Certain People (21 page)

This new class, Frazier said, had no economic or cultural base. They had “sloughed off the genteel tradition of the small upper class,” and had similarly rejected “the folk culture of the Negro masses.” Lacking “cultural roots in either the Negro world with which it refuses to identify, or the white world,” which refused to let the black bourgeoisie share its life, “most black bourgeoisie live in a cultural vacuum and their lives are devoted largely to fatuities.” Frazier concluded, “The black bourgeoisie suffers from ‘nothingness' because when Negroes attain middle-class status, their lives generally lose both content and significance.” It was a stinging indictment and, it must be admitted, important parts of Frazier's 1957 thesis still stand, particularly as they pertain to certain segments of the new middle class. Professor Frazier, however, failed to mention that new-rich whites are often just as guilty of imitative vulgarity and conspicuous spending. And his is a rather limited definition of what social “class” consists of in America. Class is not simply defined by money, material possessions, or even manners. It is more a matter of self-assurance, dignity, and a commonality of interests within a common organization. In any social class—high, low, or middle—there must be give-and-take. But, in the end, an upper class emerges from people who have the deepest and most solid feelings of their own self-worth, and of the worth of their similarly situated and similarly thinking peers.

Professor Frazier claimed that black attitudes were sustained by two “myths”—the myth of black business, and the myth of black society. These myths, he asserted, were both created and promulgated by the black press. It is an interesting notion, and bears some looking into. The first black newspaper,
Freedom's Journal
, was founded in 1827 by two free blacks, one of whom, John Russworm, was the first black to be graduated from an American college. Twenty years later, Frederick Douglass's
North Star
—later renamed
Frederick Douglass's Paper
—appeared. Both these newspapers were essentially Abolitionist tracts, aimed at white as well as black readers, and concentrated on reports of mistreatment and injustice to blacks in the South. After the Civil War, a number of black newspapers came into existence, particularly after 1880, when blacks began migrating from the South to Northern cities. By 1900, the two most influential black newspapers were the
Guardian
, published by William Monroe Trotter, a Harvard
graduate, and the
New York Age
. The
Guardian
was a mouthpiece for Negro intellectuals, while the
New York Age
plumped for the theories of Booker T. Washington, who wanted to build a strong black labor force.

In 1905, the Chicago
Defender
appeared—first as a simple handbill. By 1910, however, the
Defender
was appearing regularly and, at first, the paper concentrated on sensationalism to attract readers. But by the end of the first World War, the
Defender
had become the leading black voice in the country. Due, in large part, to the huge migration of blacks to Chicago, the
Defender
's circulation reached 100,000 by 1922. The
Defender
was also one of the primary causes for this migration, because the
Defender
was the first of what would be many black publications that romanticized the scale of the opportunities—business and educational—that blacks could find in the big Northern cities. To the poor black in the South reading the
Defender
, Chicago sounded like a second Eden. In Chicago, he was told, life was fast, rich and stimulating. Good-paying jobs were to be had. There were superb schools and colleges for his children. In Chicago, blacks owned their own homes and automobiles—some employed white chauffeurs—and there was a gay social life in opulent restaurants and at lavish private parties. In the
Defender
's pages, Chicago was advertised as the Land of Milk and Honey, and the
Defender
received thousands of letters a week from rural blacks asking nothing more than how to get to Chicago. When they got there, of course, they often found something quite different as they crowded the city's relief rolls.

Between World War I and World War II, dozens of new black newspapers came into existence, most of them published in big cities, and most of them dealing with city life. By 1943, there were 164 active black newspapers, most of them published in large cities with black populations of 50,000 or more. Nearly all were weeklies, and they had a combined circulation-per-issue of close to 2,000,000. During World War II, three new important black news organs appeared—the Pittsburgh
Courier
, with a weekly circulation of about 270,000; the Baltimore
Afro-American
, with 230,000; and the Norfolk, Virginia,
Journal and Guide
, with 78,000. The Chicago
Defender
, meanwhile, held strong with a circulation of 160,000. In 1956, the
Defender
became a daily and instituted a national edition that circulates throughout the country. As black newspapers proliferated, black newsgathering agencies came into existence, the most important of
which is the Associated Negro Press, which was established in 1919. All these newspapers, to entice their readers, covered international and national affairs only in a way that had a black “slant.” During the Korean War, for example, less attention was paid to the defeats and victories—or even to the cause—of the war itself than to the heroic deeds of certain black soldiers. From the slant, it was possible to get a slanted view—that all black soldiers were shining heroes, for example. What readers were reading was often less news than it was romantic fiction and escape literature.

