Telegraf (Baltimore newspaper)

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Telegraf
Telegraf 1917-12-08 cover page.jpg
The cover page for the December 8, 1917 issue of Telegraf
TypeWeekly newspaper
Owner(s)Vaclav Joseph Shimek, August Klecka
Founder(s)Vaclav Joseph Shimek
PublisherČes.-Am. vydavatelské družstvo
EditorRev. Frank Novak
Founded1909
LanguageCzech
HeadquartersBaltimore, Maryland, U.S.
OCLC number 9483768

The Telegraf was a local weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland. The newspaper ran for 42 years, from February 20, 1909, until 1951. It was directed at the Czech community in Baltimore and was published in Czech. [1] [2] The newspaper was founded and first published by Vaclav Joseph Shimek, who also founded the Grand Lodge Č.S.P.S. of Baltimore. [3] After 1929, the newspaper was edited by the Rev. Frank Novak and published by August Klecka. [4]

Contents

History

In 1909, the Telegraf and its co-owner Venceslaus J. Shimek endorsed the Digges Amendment, a defeated proposal to amend the Maryland Constitution to disenfranchise Black voters. An October 11, 1909, article in the Baltimore Sun stated that foreign-born white voters in Shimek's neighborhood of Baltimore were enthusiastic supporters of the amendment. Although some critics of the amendment were concerned it might be used to restrict the voting rights of foreign-born white people, Shimek wrote in the Telegraf that "...I am in favor of the amendment, heart and soul, and the Telegraf, of which I am president, is supporting it strongly." Shimek argued that Bohemians should support the amendment because only Black Americans would be disenfranchised. The Baltimore Sun summarized Shimek's argument as being that "No Bohemian need fear" because the law "will eliminate only the negro." [5]

Preservation

Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library maintains a partial archive of the Telegraf on microfilm in its Periodicals Department Collection. [6] The Telegraf is also available on microfilm at the Center for Research Libraries, the Maryland State Archives, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. [7]

See also

References

  1. "Guide to Maryland Newspapers - MSA SC 3774 [OCLC 9483768]". Archives of Maryland Online. Viewed 2011-11-26.
  2. Tim Almaguer, Friends of Patterson Park Baltimore's Patterson Park (2006) p 81
  3. "Sokol Baltimore's Sokoletter - May 2010" (PDF). Sokol Baltimore. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 26, 2012. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  4. Chapelle, Suzanne Ellery Greene (2000). Baltimore: an illustrated history. Sun Valley, California: American Historical Press. p. 156. ISBN   1892724111.
  5. "Bohemian Voters Safe". Baltimore Sun . Retrieved September 27, 2025.
  6. "Baltimore City Newspapers on Microfilm, Listed by Title". Enoch Pratt Free Library . Retrieved April 24, 2019.
  7. "About Telegraf. (Baltimore, Md.) 1909-1951". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress. Retrieved April 24, 2019.