The Founding of The Chicago Reporter
How it all started ...
Editorial - Why the Chicago Reporter?
July 1, 1972 | The Chicago Reporter
Of all the challenges facing Chicago, race is the make or break issue for the 1970’s. And, by “Chicago” we mean the whole community, the city and the suburbs. Race touches everybody and everything. Racial peace and progress are more than moral ideals today. They are matters of profound self-interest to every person and institution in this community. The goal of The Chicago Reporter is to bring some new light to this important issue. The Reporter is a monthly investigative newsletter, which will specialize in covering racial issues in metropolitan Chicago.
The Reporter will focus on Chicago because there is a need for more sophisticated information about the Chicago race relations scene. In recent years, the center of action in race has shifted from the national to the local level. It is on the local urban level that racial problems and pressures are greatest. It is on the local level that the most serious reform efforts are underway.
The Reporter will be an investigative publication. It will tell it like it is, but we are not interested in mere muckraking. There is already so much that is wrong in this field that a steady diet of failure may simply encourage despair and the temptation to cop out.
The Reporter is not in competition with black media. It will not speak for the black community as such. Rather, its focus will be on the terrain where black and white intersect.
The Reporter will try to be dispassionate, accurate and constructive in its approach. It will seek to enlighten its readers, not browbeat them. It will not assume that every Chicago institution is racist. It will report success stories as well as failures. It will also look for the humor, richness and beauty which racial diversity contributes to our common life.
The Reporter will dig beneath the surface of local racial news because the issues of the 70’s are more hidden and complex. The special problem of the 70’s is racial inequality, the deep disparities in the condition and quality of life which separate the races and which are the legacy of generations of injustice.
Racial peace will be impossible if these disparities are allowed to harden into permanent subordination, a racial underclass. The Reporter will be available to all but is written especially for Chicago leaders, for those who have important institutional responsibilities and influence.
They have the power to act. The Reporter will seek to help them understand the issues and opportunities that confront them. The Reporter is admittedly reformist.
We believe that racial justice and peace can be achieved without revolution. That our system and institutions can change and be changed non-violently to produce an open, non-racist society. This will not happen without serious commitment and work, but it can happen if we choose and it must happen if we are to build a civilized and safe future for this Community.
John A. McDermott Lillian Calhoun The Chicago Reporter Editors