“I Am Interested in My People Too”:
The Political Development of a Southern Journalist, 1928-1931
Riding the rails as a Railway Mail Clerk bolstered Trezzvant Anderson’s journalism career and in 1930 he joined the ranks of other “high caliber” newsmen on the executive staff of the Associated Negro Press (ANP). Anderson introduced himself in a letter to William Pickens, fellow ANP executive and Field Secretary of the fastest growing civil rights organization in the country—the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was using the job as way to forge a career in journalism and told Pickens as much, writing: “In connection with my real labor as a Substitute Railway Postal Clerk I give my hand writing things for the ANP and several newspapers.” Anderson indicated that as a substitute clerk his travels “were not confined to any particular points,” and he had “the privilege to make numerous contacts in different places.” He believed he could help facilitate the NAACP’s growth in the South. “I am interested in my people too,” he asserted, “nowhere else is in as much need as my section of the country.” “If in any way I can help the work of your organization please call on me, and you would find a ready response”; he guaranteed . . . “I’ll roast them alive in my column.”1
Trezzvant Anderson intended to use journalism to make his mark. Throughout his career he would come to be known as a journalist who was fearless and reckless,
1 Letter, Trezzvant W. Anderson to William Pickens, 1930 December 25, Box G-146, Group 1, Charlotte
confident and arrogant, loyal and brutally frank. Between 1928 and 1931, he was not a household name but referred to himself as “the reporter who started at the top with the top contacts.”2 The dual nature of Anderson’s work as a railway mail clerk and journalist was unique insofar as it allowed him to collect news firsthand and distribute it. His writing during this period covered the NAACP, black fraternal orders, lynching, and judicial injustice and was instrumental in getting news about Charlotte into larger national newspapers. Anderson, fishing for an opportunity, contacted Pickens at a time when the NAACP was looking for a regional field secretary in the South.3 Although the position never materialized for Anderson, many other influential people in the black newspaper and civic leadership world took notice of his talent and recognized the benefit of his mobility as a railway mail clerk.
Henry Houston, founder and editor of The Charlotte Post, first recognized Anderson’s skill and in 1928 made him a featured contributor. As a Charlotte native, he founded the newspaper in 1925, promoted it as “the voice of the black community,” and aimed to attract readers throughout the Carolinas.4 Houston was moderate leader, who was a proud, self-made man who “never had but one job outside the newspaper
business.” He began in the industry as a young “‘devil’ or office boy” at the Southern Newspaper Union of Charlotte, a printing service that produced hundreds of regional
2 ‘Complete Biography of Trezzvant W. Anderson’ (Courier Roving Reporter), (4-page draft) Box 12,
Folder 10, Trezzvant W. Anderson Papers, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center.
3 Patricia Sullivan, Lift Every Voice and Sing: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement,
(New York, NY: The New Press, 2009), pg. 137; According to Sullivan, Pickens and Robert Bagnall, National Director of Branches, had just spent two consecutive springs, in 1928 and 1929, touring the South. They reported that the “old timidity” was gone and enthusiasm for the NAACP was growing, but they stressed that the board of directors “badly needed” to hire a full-time regional secretary to realize the potential of a strong NAACP presence throughout the region.
