On Cassette: Frank Marshall Davis 4

Frank Marshall Davis continues to speak about his experiences as editor of the Atlanta Daily World and the problems of running a daily newspaper during the Depression.

He recalls that he made $35 a week as editor of the World while editors at some of the Hearst papers made little more than $15-$20 a week.

Davis returned to Chicago in 1934 to take over the Associated Negro Press.  At that time, he read about 35 papers a day and his memory was sharp.

When asked what was happening to black people during this time, Davis remembers the Scottsboro Boys and the case of Angelo Herndon, an African-American communist organizer who was imprisoned for insurrection in Atlanta in 1932.

Davis believes his poetry was based on these experiences,on "things that usually happened to blacks."  He reads his poem "Christ is a Dixie Nigger." He felt that it was his duty "to step on sore toes in this matter of race."

Davis also recalls conflicts with W.A. Scott, publisher of the Atlanta Daily World as well as other members of the black community over his willingness to confront race relations head on.