Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Reuben Benton, 1971.Biographical NoteReuben Benton was the advertising manager of The Call, a black newspaper in Kansas City. Benton served The Call for over three decades, getting his start in advertising in the 1940s.
Scope and ContentsBenton discusses the Kansas City Call's experience with unionization by the Luggage Workers Union. At the time, The Call was the only unionized black newspaper. Benton describes his role as advertising manager of the paper, including the struggles of gaining white merchants to advertise in The Call. He chronicles how the relationship between the paper and advertisers, both black and white, shifted throughout the years. Benton describes the importance of black papers, primarily how these papers can understand and report on aspects of the black experience differently than white papers.
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