Citizen Crusader
St. Louis: 1961-1962. Fifty-two issues, [736]pp. Large folio. Green buckram, cover gilt. Light wear, upper board lightly warped by damp. Some faint dampstaining to upper edge of text block. Minor creasing at center fold, a few leaves with closed tears repaired. A few scattered ink underlinings. About very good. Item #6555
A bound volume of this short-lived Black St. Louis Civil Rights-era newspaper variantly titled Citizen Crusader or The New Citizen. The run here spans Volume 1, No. 8 (February 24, 1961) to Volume 2, No. 22 (December 7, 1962). It was published from late 1960 through early 1963, making this most of a complete run of the newspaper. The Citizen Crusader was published and edited by husband and wife DaVerne and Ernest Calloway from their home in The Ville neighborhood. DaVerne was the first Black woman elected to the Missouri legislature, serving as a member of the State’s House of Representatives from 1962 to 1982. Ernest was a nationally-prominent labor leader with Teamsters Local 688 and one-time President of the St. Louis chapter of the NAACP. In the first issue present here, under the header “Why We Exist,” the editors make their statement on that subject:
“The new Citizen Crusader is an angry newspaper. There are several other weekly newspapers in the St. Louis negro community which have various and sundry reasons for existing. Some seek to entertain, others seek to make money, and still others seek to create the dangerous image and illusion that all is well [in] our community, state, nation, and world during this critical period of history. ... But for the Citizen Crusader all is not well -- freedom-wise -- with our community, our state and our country. There is much work to be done. There are mountains to climb, there are rivers to cross. There are deserts to be endured, and there are new social frontiers to be conquered. As an angry newspaper, we have only one axe to grind -- our studied indifference to our own welfare...we believe there is more to the St. Louis Negro community than the Friday night sorority dance or the Saturday night knife and razor crowd. Between these two social extremes, there exist the real St. Louis Negro community -- daily working, struggling to survive, and quietly making their own small contributions to a better community. This newspaper addresses itself to that great body of hard-working citizens.”
Highlights in its original reporting and photography include DaVerne’s blow-by-blow commentary on the progress of the Freedom Riders throughout 1961; extensive coverage of the Freedom City tent encampment near Somerville, Tennessee; a 1961 CORE sit-in protest in Sikeston, Missouri; fearless coverage of myriad local issues in and around St. Louis including the razing of Mill Creek Valley, housing security, school desegregation, employment discrimination, organized labor, etc. Rare in either the trade or institutions.
Price: $6,500.00