JOURNALISM: HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICANS : WOMEN: HISTORY : BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Edna McKenzie: Journalist, Historian, Elder

[David P. Dillard]

JOURNALISM: HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICANS : WOMEN: HISTORY : BIOGRAPHY: Dr.
Edna McKenzie: Journalist, Historian, Elder

Dr. Edna McKenzie: Journalist, Historian, Elder
Professor Kim's News Notes
<http://professorkim.blogspot.com/2005/06/
dr-edna-mckenzie-journalist-historian.html>

A shorter URL for the above link:

<http://snipurl.com/fwn4>

I received word late last night of the passing of Dr. Edna Chappelle Mc
Kenzie, award winning former reporter for the Pittsburgh Courier whose
stories on discrimination in that city helped overturn racially
restrictive covenants and other discriminatory measures. She was 81 and
had been ill for some time.

The former Edna Chappelle began her newspaper career in 1941, after
graduating from high school. She was inspired to go into news work by the
example of her older sister, a 1936 Wilberforce graduate who edited a
paper in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. After a stint at the Los Angeles
Tribune, she joined the staff of the Pittsburgh Courier, working on the
society column. Within a few years, she elbowed her way on to the news
desk and covered murders (including lynchings) and other hard news
alongside the men.

Mc Kenzie was part of the team that carried out the "Double V" campaign
during World War II, calling for victory against racism in the US as well
as against the Axis powers. Braving threats of violence as well as
government intimidation, Mc Kenzie and her colleagues documented
discriminatory practices in housing, employment and public accommodations.
One of her assignments was to go to restaurants and asked to be served.
Sometimes she was just told that the establishment didn't serve blacks; at
other times, she was told that the restaurant didn't serve whatever she
asked for. McKenzie said that the treatment she was subjected to sometimes
made her cry, but she would force herself to go out and endure it all over
again. Her reporting buttressed several lawsuits against the restaurants.
Ultimately, she told an interviewer, We broke down discrimination in
Pittsburgh many years before the civil rights movement started in the
south, McKenzie said.

----------------------------------------

The complete article may be read at the URL above.

Edna McKenzie Interview
<http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/film/transcripts/mckenzie.html>

EM: We needed a black press because there was no way to get out story out
to the general American public. We certainly couldn't continue to talk
among ourselves. We had a right to get our story out and from our own
perspective. Without a black newspaper, it could never have been done.

----------------------------------------

McKenzie Publications - Dr. Edna McKenzie - Pittsburgh, PA
<http://mckenzie-pub.com/>

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Westmoreland Museum of American Art
The Westmoreland's main entrance
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
724-837-1500
http://www.wmuseumaa.org
Spirit of a Community: The Photographs of Charles "Teenie" Harris
<http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/2aa/2aa503.htm>

"His images are an important visual history of Pittsburgh and the City's
African-American communities that even Pittsburghers know little about.
His photography not only symbolized the stories of the Pittsburgh Courier,
he illustrated the 20th century black experience in the city of
Pittsburgh. To quote Dr. Edna McKenzie, a reporter for the Pittsburgh
Courier, "Pittsburgh was far from a backward decaying community. We often
traveled together scurrying around to make city-desk deadlines during the
1940s and early 1950s when opportunities for social and economic
advancement were being created by citizens tired of second-class status.
And while racism reigned here in every walk of life, Teenie recorded the
players and the events in the perpetual struggle for dignity and civil
rights in Pittsburgh where changes took place much earlier than on the
national scene. Teenie and his camera had something special to capture
almost every day," adding that he was "on the job all during the
revolution of the sixties and the new politics of the seventies and his
pictures highlight the saga of desegregation and resegregation of the
residential sections and school districts" . . . "Pittsburgh attracted
every major black artist, athlete, political figure, and intellectual, and
Harris photographed them all. He also captured the lives of its working
people, from domestics, porters, teamsters, millworkers, and of its
families, from grandparents on the porch swing to children playing on the
street. His images reflect the hearts and homes of the African-American
communities of Pittsburgh." "


Title African Americans in Pennsylvania
Editor(s) Joe W Trotter, Eric L Smith
Publisher Penn State Press
Publication Date November 1, 1997
Subject History / General History
Format Paperback
Pages 416
Dimensions 6.11 x 9.07 x 1.39 in
ISBN 0271016876


Title Without Regard to Race
Author(s) Tunde Adeleke
Publisher University Press of Mississippi
Publication Date February 1, 2004
Format Hardcover
Pages 248
Dimensions 6.25 x 9.00 x 1.00 in
ISBN 1578065984



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David Dillard
Temple University
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