Robin Hayes
4
American community. Although the black press is similar
to dominant media organizations in their concern about
profitability as well as our ability to affect our sense of
collective identity and perceptions of events, it also has
characteristics that are specific to its position as an
institution indigenous to the African American community.
The black press is an advocacy institution that openly
condemns white supremacist practices and institutions
despite the mandate for news outlets to remain “objective.”
In addition, black press organizations draw upon an
indigenous repertoire of cultural symbols and narratives,
which include master injustice frames that provide
guidelines for anti-racist philosophies and protest
activities, to provide information to their African
American audiences. Black press publications use these
master injustice frames as standards to evaluate the
legitimacy of the claims and work of social movements in
the African diaspora.
This paper employs the research methods of in-depth
interview, content analysis and critical analysis to
examine how the Baltimore Afro-American, New York Amsterdam
News and Chicago Defender portrayed African independence
and black power organizations between 1957 and 1971. The
Afro, Amsterdam and Defender were the three most widely
Convention