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After authoring a groundbreaking book in 1919 about African-American contributions to California history, Delilah Beasley began in 1923 writing a column, "Activities Among Negroes, "for the Oakland Tribune, detailing the lives of African Americans around the country. This made her the first African-American woman to be a regular columnist for a mainstream (predominately white) newspaper. Her columns chronicled a range of activities among the black elite, from the quotidian to the exceptional, and provided white readers with positive portrayals of African Americans that were not commonly available to white audiences. What she wrote often drew the attention of prominent whites in the community, particularly women involved in the progressive movement and women's clubs, and promoted interracial dialogue in California's East Bay region.
In 1919, Delilah Beasley published a groundbreaking historical compilation of black pioneers in California, Negro Trailblazers of California, which chronicled the contributions of African Americans in the state. As she conducted interviews and research, she gained the attention of the Oakhnd Tribune, which hired her in 1915 as a news correspondent. Eight years later, she became a regular columnist for the newspaper and hence the first AfricanAmerican woman to write for a mainstream (predominantly white) daily. "Activities Among Negroes" showcased the inner workings of the East Bay region's black middle class, offering items about prominent civil rights leaders, social and business elite events, philanthropic work, and social causes.
Beasley wrote of these items as an advocate of black civic, cultural, and political life in Oakland, and hence she framed them as stories about black accomplishments and struggles for social equity. The columns, though advocacy in content, were clearly packaged for white authences. Beasley often explained the role of black institutions, something that black authences would have known beforehand; she never talked about controversies debated within the black community; and she focused on Oakland's black elite, giving white readers a countervailing impression to stereotypes of black life. In the local black paper, the Oakland Sunshine, she explained her reasoning for offering distinctive story frames for white authences: "News of special interest to us as a people ought to be discussed in our own papers among ourselves. But if a bit of news would have a tendency to better our position in the community,...