Nitty Gritty: A White Editor in Black Journalism - Hardcover

Burns, Ben

9780878058129: Nitty Gritty: A White Editor in Black Journalism

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0878058125 ISBN 13: 9780878058129

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, 1996

In Nitty Gritty one of America's most fascinating journalists details his place in the tough world of black publishing and documents the role of black publications in shaping racial pride, in protesting against discrimination, and in giving uplift to a huge segment of America's population.
But is a white editor able to direct a black magazine or newspaper? Can a white editor penetrate the black experience and transmit it to America?
For more than thirty years Ben Burns faced these challenges. As the first editor of Ebony and the first white editor of the Chicago Daily Defender he played an anomalous role. As editor of America's foremost publications targeted for black readership, which also included Jet, Sepia, and Duke, he struggled to bridge what seemed an impenetrable gulf between black and white thinking.
His long association with the African-American press had its origins in his early days as a leftist reporter for the Daily Worker. It took shape during the war years while he was working simultaneously as national editor of the Defender and as editor of Negro Digest, which was to become the first commercially successful black monthly. In recounting his editorial experiences, he details his sometimes uneasy association with his boss, John H. Johnson, the entrepreneur who with legendary success created Ebony from an initial investment of $500 and launched the corporate empire that became Johnson Publishing Company.

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From the Publisher:

A controversial journalist's experiences while working as editor for African American publications in Chicago.

From Booklist:

"If you associate with Negroes freely, people will assume you are a Negro," observes Burns, reflecting on the occasions he traveled, supped, and drank with black colleagues during his years as the national editor of the Daily Defender, an African American newspaper. Burns came to the paper in 1941, after spending the previous four years working on Communist dailies around the country. But, wouldn't the job require the reporter to identify with his readers? Sure enough, Burns confesses that he began to take offense at racial slurs, to experience pride in African American achievements, and, most telling, to feel guilt when blacks ran afoul of the law, similar to his feelings when Jews were in trouble with authorities--"It's bad for the Jews (or the Negroes)." Yet, as he relates, working for the black press was no bed of roses. In 1942 Burns as sole editor helped John H. Johnson launch Negro Digest but wasn't acknowledged until 1944. Later, working again with Johnson, he became the first editor of Ebony but eventually was fired. In 1957 Burns left journalism to work in public relations. He and a partner developed Duke, named after the suave and sophisticated Duke Ellington. It lasted six months. In 1962 Burns joyfully returned to the Defender as editor in chief but left in 1963 on accepting that his career in a black business in the turbulent '60s had become untenable. Burns doesn't seem bitter, naive at times and self-congratulatory, perhaps, but pleased to have done what he did and become who he is. It may not be PC, but it is black history. Bonnie Smothers

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