Race War Flares Up: Chicago’s Swedish Press, the Great Migration, and the 1919 Riots
This study of the three large Swedish-language weeklies in Chicago examines how they covered the city’s African-American community during the latter half of the 1910s, a time when blacks migrated to the North in huge numbers. In Chicago, the result was that the African-American population almost tri...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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CBS Open Journals
2019-03-01
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| Series: | American Studies in Scandinavia |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://192.168.7.25:443/index.php/assc/article/view/5788 |
| _version_ | 1797805404264071168 |
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| author | Ulf Jonas Björk |
| author_facet | Ulf Jonas Björk |
| author_sort | Ulf Jonas Björk |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study of the three large Swedish-language weeklies in Chicago examines how they covered the city’s African-American community during the latter half of the 1910s, a time when blacks migrated to the North in huge numbers. In Chicago, the result was that the African-American population almost tripled between 1910 and 1920. Little of that was visible in the columns of the weeklies, however, with only a handful of items telling readers that blacks were arriving in record numbers. What news there was about African-Americans, moreover, tended to portray them as criminals. Consequently, the riots that shook Chicago in late July 1919 seemed to take the editors of the weeklies by surprise. A major explanation for the Swedish weeklies’ coverage was that they relied almost exclusively on the city’s English-language dailies for news that did not concern their own ethnic group and thus mirrored the negative way the dailies portrayed African-Americans. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T05:51:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-17310b7d6ef6496db63d4dd7e70eb373 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0044-8060 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T05:51:34Z |
| publishDate | 2019-03-01 |
| publisher | CBS Open Journals |
| record_format | Article |
| series | American Studies in Scandinavia |
| spelling | doaj.art-17310b7d6ef6496db63d4dd7e70eb3732023-06-13T12:10:27ZengCBS Open JournalsAmerican Studies in Scandinavia0044-80602019-03-0151110.22439/asca.v51i1.5788Race War Flares Up: Chicago’s Swedish Press, the Great Migration, and the 1919 RiotsUlf Jonas Björk0Indiana University at IndianapolisThis study of the three large Swedish-language weeklies in Chicago examines how they covered the city’s African-American community during the latter half of the 1910s, a time when blacks migrated to the North in huge numbers. In Chicago, the result was that the African-American population almost tripled between 1910 and 1920. Little of that was visible in the columns of the weeklies, however, with only a handful of items telling readers that blacks were arriving in record numbers. What news there was about African-Americans, moreover, tended to portray them as criminals. Consequently, the riots that shook Chicago in late July 1919 seemed to take the editors of the weeklies by surprise. A major explanation for the Swedish weeklies’ coverage was that they relied almost exclusively on the city’s English-language dailies for news that did not concern their own ethnic group and thus mirrored the negative way the dailies portrayed African-Americans.https://192.168.7.25:443/index.php/assc/article/view/5788immigrant pressSwedish-AmericansAfrican-Americansrace relationsethnic images |
| spellingShingle | Ulf Jonas Björk Race War Flares Up: Chicago’s Swedish Press, the Great Migration, and the 1919 Riots American Studies in Scandinavia immigrant press Swedish-Americans African-Americans race relations ethnic images |
| title | Race War Flares Up: Chicago’s Swedish Press, the Great Migration, and the 1919 Riots |
| title_full | Race War Flares Up: Chicago’s Swedish Press, the Great Migration, and the 1919 Riots |
| title_fullStr | Race War Flares Up: Chicago’s Swedish Press, the Great Migration, and the 1919 Riots |
| title_full_unstemmed | Race War Flares Up: Chicago’s Swedish Press, the Great Migration, and the 1919 Riots |
| title_short | Race War Flares Up: Chicago’s Swedish Press, the Great Migration, and the 1919 Riots |
| title_sort | race war flares up chicago s swedish press the great migration and the 1919 riots |
| topic | immigrant press Swedish-Americans African-Americans race relations ethnic images |
| url | https://192.168.7.25:443/index.php/assc/article/view/5788 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ulfjonasbjork racewarflaresupchicagosswedishpressthegreatmigrationandthe1919riots |