American journalist, civic leader and social activist
Louis Austin (1898-1971) was an African-American journalist, civic leader and social activist. Austin purchased "The Carolina Times" in 1927 and transformed it into an institution that aided African Americans in their fight for freedom and equality in North Carolina. He used a new approach to civil rights issues in Durham, incorporating lower and middle class blacks, unlike the moderate, accommodationist approach of the black elite in Durham during this time. Austin's unusual strategy of advocating for the majority of blacks to have a voice in society succeeded in galvanizing a broader segment of the African American community in Durham to act for social change. Austin's approach to black activism helped lay the groundwork for the modern Civil Rights Movement in Durham in the late 1950s and 1960s, which also encouraged lower-income blacks to become politically active. His strategies—which were once considered too radical by his peers—allowed Austin to maintain his influence in Durham well into the 1950s and 1960s. In doing so, Austin created a lasting impact for Durham.
Early life.
Louis Austin was born in Enfield, North Carolina, a small town eighty-five miles east of Durham. He grew up in a period when African Americans were denied basic civil liberties, including the right to vote. Throughout Austin's childhood, his father William taught him to stand up for his rights. As a young adult, Austin was enraged about racial discrimination, and spoke out about these type of injustices at his school. As a result, his parents sent him to finish his high school education at the Joseph K. Brick School in Edgecombe County. Austin then attended the National Training School (now North Carolina Central University) in Durham, North Carolina. After graduating college, Austin worked for the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, a black-owned company based in Durham.
History of the Black Press.
Since "Freedom's Journal", the first black newspaper, was founded in 1827, the black press served as an outlet for African Americans to define their own identity, create a sense of unity, present events from a black perspective, highlight black achievements that the mainstream press ignore, and most importantly, work for black equality. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Booker T. Washington, who was considered the preeminent spokesman for black America during this time period, shared his accommodationist political ideologies in the black press throughout the country. He wielded great power among the black press by clandestinely controlling advertisements, loans, and political subsidies. Many black newspapers at the time relied on Washington's financial support and therefore were obligated to write editorials that he favored. Myrdal defined the black press as an instrument of the "Negro upper classes" for spreading conservative values, and establishing group control and identity.
Significance in Durham.
By the 1920s, black America came to a fork in the road and had to choose whether to accommodate white societal viewpoints or oppose them. W. E. B. Du Bois opposed the white mainstream point of view. Durham was a microcosm of this national black debate, and black elites in Durham were champions of Washington's accommodationist strategy. The newspaper published by the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, owned by Charles Clinton Spaulding, a leading member of the black elite in Durham, was quite open about the company's determination to resist W. E. B. Du Bois's call for an aggressive challenge to white rule.
Louis Austin began working at "The Carolina Times" in 1921, when it was called "The Standard Advertiser". Upon joining the paper, he made it clear that he was committed to writing articles that were closely aligned with Du Bois' approach. Austin bought "The Times" in 1927, with the help of a loan from Durham's black-owned Mechanics and Farmers Bank. During the early twentieth century, black journalists like Austin played an essential role in the struggle for black equality in America. Austin worked as editor for the "Times" until his death in 1971.
Austin's Civil Rights Activism.
"The Carolina Times".
Louis Austin worked tirelessly to shape "The Carolina Times" into a vehicle for change for the African American community. He used the paper to reenergize the civil rights activism. African Americans who lived in Durham and the surrounding areas relied on their weekly subscription to inform them of issues that impacted the African American community. The paper's motto was "The Truth Unbridled", because Austin's mission was to provide North Carolinian African Americans the unadulterated truth about contemporary situations and events. Austin's honest and straightforward approach gave him credibility and strong support in Durham, North Carolina and throughout the state. During a time period when Jim Crow laws ruled the South, and white supremacy was prevalent, Austin understood that it was necessary to directly confront the problems African Americans were facing and provided a voice for these problems. "The Carolina Times" was influential as it created an open dialogue amongst blacks in Durham, surrounding areas in North Carolina, and throughout the nation.
Austin's New Strategy.
Louis Austin worked towards achieving racial equality for blacks, regardless of their socio-economic status, by approaching discriminatory policies with a new, confrontational strategy. Austin shared the political philosophies of Du Bois and Frederick Douglass, both of whom advocated protest as a political tool in the struggle for equal rights. He realized that confrontation and defiance, not civility and accommodation, were needed to break white supremacy's stronghold in the South. The civil rights movement in Durham during the early 1900s was controlled by wealthy blacks, primarily Spaulding and James Shepherd, president of North Carolina College for Negroes (now known as North Carolina Central University). These black elites were known as the "Big Negroes;" they were intent on maintaining peaceful race relations in Durham and did not want to promote campaigns that would upset powerful white people in Durham and throughout the country. Confrontational policies would agitate race relations in North Carolina and jeopardize the businesses and enterprises these "Big Negroes" controlled; therefore, they saw no benefit pursuing policies in that interfered with a system in which they were economically and somewhat socially comfortable.
