In December 1942, a black man named Warren H. Brown denounced black newspapers in a Saturday Review of Literature editorial. Brown, director of Negro relations for the Council for Democracy, argued that blacks came in two molds, “Negroes and sensation-mongering Negro leaders.” To his discomfort, the latter controlled black newspapers. He believed the “agitators” provided whites an inaccurate portrait of the Negro. These newspapers painted blacks as hungry and thoroughly frustrated with what America served them. When the black man peeked over at the white man’s plate, he saw something far more appetizing.

Brown, however, depicted a satisfied lot, believing that “despite his sometimes snail’s-pace progress, the Negro knows that in America – for the long pull – he can’t lose.” Brown was dismayed that black newspapermen excluded this positive picture from their work. In his estimation, these newspapers aggravated racial hostility by portraying blacks as discontent and “Negro first and American second.” Brown implored black newspapers to change the images they disseminated and solicited his people to boycott these publications for their “venomous, hate-making policies.”

But black newspapers, not Brown, best captured the likeness of black people. Indeed, blacks endorsed their newspapers’ sharp criticisms of America. Reacting to Brown’s editorial, the Negro Digest polled blacks, finding that 86 percent of respondents felt that their newspapers represented their views. The monthly reported, in fact, that many wished the black press was even more aggressive.