About this item
"Mildred Dee Brown (1905-89) was the cofounder of Nebraska's Omaha Star, the longest running black newspaper founded by an African American woman in the United States. Known for her trademark white carnation corsage, Brown was the matriarch of Omaha's Near North Side--a historically black part of town--and an iconic city leader. Her remarkable life, a product of the Reconstruction era and Jim Crow, reflects a larger American history that includes the Great Migration, the Red Scare of the post-World War era, civil rights and black power movements, desegregation, and urban renewal. Within the context of African American and women's history studies, Amy Helene Forss's Black Print with a White Carnation examines the impact of the black press through the narrative of Brown's life and work.
About the Author
Amy Helene Forss wrote her first book, Black Print with a White Carnation, as an exploration of Mildred Brown, the black editor and owner of the Omaha Star newspaper. Although Brown passed in 1989, her newspaper continues printing as the country's longest running black newspaper co-founded by a black woman. Forss published her second book, Newspapers and Butter Pecan Ice Cream as a children's version of the first book; Omaha Public Schools, Westside Community Schools, and Boys Town feature it in third grade curriculum. Her newest project, Borrowing from our Foremothers, a reexamination of the women's movement through material culture, will be published by University of Nebraska Press in 2021.
