Southern News Almanac
The Southern News Almanac was a labor newspaper published in Birmingham by Joe Gelders between 1940 and 1941 or 1942. Although Gelders and others associated with the venture had connections to the Communist Party, the paper was not formally affiliated with the party, did not mention communism by name, and and inflected its editorial stance in favor of religious arguments for empowering workers and opposing capitalism and war.
Gelders secured initial funding for the paper from Friday publisher Daniel S. Gillmor. He hired Birmingham Age-Herald veterans George Londa and Quentin Gore along with former Anniston Star editor Sam Hall. The paper's first edition was dated January 25, 1940. Two notable Christian ministers with Communist sympathies, Fred Maxey of Leeds and Don West, then living in Tarrant, contributed columns advocated for the building of the "Kingdom of Heaven" by championing the empowerment of the poor over their oppressors.
One observer credited the Southern News Almanac for helping form a tenants' union to oppose rent hikes, and the organization of a Birmingham Committee Against Police Brutality.
The Southern News Almanac maintained an anti-war stance, at least before Adolf Hitler broke the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact in June 1941. Its finances collapsed that year and by 1942 it had closed down.
References
- O'Hara, Norman (August 12, 1941) "Dear Editor". New Masses, p. 8
- Kelley, Robin D. G. (1990) Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press ISBN 9780807842881, pp. 196-197