 In 1920 , Donaldson made a then @-@ controversial move by hiring an African @-@ American journalist James Albert Jackson to write a weekly column devoted to African @-@ American performers . According to The Business of Culture : Strategic Perspectives on Entertainment and Media , the column identified discrimination against black performers and helped validate their careers . Jackson was the first black critic at a national magazine with a predominantly white audience . According to his grandson , Donaldson also established a policy against identifying performers by their race . Donaldson died in 1925 . 
