Black history in Florida, worldwide on display

By MILLIE LAPIDARIO, Staff Writer Last update: February 16, 2005 As a young girl in the pre-World War II era, Violet Gordon remembers sitting at the library, reading The Pittsburgh Courier and The Chicago Defender. They were two of the most popular black newspapers and in her generation, taking a firm stance for civil rights when many resisted. In the 1930s, The Pittsburgh Courier protested against the radio serial "Amos 'n' Andy," a comedy where two white actors mimicked black characters. And in the mid-twentieth century, The Chicago Defender's passionate editorials against Jim Crow laws seemed to play a major role in the black migration from the South to the North. When Gordon, now a Palm Coast resident, became a stenographer with the first black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in the 1940s, she realized just how important those two newspapers were. Full Story: http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Neighbors/NewsTribune/03FlaglerNT03021605.htm