McLaurin Oral History Interview with Frank P. Thomas Jr.
[This is the second in a series of history projects – interviews with leaders of the community. The subject of this particular interview is Frank P. Thomas Jr., who is the editor and publisher of the Mobile Beacon, a newspaper with a circulation of approximately 6,500. The newspaper is primarily for the black community. Mr. Thomas has been in Mobile with the newspaper since 1954. The interviewer is Melton McLaurin of the University of South Alabama department of history, and the date of the interview is August 4, 1971.]
McLaurin: Mr. Thomas, my first question is concerning your background. I'd like for you to recount how you got interested in newspaper work and your experience with newspaper work particularly work in newspapers that had a circulation primarily in the black community before you came to Mobile in 1954.
Thomas: Mr. McLaurin, my work in and interest in the newspaper field began at the rather tender age of eight when I started selling the Birmingham Herald as a carrier, then as a agent and circulation director for that particular area in Tuscaloosa. From that time on, through elementary and high school, I still continued to do whatever I could to work and to sell newspapers. …[D]uring my high school years I served as a representative and reporter for several weekly black publications. When I graduated from high school I was employed on the Daily Tuscaloosa News as a part-time reporter and as circulation supervisor in the black community. I did this for two years. At the same time I matriculated at Stillman College. In college I edited the [Stillman] which was a college paper. At this time Stillman was only a junior college. Finishing Stillman in 1933 – we journeyed then to Montgomery to finish our education at the Alabama State Teacher's College, as the Alabama State University was known at that time. I worked during that time on the Montgomery World. But before we leave Tuscaloosa I want to get this bit of information, which I think possibly is very necessary. We did start in 1932, or 33 rather, a weekly newspaper, the Tuscaloosa World, which was published by the Scott Syndicate, which today produces and owns the Atlanta Daily World of Atlanta, Georgia. It was this paper that got me my first real experience with the power structure and in turn it caused me to become a target for a lynch mob. Because we felt that some black [dudes] were getting a raw deal and there was no one at that time to speak out for them, our newspaper attempted to do this and, for our efforts, we then became targets for the maddened mark leaders and many of us had to flee for our lives. So, I went to Montgomery [following] this incident. In Montgomery, we matriculated in the college and we worked on a weekly black newspaper, the Montgomery World, which has been suspended. Its publication has been suspended and of course it's just a memory today. [Following] this we journeyed to Birmingham. We worked on the Birmingham World a while. Later we decided that since it was almost impossible to find the position we wanted on a newspaper in the South, we would go into insurance and since we had earned a teaching certificate from our time that we spent in study in school, we taught for one year and then decided we would make a career of [selling] life insurance. We did this until 1940, or 42 rather, at which time we left the insurance field, came back to Mobile, or came to Mobile, and started a weekly paper which lasted for several months. This was the Mobile Weekly Review. We left the Mobile Weekly Review to enlist in the navy during World War II. We served in the navy until we were discharged because of physical disabilities and we returned to Mobile, but at that time we found that our paper had been taken over by the Gulf Informer, a corporation that inherited the Mobile Press Forum Sun, which was the oldest and the first black paper to be published in the state of Alabama. This paper was originally founded in 1892 by A. N. Johnson, who also founded the Johnson-Allen Funeral home. Mr. Rhone who was the publisher of the Gulf Informer in 1954 or 55, died suddenly. His name was I. H. Rhone. Mr. Rhone passed and – of course then there was no one to take over his paper, which did not enjoy a very prosperous existence. So we were able to carry on. At that time, when we made our second entry into Mobile, there were four weekly newspapers. There was one paper published by Mr. Freeman Jones who now teaches journalism at one of the high schools. There was Mr. [Knox] who had a small weekly paper. There was another paper, published by a Mr. [Sneed], which is long since been forgotten and the Gulf Informer.
McLaurin: Mr. Thomas, now are you referring to basically black newspapers. These four--.
Thomas: Black papers, right.
McLaurin: Okay.
Thomas: Right, right, these were all black papers. I want to say here and I think--
McLaurin: May I inquire if these newspapers came into being as a result of the expanded black population, because of the war industries and so forth and the increase of the black population relating to these industries?
Thomas: Not necessarily so. Most of these papers, with [the] exception of our paper, were older papers, much older papers and these were here from an early date. Most of these papers were maybe thirty, forty years old. So they didn't come about as a result of the war. Our paper possibly was the only one that might of come about as a result of the war expanded economy – due to the war effort. But most of these papers, with the exception of Mr. Jones' paper the Freeman Express, which is published sometimes today, has--have folded and they are only memories now.
McLaurin: Okay, and we've got you in Mobile and working on this paper, the Gulf Informer. Could you tell us something about your early experiences in the field of journalism – in the black community in Mobile during the mid-fifties.
Thomas: When we came into Mobile, we instituted us a new ethics in the field of black journalism. We attempted to first produce a product that would be acceptable to the black reader. We also wanted to have a product that could be used as an advertising medium. To do that it meant that you would have to have a trained staff, you'd have to have the proper facilities with which to produce it. And we attempted to do some of this. Whether we have succeeded or not, it would remain for our critics to say. We do feel that there is much room for improvement but we have done something in that way.
