---
title: '"The Guiding Light" [The Negro Press, 1827-1944]'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/owi-alston-the-guiding-light-negro-press-1943/
description: A robed figure with a torch and a sash reading 'The Negro Press' points toward the word 'Justice', beside a rock marked 'Intolerance' and 'Persecution'.
section: Collection
---

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3. "The Guiding Light" [The Negro Press, 1827-1944]

**Content note:** A robed allegorical figure labelled 'The Negro Press' holds a torch and points to 'Justice' beside a rock marked 'Intolerance' and 'Persecution', as published in a 1943 Office of War Information cartoon. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[!["The Guiding Light" \[The Negro Press, 1827-1944\], 1943 US cartoon: A robed figure with a torch and a sash reading 'The Negro](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/owi-alston-the-guiding-light-negro-press-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/owi-alston-the-guiding-light-negro-press-1943.jpg)

# "The Guiding Light" [The Negro Press, 1827-1944]

A robed figure with a torch and a sash reading 'The Negro Press' points toward the word 'Justice', beside a rock marked 'Intolerance' and 'Persecution', under the dates 1827-1944. The tell is transfer and glittering generalities: a Statue-of-Liberty-style classical figure lends civic prestige to the press, and the virtue words stand in for specific claims.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
1827~1944
THE NEGRO PRESS
JUSTICE
INTOLERANCE
PERSECUTION
"THE GUIDING LIGHT"
Alston OWI
```

[← Still a weapon for freedom! (116th anniversary of the Negro Press)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/owi-alston-still-a-weapon-for-freedom-1943/) [The Scroll Grows \[cited for bravery\] →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/owi-alston-the-scroll-grows-1943/)

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