The Tattler Viola Muse Transcription Zariah Grant Encoding and edition Joshua Smith Edition Laura Heffernan Edition Tru Leverette Edition Clayton McCarl

This document was produced as part of the Viola Muse Digital Edition (violamuse.unfdhi.org), based at the University of North Florida.

https://violamuse.unfdhi.org/items/show/53 USA Florida Jacksonville Jacksonville Historical Society Viola Muse Collection (1959-18) Folder 8, item 3 A discussion of the Florida Tattler, a newspaper for the African American communities of Jacksonville with a reputation for sensationalism

Handwritten, one page

Document transcribed and encoded following the criteria of the Viola Muse Digital Edition (violamuse.unfdhi.org), based at the University of North Florida.
Literature

Viola B. Muse

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The " Tattler", with front page referred to as a scandal sheet, carries news of civic church, fraternal, and social activities of Negroes of Jacksonville. Edited by a Jacksonville man, PortiaPorcher Taylor,

Porcher Taylor was the founder and editor of the Florida Tattler. See Abel A. Bartley, Keeping the Faith: Race, Politics, and Social Development in Jacksonville, Florida, 1940-1970, Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 2000, p. xvi. An interview with Taylor's son, Col. Porcher Taylor, Jr., has been archived by the African American oral history project The HistoryMakers.

We correct to Porcher the spelling Portia, found in the original and apparently a phonetic rendering of the former.

614 Broad Street:. showsShows signs of becoming a widely circulated weekly as the mediocre class of Negroes of Jacksonville delights in the class of news it affords. From a monetary side, the Tattler will grow to heights unknown, unless the tastes and desires of the people who support a paper can be changed to higher ideals. Its effect upon the youth of the community is keenly felt, especially at this time when teachers in the public schools are having such hard struggles to interest the boys &and girls in reading worth whileworthwhile matter. The adult life of the community is depicted to the growing child as base and common, and its psychological effect is pronounced. (6)