City-Wide Guild News

Oct. 12, 2001

HERBLOCK
1909-2001
Newspaper Guild Member, 1934-2001

The Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild mourns the passing and celebrates the remarkable life and career of an extraordinary man whose pen, indeed, was mightier than the sword.

We are proud that Herbert L. Block was a member of our Guild local, then known as the Washington Newspaper Guild, since coming to The Washington Post in 1946. Herblock, in fact, was the longest dues-paying member in the Guild' s history, joining in Cleveland in 1934, just a few weeks after the union's founding by the renowned New York newspaper columnist Heywood Broun.

Back in the 1930s, as today, union organizing faced stiff opposition from employers. In his autobiography, "Herblock: A Cartoonist's Life," the artist talks about Broun visiting Cleveland in 1933 and "calling for the creation of an organization of working newspaper people."

"Spurred by Broun, a few local newspeople risked publishing-industry consignment" to the newspaper backwaters by forming the Cleveland Editorial Employees Association, Herblock wrote. "I heard that they practically met in dark alleys to plan and organize this single-unit organization that later became the first chapter of The Newspaper Guild. I was not one of those pioneering founders, but did join that first unit, and am still a member of The Newspaper Guild."

In an essay in the catalogue of his Library of Congress exhibition last February, Herblock called political cartoons "a means of poking fun, for puncturing pomposity … In opposing corruption, suppression of rights and abuse of government office, the political cartoon has always served as a special prod - a reminder to public servants that they ARE public servants."

A half-century ago, The Newspaper Guild selected Herblock for its highest honor, the Heywood Broun Award, the first and only time the annual award was presented to a cartoonist. The judges said Herblock's cartoons "combine graphic skill, a high sense of social values and a mordant wit. They are a jog to complacency, a taunt to hypocrisy, a challenge to meanness."

Herblock was the featured speaker at several Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Front Page Awards ceremonies. The annual awards recognize the best reporting, photography and graphic design produced by employees in WBNG's jurisdiction. At the 1993 Front Page Awards, WBNG paid special tribute to Herblock for his six decades of Guild membership.

In an op-ed column about our departed friend, Post editorial writer and 41-year Guild member Robert Asher wrote: "Behind the mighty pen of Herblock was a softie. The man who put the pompous in their place and the world in unique perspective put his friends above all else."

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Copyright © 2001 Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild