Anacostia Community Museum Archives

New Negro Opinion Newspaper

Summary

Collection ID:
ACMA.10-012.3
Dates:
1933-1935
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
1.67 Linear feet
1 oversize box
Repository:
This collection of
New Negro
Opinion
newspapers spans from December 16, 1933 to April 18, 1935, and measures 1.67 linear feet. The Washington, DC-based paper was published weekly by the New Negro Alliance, which was established in 1933 by John Aubrey Davis, Belford V. Lawson, and M. Franklin Thorne to protest discrimination in employment practices in stores doing business in black neighborhoods. William H. Hastie, the first African American federal judge served as the assistant editor and a columnist for the weekly.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is arranged into two series.
Series 1: December 1933 - December 1934
Series 2: January 1935-April 1935

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
John Aubrey Davis, Belford V. Lawson, and M. Franklin Thorne established the New Negro Alliance in 1933 to protest discrimination in employment practices in stores doing business in black neighborhoods. On August 28th of that year, the manager of the Hamburger Grill on U Street in the District of Columbia fired his all black staff and replaced them with whites. Black customers, led by Washingtonian John Aubrey Davis maintain a boycott and picketed until the manager relented and brought the black workers back—with an increase in pay and a reduction in hours.
After the Hamburger Grill, their campaigns targeted the A&P grocery stores, the High Ice Cream Company, Peoples Drug Store, Kaufman's Department Store, and finally, the Sanitary Grocery Company (later Safeway grocery stores)—which led them all the way to the Supreme Court. Mary Church Terrell, Mary McLeod Bethune, and many other prominent black Washingtonians joined the picket lines. Walter E. Washington, later the first black mayor of the city, Eugene Davidson (later head of the D.C. NAACP), Howard University professor N. Naylor Fitzhugh, John Aubrey Davis, attorney Belford V. Lawson, Jr., M. Franklin Thorne (later manager of Langston Terrace housing project), R. Grayson McGuire (owner of the McGuire family funeral homes), and Robert C. Weaver were among the leaders of the New Negro Alliance.
The organization's tactics were unique. The Alliance conducted survey research in the neighborhoods surrounding a retail store that did not hire black employees. They then shared their research findings with the store managers, and requested that hiring policies be changed to hire the same percentage of black employees as there were customers. If the store refused, the Alliance would begin a community education campaign, distributing literature that explained their demands. Finally, if the store still refused to meet their demands they would organize a picket line and a boycott of the store by all those who supported an end to the exclusion of black employees.

Administration

Author
ACMA Staff
Processing Information
Inventory by Olubunmi Bakare, August 2017.
Machine-readable finding aid completed by Jennifer Morris September 2018.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist at ACMarchives@si.edu
Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Preferred Citation
Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
African American newspapers Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
African Americans -- Employment Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Civil rights -- United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Washington (D.C.) Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hastie, William, 1904-1976 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Anacostia Community Museum Archives
1901 Fort Place, SE
Washington, D.C. 20020
Business Number: Phone: 202-633-4853
ACMArchives@si.edu