4 Roland E. Wolseley, The Black Press, U.S.A., (Ames, IA: Iowa State University, 1990), pg. 118
weeklies. “[F]or eighteen years” he worked there and “learned all about [newspaper] work.” Houston had little education beyond grade school but asserted, “that did not keep me from aspiring to make good in the world.”5 Houston ’s initiative and commitment to the local black community compelled him to establish the Charlotte Post. When
Anderson joined the staff in late 1927, the small newspaper operated out of a small- framed building behind Houston’s home at 624 East Second Street. By 1930, Anderson reported the Post “owns a one-cylinder press, two job presses, and other equipment, which is totally paid for.”6 He asserted that it was during those years, as a “young man,” he “learned to truly evaluate Houston and know what the Negro newspaper really
meant.”7
The Charlotte Post held membership in the ANP but until Anderson joined the staff much of the news it covered was relegated to Charlotte readers. The ANP was founded in 1919 by Claude Barnett to provide a nationwide news service to black newspapers around the country. As a member, newspapers were asked to share news with the ANP in exchange for access to their news wire. From its inception, according to one historian, Barnett experienced problems finding “skilled reporting from quality people on a regular basis,” due to “the limited funds he had at his disposal.” Throughout the first decade, Barnett was fortunate to find volunteers willing to send him dispatches without compensation. He described them as his “army of volunteer reporters,” and
5 Interview with Henry Houston by J.R. Glenn, 29 August 1939, WPA Life Histories Collection, Library of
Congress
6 “Charlotte Post in Fifth Year, Has Plant Paid For,” Afro-American, 1930 December 20 7 ‘Complete Biography of Trezzvant W. Anderson
provided them with ANP press cards “designating them as news gatherers.”8 By 1926, the ANP sought to build “a permanent staff of reporters,” who were well-trained and from “every strategic part of the country.” “Their sole business,” Barnett wrote, “would be to get news to us.”9 In Trezzvant he found a zealous worker.
Anderson used the railways to establish an extensive regional network that proved to be an asset to both the Charlotte Post and the ANP. The Railway Mail Service
provided not only mobility for its employees, it also provided social status, particularly in the black community, lucrative pay, and, for many, was a breeding ground for civic politicization. Blacks filled many positions within the postal service including “clerks, carriers, special delivery messengers, laborers, custodians, and motor vehicle
mechanics.”10 However, discrimination precluded their work as railway mail service clerks. Exclusion from this elite position and from the Railway Mail Association prompted the formation of the National Alliance of Postal Employees (NAPE), a black railway postal employees’ union founded in 1913. Most African American railway mail clerks, including Anderson, were members of NAPE. In 1923 NAPE became the first black industrial union recognized by the federal government, meaning it welcomed skilled and unskilled labor. According to one scholar, its leaders were college educated, its political ideology was far more pro-working class and left than white unions, and it gave its members the “opportunity to fight for both civil rights and labor rights.”11
8 Lawrence D. Hogan, A Black National News Service: The Associated Negro Press and Claude Barnett,
1919-1945, (Teaneck, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984), pg. 82-83
9 Ibid, pg. 84
10 Philip F. Rubio, There’s Always Work at the Post Office, (University of North Carolina Press, Chapel
Hill, 2010), pg. 30.
A.L. Glenn, long time RMS employee, union leader, and historian, wrote that black railway mail clerks were “rated along with or just behind the professional group.” They were “always up-to-date on local and national events of importance,” and their’ “ideas were sought often on all civic matters.”12 When Anderson joined the RMS in 1927 he joined a small cadre of influential, well-established members of Charlotte’s black middle class.13 Like them, Anderson became an active participant in the city’s black community, though he remained critical of older, conservative black leadership.
Journalists were not well paid, thus work as a substitute railway mail clerk sustained Anderson financially. He earned $154 per month, $1850 annually for several days’ worth of work.14 He acknowledged that the job was beneficial to his pursuits as a journalist because much of the month was at his disposal; “It must be considered that the usual work period per month consumes from ten to twelve days, depending upon the length of the run with the remainder of the month free at the clerk’s disposal.”15 During Anderson’s first three and half years as a substitute railway mail clerk, his postal runs took him as far north as Washington, D.C., as far south as Atlanta, as far west as
12 A. L. Glenn, History of the National Alliance of Postal Employees, 1913-1955, (Washington, D.C.,
National Alliance of Postal Employees, 1955), pg. 16
13 (Caesar Blake Sr., Robert S. Bampfield, Zoel S. Hargrave, Frank Y. Ellison, and Jacob Thompson were
all local railway mail clerks); See following sources for more information: ‘Aged Clerk is Paid Tribute on Retirement,’ The Chicago Defender, 1929 March 23, Article, likely written by Anderson, highlights the career of Caesar Blake Sr.; A.L. Glenn, History of the National Alliance, pg. 19, Glenn states that Blake, in 1913, was a key contact for establishing NAPE in North Carolina; ‘Southerners are Making Progress,’
Afro-American, 1913 February 8, Article list both Ellison and Blake as prominent leaders in Charlotte who played hosts to John S. Murphy (Afro-American founder) as he traveled through the city; “Prize Beauty Well Again,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, 1931 June 27, Article discusses the health of the wife of Bampfield but identifies him as a railway mail clerk, grandson of Robert Smalls and son of Elizabeth Bampfield; Both Hargrave and Thompson were involved in civil rights activity in 1920s and 1930s; NAACP Charter Application, 1927 March 9, Box G-146, Group 1, Charlotte Files, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress
14 Record of Retirement Deductions/Grade and Salary, 1927 November 5, Trezzvant W. Anderson Files,
Civilian Personnel Records, National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, Missouri.
