Genealogy Gems in PULSE Magazine – A Washington DC Publication from the 1940s

I recently located a copy of PULSE Magazine.  The front cover is torn off, so I was unsure of the date. The magazine contains articles about blacks in Washington, DC, during World War II and advertisements for black Washington, DC businesses.

PULSE Magazine – Back Cover

The magazine contained a wealth of information that would be of value to people’s family history research. So, I reached out to some of the people on Ancestry.com who had the names of some of the people mentioned in the articles on their family tree and offered to share.

I decided to write a blog post to share information about the PULSE magazine and some of the articles this edition contains because it may also be valuable to others.

Pictures of various service members.

Out in Front  – by Al Sweeney, Sports Editor, Washington Tribune
Article about William Mathis, Cardoza High School track star

Here are People You Know and Love  – by Pearl Beldon Cox 
Article about Dr. Joseph C. Brazier, Miss Cecilia Brazier, Dr. and Mrs. Charles Pinderhughes

A few other articles are:
Spotlight on the Case of Truman Gibson’s Report on the 92nd Division
by Ernest J Johnson, Chief Washington Bureau Associated Negro Press
Article about Truman K. Gibson, the civilian aide to the Secretary of War

Oil Tank Murder
by Bob Queen
Article about the unsolved murder of 26-year-old Mary I. Howard, whose body was discovered in a Standard Oil Company tank on the morning of October 20, 1941, at, Danville and Baylis Streets in the industrial area of South Baltimore.

I contacted the Library of Congress’s Newspapers & Current Periodicals department to learn more about the publication. Amber Paranick, Reference Librarian, responded with the following information:

We have access to a monthly periodical title called Pulse via a database called America’s Historical Newspapers. It looks like we may not have hard physical copies here at the Library of Congress unfortunately but according to the record, a microfilm edition was produced by the African-American Press Preservation Project at the Wisconsin State Historical Society. The record indicates holdings are available at the New York Public Library as well: https://www.nypl.org/research/research-catalog/bib/b14305928.

She also attached the cover and title pages from the April 1, 1944 edition and provided a description from the Sam Houston State University Library’s holdings record.

Uniform title: Pulse (Washington, D.C.)
Title:
Pulse.
Publication info:
[Washington, D.C., Pulse Pub. Company]
Current frequency:
Monthly
Volume/date range:
v. 1- Feb. 1943-
Volume/date range:
Ceased with v. 6, no. 6[sic] July 1948?
Subject term:
African Americans–Periodicals.

From these documents, I learned the PULSE Magazine was published monthly by PULSE PUBLISHING CO. located at 2627 Bowen Road SE, Washington, DC. The editors were James C. Mason and Helen S. Mason.