1960: Reporting on the black 'metropolis'
A black man was still an invisible man in the world of white Chicago in 1960, seen as a problem or threat, if seen at all.
On May 22, 1960, the Chicago Sun-Times pierced that veil of invisibility with the first installment of a signal series "The Negro in Chicago," a fully rounded look at Chicago's African-American community.
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Chicago's black population, over half a million strong, was "a metropolis in itself," the series began. "What's behind this smoldering love affair between Negroes and the bustling metropolis on Lake Michigan? Chicago beckons -- through its steel mills, auto plants, packing houses, construction firms -- and Negroes come running, from dirt farms in Arkansas, cotton patches in Mississippi, rice fields in Louisiana."
The author was Fletcher Martin, an African-American reporter who knew firsthand the indignities suffered by black Chicagoans.
In those days, a reporter would call out "copy!" when he finished a story, and a copyboy would run up, grab the typed pages and deliver them to the city desk. But when Martin first called "copy," the copyboys never seemed to hear him. Only one copyboy, Harold Newchurch, who, like Martin, was black, responded.
An assistant editor saw what was happening. He turned to a white copyboy and said, "Boy, go over and get that copy. It's hot copy, and his is as important as anyone else's."