The direction toward which the black elite steered the civil rights movement was based on their own economic self-interests. These were not representative of the majority of the black community in Durham who were unemployed due to racial inequalities and unable to receive education. According to historian Freddie Parker, Durham "was a diverse community that needed more than one black leader." Austin was extremely frustrated with the conservative black leaders in Durham; therefore, he strove to create a racially tolerant environment in Durham for all African Americans. Austin's outspoken editorials in "The Carolina Times" divulged African American inequalities, and helped galvanize the African American community to focus on activism.
The Great Depression Era.
Throughout the 1930s, Austin displayed his commitment to the African American masses in Durham through his efforts to bring about social and political change in many different areas. He led voter campaigns, advocated for the integration of public schools, lobbied for equal pay for black teachers and equal funding for black schools, denounced police brutality, and demanded equal employment opportunity for African Americans. Education was exceptionally important to Austin because he saw education as a crucial prerequisite for blacks to rise above racial inequalities. Austin worked tirelessly to fight for equal education opportunities, and unlike more cautious black leaders in North Carolina, did not hesitate to advocate legal action to enforce equity in education.
Austin's first major action in promoting equal opportunities in education in North Carolina occurred in 1933, when he joined with black lawyers Conrad Pearson and Cecil McCoy to back Thomas Hocutt, in the lawsuit "Hocutt v. Wilson", to challenge University of North Carolina's (UNC) decision to deny Hocutt's application for admission on the basis of his race. Moderate black elites, such as Spaulding, tried to convince Austin and the other black lawyers to drop the case because they wanted to maintain good relations with white state leaders in order to ensure their economic well-being. Austin displayed his commitment to legal action when he said: "If my actions will cause a race riot, you had better grease up your muskets for I am going back Monday to pursue this cause." While Austin and the other black lawyers lost in court, according to Jerry Gershenhorn, the case was significant in the larger context because it marked a turning point in the African American struggle for equal rights and social injustice. The old order of the South would no longer go unchallenged by African Americans in North Carolina. Courageous activists, like Austin, were committed to utilizing the judicial system to challenge racial inequalities. "Hocutt v. Wilson" laid the foundation for future political legal actions, and served as the opening salvo in the NAACP's legal battle to overturn public education, ultimately culminating in the "Brown v. Board of Education" decision. The case also served as a point of entry for the NAACP into North Carolina.
Louis Austin believed that African Americans could achieve better rights while working within the confines of the political system. Austin viewed political participation as a means for blacks to voice their concerns, and if the masses of the black community were politically engaged, they would be able to attain better rights. In 1928, there were only fifty black registered voters in Durham. Austin constantly embraced community mobilization in both local and national politics. Beginning in the late 1920s, Austin worked to directly confront restricts, such as literacy tests, that white supremacists imposed in order to keep blacks from voting. For example, in 1932, Austin led a "state-wide non-partisan political conference" in Durham, which attempted to foster black interest in voting, and address the difficulties blacks faced in getting to the polls. Austin recognized that the Republican Party was no longer the "Black Man's Party," and that for African Americans, the key to gaining influence in North Carolina and throughout the South was through the Democratic Party. In 1934, Austin displayed his newfound commitment to Democratic Party when he and Frederick K. Watkins ran on the Democratic ticket and were elected justices of the peace in Durham. Throughout the country, the black press applauded their victory as a turning point for African American involvement in politics: "For the first time in the history of the South, two colored men were elected to office on the Democratic ticket." Moreover, Austin's victory had important long term significance. After Austin won, the local head of the Democratic party tried to persuade him to back down; however, Austin remained adamant about serving in office. Austin thus "established a precedent" for blacks serving as justices of the peace in Durham. While Austin did not obtain a powerful political position, according to Joseph Cannon, Austin's victory represented the success in African American's faltering first steps in politics in Durham.
Another pivotal turning point in black political influence occurred in 1935, when Austin joined with Shepard and Spaulding to form the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs, known as the DCNA. The DCNA dedicated itself to improving African Americans' economic, social, and educational opportunities, and served as a means for African Americans in Durham to enter the political arena. The DCNA proved effective in registering blacks to vote. Black voter registration in Durham doubled in the year after the organization was founded, and by 1939, there were three thousand black voters in the city.
World War II Era (1940s).
Double V Strategy.
When the United States entered World War II, Austin seized the opportunity and implemented the Double V campaign. Austin joined other black newspapers in articulating this dual strategy in which blacks fought for victory abroad against the Axis powers while fighting for victory at home against the forces of white supremacy. The campaign revealed the hypocrisy in America's supposed "war for democracy" abroad and attack on the Nazi's discriminatory ideology by publicizing racial oppression at home. While some southern black editors, such as P.B. Young of the "Norfolk Journal and Guide", refused to directly attack segregation, Louis Austin was the leading proponent of the Double V strategy in North Carolina and demanded the end of racial segregation. One example Austin used to back the Double V campaign was how Americans condemned Japanese soldiers for committing atrocities against Americans, but they found nothing wrong with lynching African-Americans. From the outset of World War II, Austin relentlessly attacked the government for "all forms of discrimination, and advocated for equal access for blacks