Early Black Media, 1918–1924

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Jane L. Chapman

   Pages 1-15

3. Organisational Outlooks and Barriers to Publishing

   • Jane L. Chapman

   Pages 17-39

4. Individual Voices: Journalistic Records

   • Jane L. Chapman

   Pages 41-64

5. Conclusions and Postscript: Legacy and Memory

   • Jane L. Chapman

   Pages 65-71

6. Back Matter

   Pages 73-80

   PDF

This book represents the first systematic attempt to analyse media and public communications published in Britain by people of African and Afro-Caribbean origin during the aftermaths of war, presenting an in-depth study of print publications for the period 1919-1924. This was a period of post-conflict readjustment that experienced a transnational surge in special interest newspapers and periodicals, including visual discourse.
 
This study provides evidence that the aftermath of war needs to be given more attention as a distinctly defined period of post-conflict adjustment in which individual voices should be highlighted. As such it forms part of a continuing imperative to re-discover and recuperate black history, adding to the body of research on the aftermaths of The First World War, black studies, and the origins of diaspora.


Jane L. Chapman analyses how the newspapers of black communities act as a record of conflict memory, andspecifically how physical and political oppression was understood by members of the African Caribbean community. Pioneering black activist journalism demonstrates opinions on either empowerment or disempowerment, visibility, self-esteem, and economic struggles for survival.

• diaspora
• Great War
• 'cultural citizenship'
• First World War
• race

“One of the central contributions of Early Black Media is its specificity. Chapman offers … insight into both the racialized perspective of mainstream publications and the developing race consciousness evident in African and Afro-Caribbean periodicals. Chapman’s focus on the period from 1919 to 1924 allows her to trace the relationship between the British press and the media that emerged simultaneously in other national contexts, supporting her claim that Black consciousness developed as a transnational phenomenon.” (Caryn Murphy,Journal of British Studies, Vol. 60 (3), July, 2021)

• University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK

  Jane L. Chapman

Jane L. Chapman is Professor of Communications at Lincoln University, UK, and Research Associate at Wolfson College, Cambridge. She has authored thirteen books, and more than 30 articles and book chapters, as well as regularly managing and peer reviewing many UK Research Council funded grants since 2007. She is an editorial board member for several international journals, and shared the 2017 Colby Prize for Victorian Literature. 

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