Ted Poston : pioneer American journalist / Kathleen A. Hauke.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hauke, Kathleen A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Poston, Ted, 1906-1974.

Poston, Ted.

Journalists--United States--Biography.

Journalists.

United States.

African American journalists--Biography.

African American journalists.

United States--Race relations.

Race relations.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiii, 326 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Athens : University of Georgia Press, [1998]

Summary:

Ted Poston: Pioneer American Journalist is the life story of the first African American reporter to spend his career at a mainstream daily. After college Ted Poston (1906-1974) worked as a railroad porter but soon found his calling in journalism, first as a columnist for the black weekly Pittsburgh Courier and later as city editor of Harlem's premier black newspaper, the Amsterdam News. In 1932 he traveled to Russia with Langston Hughes to make a film on American racism, and in 1935 he helped Heywood Broun create the American Newspaper Guild and was fired for unionizing the Amsterdam. That same year, wielding only words and a typewriter, he finally broke the color barrier in journalism by integrating the New York Post.

During World War II Poston became a member of Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet" when he headed the Negro News Desk of the Office of War Information in Washington. After the war, he returned to the Post, and in its heyday under editor James Wechsler and publisher Dorothy Schiff, he provided an insider's viewpoint on segregation and the civil rights movement. His incisive, usually upbeat, sometimes acerbic reports on everyday racism were eye-openers for the paper's mostly white readership; often, he leavened bitter medicine with humor.

Poston's tragicomic tales of his Kentucky youth were published posthumously as The Dark Side of Hopkinsville, but he never wrote about his groundbreaking career. Kathleen A. Hauke is the first to tell the full story of his remarkable life, using exclusive interviews with his family, friends, and colleagues to create an inspiring portrait of an African American journalist.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-304) and index.

ISBN:

082032020X

OCLC:

39085466