Black print with a white carnation : Mildred Brown and the Omaha star newspaper, 1938-1989 / Amy Helene Forss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forss, Amy Helene.

Series:

Women in the West

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Brown, Mildred Dee, 1905-1989.

Brown, Mildred Dee.

African American women newspaper editors--Nebraska--Omaha--Biography.

African American women newspaper editors.

Newspaper editors--Nebraska--Omaha--Biography.

Newspaper editors.

African American newspapers--Nebraska--Omaha.

African American newspapers.

Omaha star.

Nebraska--Omaha.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xii, 241 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2013]

Summary:

"Mildred Dee Brown (1905-89) was the cofounder of Nebraska's Omaha Star, the longest running black newspaper founded by an African American woman in the United States. Known for her trademark white carnation corsage, Brown was the matriarch of Omaha's Near North Side--a historically black part of town--and an iconic city leader. Her remarkable life, a product of the Reconstruction era and Jim Crow, reflects a larger American history that includes the Great Migration, the Red Scare of the post-World War era, civil rights and black power movements, desegregation, and urban renewal. Within the context of African American and women's history studies, Amy Helene Forss's Black Print with a White Carnation examines the impact of the black press through the narrative of Brown's life and work. Forss draws on more than 150 oral histories, numerous black newspapers, and government documents to illuminate African American history during the political and social upheaval of the twentieth century. During Brown's fifty-one-year tenure, the Omaha Star became a channel of communication between black and white residents of the city, as well as an arena for positive weekly news in the black community. Brown and her newspaper led successful challenges to racial discrimination, unfair employment practices, restrictive housing covenants, and a segregated public school system, placing the woman with the white carnation at the center of America's changing racial landscape. "-- Provided by publisher.

"A biography of Mildred Dee Brown, cofounder of the "Omaha Star," the longest-running African American newspaper founded by a black woman"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part 1 Laying the Foundation

1 A Family of Fighters 21

2 Involving the Community 43

3 Politics of Respectability 59

Part 2 Ensuring Her Success

4 Working within Her Space 83

5 Collective Activism and the De Porres Club 101

6 Restricted Housing and 'Rithmetic 123

Part 3 Transferring Ownership to the Community

7 Changing Strategies for Changing Times 143

8 The Death of an Icon 165.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780803246904

0803246900

OCLC:

839395869