In 1945, John Johnson's
Ebony
appeared, and it gradually became the most influential black news magazine in the country. Though John Johnson originally intended his publication to be one that chronicled the lives of “ordinary” black men and women, it has become something a little different, which undoubtedly accounts for
Ebony
's success and for the fact that the Johnsons who own it have become very rich. It is easy to fault
Ebony
. It is often sloppily edited, and few issues are without a number of typographical errors. There are errors of syntax too, as well as errors of plain fact. Also,
Ebony
can be accused of being a bit parochial. Published in Chicago, it pays a great deal of attention to Chicago people, their lives and doings. But it is the quality of life reflected in
Ebony
that is most interesting.

Ebony
also publishes “The Ebony Success Library,” which includes such volumes as
1,000 Successful Blacks
, and
Famous Blacks Give Secrets of Success
. Success is
Ebony
's theme, and it is nothing if not inspirational. It has become, in other words, a magazine devoted to the black achiever, the
extraordinary
black. In the pages of
Ebony
, success is romanticized and glamorized, given an extra coat of luster and excitement. Everything in
Ebony
is heightened, and the magazine abounds in adjectives and superlatives. A Chicago doctor is described as a “brilliant” surgeon. A young economist with a university post is described as “world-renowned,” and a lawyer is “internationally famous.” Nikki Giovanni, generally recognized as one of the best black poets, is called “extraordinarily famous.” A California couple—she a schoolteacher and he the director of a boys' camp—are written up in
Ebony
in terms of their “beautiful” home with its “spacious bar.” Actually, in the accompanying photographs, the house looks like an attractive but modest California bungalow and the den looks hardly spacious but rather cluttered and crowded. A Harlem couple have fled the city to enjoy “the affluent good life” of a Westchester suburb, and their Irvington home is also “spacious”—though, in the
photographs, the house looks on the small side. The Irvington couple,
Ebony
points out, have white neighbors who treat them nicely.

People whom
Ebony
writes up are nearly all, it would seem, “executives” or “highly paid executives.”
Ebony
—as well as its readers, one assumes—has an obsessive interest in salaries. This or that prominent “executive” in an accounting firm earns $35,000 a year. Another earns $80,000 a year. In higher brackets, men are simply “millionaires” or “multimillionaires.”
Ebony
is equally interested in what people pay for things, particularly houses, and every piece of black real estate is provided with its price tag. (The Irvington couple, for example, live “in a neighborhood of $100,000 homes.”) Other possessions are listed. If a man “drives a Cadillac,” that fact is noted. Another couple has two Cadillacs and a custom-built Mercedes. Still another man drives a $27,000 Rolls-Royce. If a man has bought his wife a $25,000 diamond necklace,
Ebony
reports that fact, along with what she pays for her clothes and he pays for custom-made shoes at “world-famous Peel's of London.” In the pages of
Ebony
, all men are “dapperly dressed,” all women are “chic,” and all living rooms are “elegant.” (
Ebony
also always counts the rooms of houses.) Perhaps
Ebony
's emphasis is an extension of John Johnson's personal philosophy, but the message emerges that “success” is measured in money and possessions.

Ebony
devotes a good deal of space to black Society, to its parties and charitable doings.
Ebony
also chronicles the successes of black entertainers. To upper-crust and even middle-class blacks, the entertainers exist on an interesting social stratum all their own. Blacks are proud of their entertainers; most, after all, are attractive-looking people and make decorative additions at parties. Also, most are people with proven talent. And yet a distinction is drawn between people like Marian Anderson and Mattiwilda Dobbs, who are opera singers, and such people as Diana Ross, a pop singer. An upper-crust black mother would much prefer her daughter to study opera, ballet, or concert piano to having her sing with a rock group or dance in a Broadway musical. This was exactly Charlotte Hawkins Brown's attitude when her niece married Nat “King” Cole—he was a “popular” performer, who sang in nightclubs. He was not even Paul Robeson, who performed in Shakespeare. It is an attitude currently expressed by Mrs. Winston Willoughby of Washington, who, talking of a recent Washington party, commented, “Pearl Bailey was there—big deal!” She would be a very big deal, of course, at a white party.

