Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with William Fowlkes, 1971.Biographical NoteWilliam A. Fowlkes was born in 1914 in Tennessee. He attended Tennessee State University where he was editor for the Tennessee State Collegian. He received his B.S. in history with a journalism minor and graduated magna cum laude in 1935. Shortly thereafter he began reporting for the Atlanta Daily World where he was a reporter, the city editor, and eventually the managing editor until 1950. That year he started working for the Pittsburgh Courier’s as the editor for the paper’s Georgia edition. He returned to the World in 1956 as managing editor. In 1965 he left the World to work for the Economic Opportunity Authority in Atlanta. He passed in 2008.
Scope and ContentsIn this interview conducted by Henry G. La Brie III, William A. Fowlkes tells his life history and goes on to discuss the advertising and circulation changes in black newspapers, how black newspapers’ role has changed over time, and the successes and failures of the black press. He explains his criteria needed to consider a newspaper as a black newspaper, what readers want to read, and whether black news papers are sensational. Fowlkes discusses if the Kerner Commission Report affected white establishment papers’ reporting on minority news, if black news papers should appeal to a white audience, and the future of the black press.
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