A emergência de um Novo Negro nas páginas do Chicago Defender (1915-1919)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to demonstrate how the notion of New Negro emerged on the pages of Chicago Defender newspaper during the Great Migration. Between 1915 and 1920, this periodical engaged in a campaign in favor of migration of southern black workers to the northern states. The Chicago Defender, besides advocating the rights of African-Americans, diffused positive images and representations of big cities like Chicago, New York, and Detroit as racism free spaces. On one hand, this black newspaper ran several headlines and articles revealing the atrocities of the racial violence in the American South. On the other hand, it attempted to picture the northern cities as places where black workers cold compete for jobs in a labor market free from racist practices. At this time, Chicago and New York attracted many black migrants, the journalists of Chicago Defender claimed that these cities were the promised land where the African-Americans would be included into American modernity. Through advertisings and articles, the black newspaper depicted the image of the modern black men and women, a new black citizen incorporated into American capitalism, representing the urban respectable black people in opposition to the degraded agrarian people of the poor American South.