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African American Publications Collection
SPC.2018.023  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Scope and Contents
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Related Materials

  • Contributing Institution: California State University Dominguez Hills, Gerth Archives and Special Collections
    Title: African American Publications Collection
    Identifier/Call Number: SPC.2018.023
    Physical Description: 1 box
    Physical Description: .20 Linear Feet
    Date (inclusive): 1937-1939, 1945-1946, 1951, 1955, 1965, 1972
    Language of Material: English .

    Scope and Contents

    This collection contains issues of publications created for African American and Black audiences such as: Bronze Thrills, Color, Flash Newspicture, Hep, Jive, Sepia, and Spotlighter.

    Biographical / Historical

    Sepia was a magazine that featured articles on the achievements of African Americans. Sepia was founded in 1946 as Negro Achievements by Horace J. Blackwell, an African American clothing merchant from Fort Worth, Texas. In 1950, George Levitan, a Jewish American plumbing merchant bought Blackwell's magazines and Good Publishing Company, and gradually changed the name of Negro Achievements to Sepia. Good Publishing also owned other magazines catered to Black audiences such as Hep, Bronze Thrills, and Jive. After Levitan's death in 1976, Sepia was bought by a member of Blackwell's editorial team, Beatrice Pringle. Pringle ceased publication of Sepia in 1983.
    Flash Newspicture Magazine was a Washington D.C. based weekly magazine in print from June 1937-August 1939 created to cater to African Americans, and featured images and text about African American life during the 1930s. Flash features photography by Pittsburg photographer Charles "Teenie" Harris, who was the leading photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier one of the largest Black newspapers in the country.
    Sources:
    "Review" Reviewed work "Teenie Harris, Photographer: Image, Memory, History" by Cheryl Finely, Laurence Glasco, Joe W. Trotter, Deborah Wilis. Biography Vol. 32, No.2 Spring 2012
    Flash Weekly Newspicture Magazine, May 3, 1938 https://transcription.si.edu/project/23416
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepia_(magazine)

    Related Materials

    For more collections featuring African American publications please see: Los Angeles Tribune (1941-1960); Filer Compton Collection; and California Eagle [publication]

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    African Americans -- Culture
    African American publications
    Black people