We’ve seen a lot of sun and triple digit temperatures this summer. But it was a much different story one hundred years ago. Recently, the Spotlight team looked at The Fort Worth Telegram (the Star hadn’t been added yet) and The Fort Worth Record from 1908.
Weather was a top story back then… news crews covered the Trinity River’s major Flood in May 1908. It caused many deaths and knocked out electricity and utilities for days in Dallas.
Just like this year, the Democrats were preparing to have their National Convention in Denver back in 1908. The Fort Worth Record gave a detailed drawing of the convention facility – then the largest of its kind.
Some headlines were not as jovial. The reporting of African-Americans in the newspaper gives us a picture of race relations at the turn of the century.
An alleged assault of a white teenager by a black suspect in Beaumont resulted in the burning of several parks for black citizens. The article indicated if the suspect was caught, he would be lynched without any sort of trial or justice. Another article referred to African-Americans visiting a Fort Worth park as a “Black Cancer.”
The treatment of women was also not kind. This article “suggested” the woman with “too much flesh” should reduce her weight, hide her figure or hide herself altogether.
