Wrong Hat

The ad that ran in various national publications was right in step with current events. To illustrate Black Chicago, a history of the city's Negro ghetto from 1890 to 1920, a cop was shown clubbing a group of Negroes. Just the thing to cause a concerned citizen to rush right out and buy the book. But wait a minute. Wasn't that an unusual cap the policeman was wearing? The Chicago police department thought so. None of their men wore it. Chicago Daily News Columnist Virginia Kay was also puzzled. She did some checking and printed the results. The officer, she said, was a South African and so were the blacks he was beating at Durban in 1960. Concluded Mrs. Kay: "Looks like the university needs to temper its ads with a bit of honesty."

The University of Chicago Press was not very apologetic, though it withdrew the ad. "The South African picture was purposely chosen to illustrate the ad," said Publicity Manager Dorothy Sutherland, "since the book is a history. How anyone could mistake the picture as a commentary on the Chicago police is a surprise to me."