Smoke and Mirrors: The Chicago Defender, Tobacco Sponsorship, and the Health of the African American Public Sphere

ABSTRACT This article examines the relationship between the Chicago Defender and its largest national sponsor, the tobacco industry, from 1947–1975. As a member of the Black press during an age of increasing civil rights activism and intensified media competition, the Defender had difficulty attracting national commercial sponsorship. Tobacco companies were the lone exception and patronage meant more than advertising space. Analyzing editorials, articles, feature columns, advertising, letters to the editor, and internal tobacco industry documents, the authors found a purposeful commercial sponsor given a disproportionate voice. The Defender provided tobacco companies access to a constituting force of the African American 1 social imaginary and an outlet to embed themselves in the African American community and Black identity. Tobacco executives intentionally targeted Black media outlets, and sponsorship extended far beyond the Defender. Placed in historical context and considering an advocacy press’s primary role of serving a community, the authors question the independence allotted by such funding. By studying the best traditions of the Black press—and how it was influenced by its most important commercial sponsor—this study reaffirms journalism’s foundational purpose as a principled and inclusive tool of democratic worldmaking.