I was on my way out of the auction house, having seen nothing I wanted to buy, when I decided to stop and browse at three tables near the door. The last table held flat boxes of sheet music, black and white movie star photos and sundry other items. At the far end, I spotted a bright green cover on what I assumed was more sheet music. When I got closer, I saw that it was not.
It was a publication that had the look of a newspaper rather than a glossy magazine. What also caught my eye was the black and white cutout photo of an African American woman in a bathing suit in the center of the page. Click the photo for a full view of the cover.
Above her head was the subtitle for the magazine …
“The Negro Photo-News For All The People. 10 cents”
… and beneath her feet were the name and publication date:
“Candid. August ’38”
The bottom of the magazine had water damage, and had turned wavy and slightly aged. Inside were page after page with text of African Americans enjoying themselves, along with pointed political commentary. The monthly magazine was published in Wilmington, DE, and covered that state, Philadelphia and other nearby Pennsylvania towns, New Jersey and Maryland.
Candid, as stated in its preface, “purposes to shine – and by its shining to illuminate the news affecting all sectors of current Negro life within its range. … It will be independent in news and commentary, portraying the facts without fear and presenting its opinions as candor and justice dictate.”
This was not the first news magazine I had come across in the last few months aimed at an African American audience in the 1930s. In February, I stumbled upon an issue of Flash magazine, a weekly news photo magazine founded in 1937. The magazine offered news, sports, entertainment and society news about Washington (where it was based), Baltimore, New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago. It closed in August 1939.
Both of these magazines came years before John H. and Eunice Johnson created Negro Digest (1942) followed by the much-heralded Ebony (1945), which presented the positive side of black life.
When the Johnsons founded Jet magazine in 1951, they called it the “Negro Weekly News Magazine.” The small-format mag provided news, sports, entertainment, music, society news and more. A national magazine, it surpassed the former magazines in popularity and longevity.
In his 1944 book “An American Dilemma, the Negro Problem and Modern Democracy,” Gunnar Myrdal noted that there were 210 weekly, semi-weekly or bi-weekly black newspapers. Some were general newspapers local to their areas, and others were published by religious and other organizations. There were 129 monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly magazines, with the NAACP’s Crisis as the predominant one.
A footnote in the book mentioned Flash, Candid and Silhouette, another monthly photo magazine that was still being published at that time. All were listed under magazines.
I found several mentions of the Silhouette Pictorial magazine – in the 1937 Negro Statistical Bulletin and a newspaper that listed the publisher as Edward Grubbs. One online bookstore with a copy of Vol. 1, No. 1 from April 1938 described it as a movie magazine.
Even before any of them, Fay M. Jackson of Los Angeles published her own weekly news magazine in 1928 and 1929. Also called Flash, it was said to be the first black news magazine on the West Coast. Some of her articles focused on African Americans in Hollywood. Jackson was also the first black Hollywood correspondent for the Associated Negro Press, which provided articles for more than 200 newspapers.
Here’s a sample of what Candid offered in this 1938 issue:
African Americans at Atlantic City beach
Four pages of photos of men and women lying in the sand, posing in the sand or sitting under umbrellas.
“Atlantic City, often referred to as the World’s Playground, was the scene of much gayety on this Sunday preceding the Fourth of July. This seashore resort, once the most popular of the watering places for the nation’s millions of Negroes, has, in recent years, fallen from grace to a large extent, and is only now beginning to assume its former place in the hearts of people.”
The photos were likely shot at Chicken Bone Beach, the African American beach in Atlantic City, which flourished from the 1930s to 1960s. Blacks had not always been corralled onto their own bit of sand; that began around 1900 when white hotel owners pushed them farther south of the city to appease some white guests. Beforehand, blacks and whites had sunned and frolicked together.
African Americans also came to Chicken Bone to see some of the top black entertainers, including Sammy Davis Jr. and Moms Mabley. The beach was actually the Missouri Avenue Beach, but got its more well-known name from the black vacationers who brought along fried chicken and other food. There is an historical marker at the site.
Candidly Speaking
A commentary on how African American voters would no longer be taken for granted by the Republican Party.
“It all began a short while back when there were those who, in addition to a multitude of other social and economic grievances, suddenly became tired of having their obligation to the late, revered Abraham Lincoln poured down their throats every political season, like sulphur and molasses in the spring. Nauseated, they pushed away the G.O.P. medicine spoon and tentatively reached for another bottle on the shelf labeled ‘New Deal Syrup.’ … The Negro, when he got a good taste, discovered that he mattered!”
Sulphur and molasses refers to a tonic administered each spring to cleanse the blood and the body after a long winter.
Negro Education Interscholastic Meet for adult students in the WPA (Works Progress Administration)
An awards program for adult students in five Texas counties. In the WPA Negro adult education program, black teachers taught subjects from literacy up to early college work. The high point of this awards program for outstanding students was two women in their 80s who had learned to read and write. Two historically black colleges offered scholarships to all adult teachers who wanted to work toward a degree.
In Candor
A commentary on the poor condition of black schools and the superintendent’s report calling for the construction of more schools for black and white children. The white schools were built, but the black schools were not. The writer also complained that only white apprentices would be allowed in the new vocational school, thereby eliminating any future black plumbers.
Philadelphia Loves Baseball
A game between the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Philadelphia All Stars (Philadelphia Stars) for the pennant in the National Negro League. Photos included Oscar Charleston of the Crawfords (identified as manager of the team) and Jud Wilson of the Stars (identified as manager of the team). Both had been players for their respective teams. Wilson had played for both.
Hello,
Thank you so much for posting this most important piece of “Negro History” I’m calling it what it is because as an African American myself I collect Ephemera on Negro History. I’ve heard of Silhouette Magazine but have never seen an image. I had no knowledge of Flash or Candid Magazine from the 1930s focusing on the Negro!
Your finds and postings are valuable resources, confirmations of our place and perspective in History, as told and recorded by us!
The sad truth is that there are little or no such publications today compared to the volume of print production generated in the early part of the 20th century by Negro’s determined to “tell their own story” in their own words..
Ebony/Jet/Tan/Negro Digest & Hue Magazines died on or before the death of publisher John H. Johnson based here in Chicago. Other major news worthy competitors like Color Magazine, Sepia Magazine & Our World Magazine had readership success and best circulation in the late 1940s through the 1950s.
Other pocket magazines focusing on the Negro like Our Life, The New Negro Review, Say & Brown magazines also saw their best readership during the 1950s.
The duty of the Griot’s in Africa is to be the source of historical knowledge related to tribal peoples. And to pass this great history from generation to generation through spoken word, story telling. These magazines and other printed matter provide a chronological record of people places and things in a manner that preserves and protects our great legacy as a people and our many contributions to America & the World.
In Appreciation,
Curt