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The responses of Black Americans to the Holocaust, and their coverage of it, are important parts of African American and Holocaust scholarship. Nevertheless, most of the work on this topic either draws largely or solely from two Black newspapers, The Chicago Defender and The Pittsburgh Courier, and fails to examine any regional or sectional differences in coverage and interpretation in these or other Black newspapers found around the country. In doing so, these works fail to acknowledge the significance of regional differences as a contribution to a group’s memory and interpretation of the Holocaust and by extension other genocides. In examining the differences among various Black newspapers, one can attempt to show the ways in which regional differences among African Americans in the U.S. contributed to the Black American coverage and interpretation of the Holocaust. From my analysis, and from the work of previous scholars, it is clear that Black media outlets across the country often made comparisons between Nazi Germany and the United States, particularly regarding racial ideologies and discriminatory processes. Nevertheless, these comparisons were not the same across the board, with Black news outlets from different areas of the country comparatively highlighting different forms of American oppression, whether they be state operated or extra-judicial. These variations seem, to some degree, to reflect different experiences of racism in different corners of the United States.
The responses of Black Americans to the Holocaust, and their coverage of it, are important parts of African American and Holocaust scholarship. Nevertheless, most of the work on this topic either draws largely or solely from two Black newspapers, The Chicago Defender and The Pittsburgh Courier, and fails to examine any regional or sectional differences in coverage and interpretation in these or other Black newspapers found around the country. In doing so, these works fail to acknowledge the significance of regional differences as a contribution to a group’s memory and interpretation of the Holocaust and by extension other genocides. In examining the differences among various Black newspapers, one can attempt to show the ways in which regional differences among African Americans in the U.S. contributed to the Black American coverage and interpretation of the Holocaust. From my analysis, and from the work of previous scholars, it is clear that Black media outlets across the country often made comparisons between Nazi Germany and the United States, particularly regarding racial ideologies and discriminatory processes. Nevertheless, these comparisons were not the same across the board, with Black news outlets from different areas of the country comparatively highlighting different forms of American oppression, whether they be state operated or extra-judicial. These variations seem, to some degree, to reflect different experiences of racism in different corners of the United States.