Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/436

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CHAPTER XXII.

OPINIONS OF EMINENT MEN ON THE AFRO-AMERICAN PRESS.


Author's Introduction to Opinions.

TO the unthoughtful the following opinions which we have solicited would seem a matter of poor judgment upon our part. In fact, some have doubted our propriety in propounding such questions to those who have so kindly given us their views. This, of course, has arisen from the lack of knowledge as to our aim and purpose. All cannot see alike, and it is not expected that the reader will accurately see our purpose until it shall have been explained. However, the one who will take the time to give our questions mature thought, will see, without an explanation, that our purpose, in a nutshell, is to get the expression of the race as to whether, in their judgment, our press has been fruitful to them, and, as such, whether it has been a success, with the disadvantages, encumbering it; and what they conceive to be the achievements that compose such a success. We claim, with all the right thinking people, that the press, an expressor of the popular will, is an indispensable part of the nation's freedom. We claim that since it purports to work for a race's benefit;