activities within Black communities across the country.
Barnett's contacts with Blacks and whites from all communities generated a rich and varied correspondence that was unique. Barnett retired in 1964, selling the business. Barnett died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1967, and the Associated Negro Press also ceased to exist not too many years afterward.
The Associated Negro Press remained unsurpassed during its time because it gave the Black viewpoint and interpretation of the Black activities gathered and written together by Blacks. The idea is still a good one and is needed communicate Black interest stories and events to the Black population.
Multimedia consolidation by huge corporate conglomerates, and lack of access to capital are just two of the challenges making it tough to get a foothold in ownership.
Discriminatory practices in the banking industry and in main stream media is still prevalent and it is near impossible for today's independent owners to survive.
Blacks own less than one percent of full power commercial television stations and less than three percent of commercial radio stations, and printed paper distribution is even less, yet they make up nearly 13 percent of the total US population.
The main stream media continues to ignore the Black community except in instances where it fits their own agendas. Media is an awesome force in our society. It shapes minds and affects the dreams and visions of our children and our future. We must take control of our news and we must create in society the true image of ourselves. #bootstrappingblackpeople