Charlotte Hawkins Brown would have been even more aghast had her niece wanted to marry Roy Campanella or Joe Louis. The black upper crust is much less proud of its professional athletes. Partly, it is because the athletes are assumed to be people who have made a great deal of money through the sheer good luck of having been born with long legs or strong arms, who have needed no education and possess no artistic talent. Many black athletes, furthermore, have “made their way up from the street,” and have few of what are considered the social graces. Also, the number of blacks who have become successful athletes are a somewhat painful reminder of one of the cliché beliefs which whites have expressed about blacks—that they have “a natural ability” at sports, just as they are supposed to have “natural rhythm.”

In
Ebony
's
1,000 Successful Blacks
(actually a biographical listing of a little over 1,100 names), which is sort of a black
Who's Who
, there are sketches of a number of entertainers. Only a smattering of black athletes is listed, including Althea Gibson, Hank Aaron, Vida Blue, Arthur Ashe, and Willie Mays. But where are O. J. Simpson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Roy Campanella, Oscar Robertson, John Brockington, Joe Frazier, Frank Robinson, and Sugar Ray? Apparently,
Ebony
's editors considered none of these athletes sufficiently “successful” for inclusion in the book. Every year,
Ebony
publishes another, smaller list,
The 100 Most Influential Black Americans
. The criteria for inclusion in this list are, according to
Ebony
, “Does the individual affect, in a decisive way, the lives, thinking and actions of large segments of the nation's black population? Does the individual command widespread national influence among blacks, and/or is the nominee usually influential with those whites whose policies and practices significantly affect a large number of blacks?” There are no entertainers, and no athletes, it seems, who meet these criteria, for there are none among the “100 Most Influential.”

Perhaps the most exclusive and prestigious list is contained in
Ebony
's
Famous Blacks Give Secrets of Success
. There are only seventy-two names on the “Famous” list, and each listee is given a fairly extensive biography. (Interestingly enough,
Ebony
's publisher, John Johnson, is given a six-page profile, while only four pages are devoted to Thurgood Marshall.) The sketches are arranged in alphabetical order, from Milton B. Allen, state's attorney for the city of Baltimore, to Andrew Young, Jr., Congressman from Georgia. Of the seventy-two, a healthy majority of forty-one are either businessmen, politicians, judges, doctors, educators, clergymen, lawyers, or civil
servants. Fifteen are entertainers. Two are members of the military—Major General Daniel James, Jr., Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Rear Admiral Samuel L. Gravely, Jr., the first black admiral in the United States Navy. There are only two black athletes—Wilt Chamberlain, perhaps because he is a college graduate, and George Foreman, perhaps because he was an Olympic Gold Medalist or because, as
Ebony
points out, he is now a “businessman” as well as a prizefighter.

Incredibly, the man who is probably the most famous black in the world today, Muhammad Ali, is not included among the “Famous” (surely he is more famous than John H. Johnson). In George Foreman's sketch, furthermore, Foreman is permitted to make a slurring reference to Ali and his penchant for making speeches. “Ali is qualified to explain physical fitness,” says Foreman, “but not philosophy. To make statements, I think, is the job of intellectuals, not athletes.” Muhammad Ali is probably also more successful and has made more money, than John Johnson. But he is not even included in
1,000 Successful Blacks
. He is probably more philanthropic. “One of the problems with Ali,” says his business manager, Eugene Dibble, “is keeping him from giving all his money away, and trying to get him to build up an estate for his children.” The former Cassius Clay is also probably more devoutly religious. He wanted to give the entire purse from his fight with Foreman to the Nation of Islam, to which he is a celebrated convert (instead, under Mr. Dibble's guidance, the $5,000,000—considerably reduced by taxes—went into a couple of high-rise apartment houses in Chicago). True, he once went to jail-but for a cause many people found admirable.