Knoxville and through practically every small and large town in between, especially throughout North and South Carolina. Pay, leisure time, and mobility all favorably contributed to Anderson’s ascension in the black newspaper world.
The Charlotte Post gave Trezzvant Anderson a platform from which he reported major news stories in his first column, “Current Comment,” and contributed to other newspapers such as the Carolina Times, Norfolk Journal and Guide, and Afro American. More importantly, it got him involved in civic activism.16 In 1929 Anderson covered the trial of Clyde Fowler, who had been convicted of killing a white police officer and who was represented by the Charlotte chapter of the NAACP. Anderson covered the trial as only a native insider could, a style of reporting that he honed in the Charlotte Post and that characterized his writing throughout his career. Mainstream media, namely the
Charlotte Observer, convicted Fowler before he had been arrested, let alone tried. The paper led efforts to raise funds for the dead officer’s widow and attempted to influence public opinion with sensational headlines that referred to Fowler as “murderer,” “killer,” and “outlaw.”17 Fowler evaded arrest for three weeks, and, in the wake of the officer’s death, the police set up blockades on all highways and barricaded black neighborhoods; officers entered homes without warrants, airplanes and bloodhounds combed wooded areas, and they arrested dozens of blacks in surrounding towns. Anderson acted as an
16 Ibid; also see: “Journal And Guide Staff Writer To Washington,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, 1931 July
11, pg. 3, for information about Anderson’s earliest columns, in addition to ‘Current Comment’ there was also ‘Spotlight’ in the Carolina Times
17 Vann Newkirk, Ph.D. dissertation, “The Development of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People in Metropolitan Charlotte, North Carolina 1919-1965,” (Washington, D.C.: Howard University, 2002)
inside reporter and published critical information regarding the circumstances that
surrounded the incident and the officer’s record in his column and national newspapers.18 The officer, Edgar Correll, and his partner obtained a warrant to apprehend a suspect for breaking and entering. They forcefully entered the boarding house where Fowler resided but did not identify themselves as police officers. Correll barged into Fowler’s room and was fatally shot by Fowler. Fowler fled the scene as he heard Correll’s partner approaching. Anderson highlighted the strategy that Fowler’s lawyer, Thomas L. Kirkpatrick, used during the trial. He “brought out the fact that the officer did not read the warrant,” which made the search illegal. Kirkpatrick also reported that, “Correll’s record [was] said to have included the killings of two Negroes.” Though indeed guilty of having shot the officer, the NAACP sought and successfully secured a fair trial for Fowler before he was automatically given the death penalty. Anderson concluded his coverage of the trial with the article entitled: “Slayer of N.C. Killer Cop is Given 20 Yrs.”19
The Charlotte NAACP hailed the verdict as a huge victory because it marked the first time in state history that a black convicted of murdering a police officer escaped the electric chair.20 Anderson interviewed local black citizens to get their impression on the ruling. One anonymous Charlotte citizen, likely Anderson, expressed the sentiment that the trial results put the world on notice, especially northern blacks, that “there [were] some Negroes in the South who [had] ‘guts’ enough to fight for a brother even if he [was]
18 Ibid
19 ‘Slayer of N.C. Killer Cop is Given 20 Yrs.,’ Afro-American, 1929 March 16, pg. 2.
