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Title:
The Chicago whip. : (Chicago, Ill.) 1919-19??
Place of publication:
Chicago, Ill.
Geographic coverage:
  • Chicago, Cook County, Illinois  |  View more titles from this: City County, State
Publisher:
Whip Pub. Co.
Dates of publication:
1919-19??
Description:
  • Vol. 1, no. 1 (June 24, 1919)-
Frequency:
Weekly
Language:
  • English
Subjects:
  • African American newspapers--fast--(OCoLC)fst00799278
  • African American newspapers--Illinois--Chicago.
  • African Americans--Illinois--Chicago--Newspapers.
  • African Americans.--fast--(OCoLC)fst00799558
  • Chicago (Ill.)--Newspapers.
  • Illinois--Chicago.--fast--(OCoLC)fst01204048
Notes:
  • Also available via the World Wide Web.
  • Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • Latest issue consulted: Oct. 10, 1931.
  • Preservation microfilmed in cooperation with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library as part of the United States Newspaper Program; the year 1927 (on 1 microfilm reel) is available for purchase from OCLC Preservation Service Centers.
LCCN:
sn 86056950
OCLC:
15192974
ISSN:
2694-099X
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The Chicago whip. June 24, 1919 , Image 1

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The Chicago Whip

The Chicago Whip was a weekly newspaper that ran from 1919 until around 1939. William C. Linton was its founding editor and publisher. He was born near Atlanta, Georgia and was the son of Reverend T. J. Linton, a minister with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Linton studied at Morris Brown University in Atlanta and at Syracuse University in New York. About two months after the paper's founding, Joseph Dandridge Bibb (1895-1966) joined Linton as co-editor. Bibb, a lawyer trained at Yale and Harvard Universities, was born in Montgomery, Alabama. Bibb carried on as editor following the sudden illness and death of Linton in 1922 at the age of 29. An announcement of Linton's death in the March 25, 1922 issue of the paper describes Linton as having conceived of the Whip as "an independent newspaper unshackled by political or factional entanglements."

The paper was a contemporary and competitor of The Chicago Defender. The Whip reached a circulation of 65,000 within a year of its founding. The Defender had a circulation of 185,000 at the time. According to scholar Juliet Walker, the Whip lacked the national reach that the Defender had, but circulation of both newspapers within Chicago may have been comparable given that only one-third of the Defender's circulation was local.The Whip also sought to emulate the Defender in its news coverage and content. Walker describes the paper as publishing highly sensational stories on crime, as well as gossip columns. The paper also included columns covering the topics of health and law, and published music and theater news.

The paper began in Chicago in June 1919 during the Red Summer, a period in the United States of increased acts of violence against African Americans following the close of World War I, which some historians attribute to an increase in competition for labor due to the return of soldiers. The first few months of the paper's run included coverage of events during this time. Early on, the Whip's editors were supporters of Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, but soon distanced themselves from his ideas. The Whip was financed, from its beginning, by several Chicago Black businessmen and community leaders, including Anthony Overton, Jesse Binga, and Oscar DePriest.

The Whip's focus on political and economic concerns is noted as reflecting shifts in African American urban life in the 1920s. The Whip is often associated with its "Don't buy where you can't work" campaign, launched in 1929, which encouraged the boycotting of white businesses that refused to hire African Americans. Historians posit possible reasons for the paper's end in 1939, which include the effects of the Great Depression and the response of white business owners to the Whip's campaigns. Many pulled their advertisements from the Whip and opted to include them in competing newspapers. After the paper dissolved, Bibb went on to write for the Chicago edition of the Pittsburgh Courier.

Provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL