Word: bannering
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Inside Mel Miller's office, the bulldozers and cement are shut out, but you don't leave change behind. Miller, publisher and half of the official writing staff of Roxbury's seven-month-old Negro newspaper, the Bay State Banner sits down, puts his feet up on the desk, and begins to talk excitedly about the changes going on in Roxbury. He touches on urban renewal and construction of new buildings, mentions new schools and community centers, and then federal, state, and local relief programs with unintelligible letter codes--Operation Head Start, ABCD, or the BRA. He also talks about...
...seven months, until last April 23, the Bay State Banner appeared on the newsstands once a week. Its staff was Negro, as was its predicted readership. Covering local church, community center, school, and urban renewal news almost exclusively, the Banner was read by more than a quarter of Roxbury's Negroes, Miller estimates, and was probably the only paper his readers read with any regularity or thoroughness. The Banner, following, probing, and trying to make intelligible Roxbury's renewal program, also won the support of the community leaders, largely through what Miller calls "our unusual editorial policy." The paper...
There are other Negro newspapers, Miller explained, but they don't do what the Banner does. They focus almost entirely on entertainment, sports, or else are "100 per cent press release papers." "We're a no nonsense paper," he adds, "for people who really want to know what's going on in the Roxbury community. We want to be a paper for people who live here, not people who drink here," he adds. And the 20,000 readers who acquired the Banner habit in the last seven months seem to indicate Miller's paper is a welcome addition...
Then, on April 23, Miller announced that the Banner would be forced to discontinue publication. In an editorial condemning the "neutrality" of the business world in the racial struggle, he said that without the support and revenue of the downtown Boston merchants, the Banner could not operate at a profit...
...expected some response to his decision, but not the response he got. The reaction in the Roxbury community, he notes with a look of pride, was "incredible." After only seven months of publication--"what a hullaballoo." The telephone began to ring, letters flooded in and a community "Save the Banner" committee was formed. Miller himself sought, and found, support from Harvard students. Even Boston merchants began to have some second thoughts--enough so that after a four week rest, the Banner was back in print...