McLaurin: How do you view the black newspaper or how have you seen the black newspaper as a means of expressing…the desires and the aspirations – in short , being the voice of the black community? And I'd like you to answer this question, taking into consideration the amount of coverage that was given to the black community by the existing white newspapers or primarily white newspapers in the city at the time you took over the Gulf Informer?
Thomas: …We did not necessarily take over the Gulf Informer. We started the Mobile Beacon, not the Gulf Informer. We didn't take that over. [W]hen we started the Beacon, the daily newspapers here had to my mind a very negative attitude towards their black readers. And this was most unfortunate. The editorial policy was very bad, and to my mind it still is bad. However,…the news coverage is quite a bit better. At one time the paper would not run pictures of women of color on their society page. In fact, this is rather a new innovation for them. And they have not always used the proper courtesy titles[in] their news stories and events concerning women of color. But of course this is being done today. Much of this can be attributed to two things. The black reader has demanded this, and many of the advertisers in the white press [have] also become aware of the great potentials of the black market…And in order to get this he wants to use the media that is going to be accepted by the black market by the black reader. And of course he is not going to spend advertising dollars in any paper – over any radio station or television station that is hostile to the black community if he knows it.
McLaurin: I'd like to ask you now if you see the black newspaper as a means of bettering the position, or particularly in the past was it a means of bettering the position, of blacks in southern society and did you attempt to use your newspaper as such? And if you did, what campaigns, what programs that you have espoused through your editorial columns…have had the greatest impact on the community of Mobile?
Thomas: If any one familiarizes himself with the history of journalism, he will easily find that John [Rushon], the founder of the first black newspaper, Freedom's Journal, in 1827, began his venture as a protest. Since that day, to the present and maybe – and I do feel to the foreseeable future – the black press will have to continue to be a protest press to a certain degree. We will not – maybe have to run the "scare heads" that we used to do in the thirties--or maybe in the twenties.
McLaurin: What do you mean by the "scare heads"?
Thomas: [W]hen we used to have to fight the Klan and we'd have to – papers with wide national circulation like the Courier and the Defender and the [Afro] when they had to send papers into the South with these stories of lynchings and other racial incidents in the South. This was the only way that many people could become aware of what was happening in the South. One of our staffers now, John L. LeFlore, was a staffer for the Defender and the Courier and he had to be on the scene at many of these lynchings, whether you know this or not. He was on the scene. Mr. LeFlore's life was in danger many times. When we had our trouble in Tuscaloosa, he was one of the people there to write it up. This was the only way – the only means of communication that we had. The white press would not touch many of these things. They'd change it and write it as they saw it, not as it really [was]. And many times the facts would be…concealed or twisted so that truth would never be known. And our paper, the Beacon, has not had to do it exactly in this manner. I don't think any of our papers are having to do it as the papers did back in that day. But each paper now has had to take local issues. For instance, we have continued to harp on voter registration. And it was our paper who continued to fight for the voting rights bill in 1965. We have some proof of that. It was I who met Mr. Katzenbach in the White House, and it was I who really invited him or persuaded him to come and speak to us here. And we have continued to take leadership in this. Mr. LeFlore and other members of our editorial staff have continued to harp on that…and we're doing it today. If you notice today we're still doing this…very same thing. All around we worked on that. That's one thing. Another thing we worked on – some people may say this maybe isn't right, but we feel this way. We feel that black life is as expensive as any other type of life, from any other ethnic group. And what is happening in southern courts is this, especially in Mobile and in many other southern communities. If a white is killed, then, of course, the person who's found guilty is either sentenced to death or they get a life sentence or some long, heavy prison sentence. But when blacks kill each other very little is done about it and we have not liked that. We feel if a black kills another black he should be punished equally – as much as if he had killed a white or if a white had killed another white, if the circumstances warrant it and merit it. And our paper has worked on that and we've editorialized on it and I think we've gotten some results. We've taken the district attorney to task a number of times and they have called our office and have tried to get in our good graces on this thing. And there are various other issues that we have championed and we have not been afraid to editorialize on them. We have also taken to test those people who wanted to – and I hope I'm not stepping on your toes. If I am, it's just one of those things about this downtown building. We're interested in preserving our city and the downtown area of our city, and we feel that this new government building should be built downtown and we have not been ashamed to blast it and to champion this thing.
McLaurin: Mr. Thomas, you've been in newspaper work for a long time in Tuscaloosa and in Mobile and Montgomery, and you've seen a lot of state politicians come and go, and we'd like you to [give us] some of your personal reminisces here of…the attitude of particularly the black press to major politicians on the state level. Three who have perhaps influenced the history of Alabama as much as any three men have in the modern period of the state's history are James Folsom, John Patterson, and George Wallace. Would you comment on each of these men and their relation to the black press – as much as you know of their relation to the black press?
Thomas: As I remember, Governor Folsom was to [our mind] as far we…could tell at least friendly towards the entire black community. He did go so far as to have a conference. I remember going to Montgomery meeting with the other members of the press, black press from all sections of the state. At that time, we had about eight black newspapers in the state and we did have a meeting with him in Montgomery at the capital. The first time and maybe the last