"Cartoons Are For All," Raleigh News and Observer, June 14, 1900

"Cartoons Are For All," Raleigh News and Observer, June 14, 1900

The editor of the Raleigh News and Observer, prominent Democrat Josephus Daniels, objected to Republican Party Chairman A.E. Holton’s accusations that the cartoons featured in his newspaper were included because many of his Democratic subscribers were illiterate. Daniels countered that, while the paper was “proud” to have some subscribers who could not read, the cartoons were designed to benefit everyone. He also used this exchange as an opportunity to counter assertions made by some Populists and Republicans that Democrats intended to disfranchise poor white voters, arguing that “there are many good men who cannot read that could teach Holton lessons in good government and in politics.” Regardless of the cartoons’ intended audience, the vicious images featured on the front page of many issues of the News and Observer played an important role in helping secure the passage of North Carolina’s Suffrage Amendment, which ultimately disenfranchised many white and black voters, in August elections of 1900.

Raleigh News and Observer

"Cartoons Are For All," Raleigh News and Observer, June 14, 1900. Raleigh, NC: North Carolina State University Libraries. Microfilm.

1900-06-14

Glant, Erin

Document

Wake County, North Carolina

Newspaper Article

In a speech in Lexington last Saturday, so we are informed, State Chairman Holton, of the Republican committee, paid his respects to the editor of the News and Observer, and said that he had to teach his Democratic subscribers by means of cartoons because they cannot read.

We do not use the cartoons for our literate or illiterate readers, but for both. We are proud to have as subscribers some good men who are uneducated who take the paper for their wives and children to read. We do not propose to disfranchise these uneducated readers or any other uneducated white men. There are many good men who cannot read that could teach Holton lessons in good government and in politics. They know they will be protected, and Holton will not help his case by telling them that the Winston negroes can read Greek better than they can read English. They know better.