20 Newkirk, Ph.D. dissertation, “The Development of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People in Metropolitan Charlotte, North Carolina 1919-1965,” pg. 57, Newkirk reveals that Taylor Jackson relocated to Talladega College in Alabama.
a gambler of the lowest class.”21 Older, conservative middle-class black members of the branch, including administrators at Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU), worried about white backlash. As a result Taylor S. Jackson, president of the Charlotte NAACP chapter and full-time philosophy professor at the school, was dismissed from his job and was forced to relinquish the presidency. Jackson was Anderson’s former professor and the university’s decision to dismiss Jackson prematurely triggered Anderson’s criticism of the administration of his former school.22
With Taylor Jackson’s dismissal, the Charlotte NAACP branch disintegrated. This disintegration took place at a time when the NAACP was gaining traction in other parts of the South. Anderson believed his access to black newspapers could help increase NAACP membership, give voice, direction, and power to local branches, particularly in Charlotte.23 In late 1930 and early 1931, Anderson corresponded with William Pickens to re-organize the defunct Charlotte chapter. In one letter he noted that Zachariah Alexander, a prominent fraternal figure and funeral director, had assumed leadership of the branch and “has asked me if I would accept the secretaryship of the local branch.” Anderson wrote: “I stated to him [Alexander] that I would be honored to have the position, and if I could serve them effectively I would accept the task. I hope that my service will not be in any sense ‘dead,’ but active to such an extent that we will grow to large proportions, not only in Charlotte, but throughout North Carolina.” Along with the
21 “Charlotte Citizens Win Hot Fight To Save Fowler From Chair,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, 1929
March 30; this is likely one of Anderson’s earliest articles, which were published without a byline likely to conceal his identity so as not to endanger his new job.
22 See chapter one, Anderson’s articles criticizing the administration came shortly after the Fowler case and
Jackson’s dismissal.
23 Letter, Trezzvant W. Anderson to William Pickens, 1930 December 25, Box G-146, Group 1, Charlotte
letter, he sent “a copy of the Charlotte Post,” so Pickens might read his ‘Current Comment’ column on “N.A.A.C.P. and Charlotte.” 24
Anderson found that rallying the masses of local black citizens around the idea of reorganizing the NAACP branch required more than rhetoric in weekly editorials. After initial calls for a meeting of interested citizens resulted in a poor turnout, he and
Alexander abandoned their efforts because the gathering failed to produce the required fifty signatures for a new charter. Anderson noted, “citizens are not giving their full support to the movement,” only “six persons attended the meeting out of a 32,000 (black) population.”25 He did not speculate about why there was a general lack of interest in reviving the local NAACP branch; however, one source suggests that many former members disliked Alexander and elected to abandon the chapter during his tenure.26 This rift was likely due to Alexander’s social standing within the community. Members of the black middle-class had exhibited their unwillingness to help defend lower-class blacks in the Fowler case. While Anderson was attempting to change the direction of the local NAACP chapter, he had only achieved some local name recognition as a journalist. This was not enough to command African Americans into action.
In Charlotte, inter-racial political alliances were built between “the better classes,” based on ideas of respectability. In this regard, white leadership did not have a favorable
24 Trezzvant W. Anderson to William Pickens, 25 December 1930; William Pickens to T.W. Anderson, 5
January 1931; Trezzvant W. Anderson to William Pickens, 14 January 1931; William Pickens to T.W. Anderson, 16 January 1931, Box G146, Group I, NAACP Papers; Newkirk, in his dissertation, provides a detailed discussion of the problems Jackson experienced as NAACP head, particularly those that related to his insistence that the branch support potential black criminals whom he argued were also victims of illegal police harassment. This was the period of theinfamous Scottsboro case and middle class blacks wanted the organization to steer clear of controversial cases. The actual clipping from the Charlotte Post, although listed on the finding aid,was missing from the NAACP files.
25 “Charlotteans Fail to Support National Association,” Afro-American, 14 February 1931 26 Newkirk, Ph.D. dissertation, pg. 58
view of the NAACP and considered it an outside, instigating organization. To maintain good relationships with white leaders, black leadership acquiesced and thus stymied support of the NAACP. Support might have been met with reprisals: if teachers joined they could be fired, if business owners joined, negative things could be printed in local newspapers about them. In fact, local white leaders, especially those associated with “the Charlotte Observer [had] pushed black elites to guard against the infection of the NAACP,” since its first emergence in 1919.27 The NAACP, despite several attempts, did