The 1930s were the “Wild West” of media. As the traditional city press clubs crumbled, two very different worlds emerged: the Black Press, which became a powerful engine for civil rights, and a mainstream media landscape rife with “Fake News” and propaganda.
1. The Black Press: The “Racial Watchdog”
While white-owned newspapers often ignored or criminalized Black communities, the Black Press acted as a lifeline. The most famous was the Chicago Defender, which reached a massive national audience by using Pullman porters to smuggle papers into the South.
- FDR: A Mixed Record: Initially, the Defender and its founder, Robert Abbott, were deeply skeptical of the New Deal. They criticized FDR for:
- Excluding Black Workers: Many public works projects (like the TVA) initially refused to hire skilled Black labor.
- Social Security Gaps: The original law excluded domestic and agricultural workers—professions held by the vast majority of Black Americans at the time.
- The “Double V” Campaign: This era laid the groundwork for the later “Double V” campaign—Victory at home against racism and Victory abroad against fascism.
- The Defender’s Evolution: Over time, through the influence of figures like Mary McLeod Bethune (a member of FDR’s “Black Cabinet”), the paper successfully pressured the administration to integrate the postal service and provide better management roles for Black Americans.
2. “Fake News” and Propaganda in the 1930s
Long before the internet, the 1930s struggled with “alternative facts” and media manipulation.
The Hearst-Hitler Connection
Media mogul William Randolph Hearst (the inspiration for Citizen Kane) used his massive empire of newspapers to push personal and political agendas.
- Propaganda: In the mid-1930s, Hearst struck a deal to use his newsreels and papers to portray Nazi Germany in a positive light, seeing it as a “miracle of progress” compared to the Depression-era U.S.
- Labor Smears: During the great labor strikes of 1934, Hearst papers famously branded strikers as “communist agitators” and “radicals,” using sensationalist headlines to incite fear and justify police violence.
The “War of the Worlds” Panic (1938)
On Halloween 1938, Orson Welles broadcast a radio play about a Martian invasion.
- The “Fake News” Legend: Newspapers the next morning screamed headlines like “Radio Listeners in Panic!” * The Reality: Modern historians believe the “mass panic” was largely exaggerated by newspapers. They wanted to prove that radio was “dangerous” and “unreliable” compared to the “sober” printed word—a calculated move in the ongoing Press-Radio War.
3. The Federal Writers’ Project: Saving American Voice
The New Deal didn’t just give journalists jobs; it saved the history of the marginalized.
| Famous Author | Their FWP Work | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Wright | Wrote “The Negro in Chicago” | Documented the urban Black experience for the first time. |
| Zora Neale Hurston | Collected Florida folklore | Preserved oral traditions that were disappearing. |
| Ralph Ellison | Collected stories in NYC | Informed his masterpiece, Invisible Man. |
The Evolution of the Newsroom
The 1930s forced the media to “grow up.” By 1939, the industry had moved from the rowdy, drunken atmosphere of the old city press clubs to a world of unions (The Guild), professional standards, and government-sponsored history.