Researching Black History at the BPL
Introduction
The first African American newspaper in the United States, Freedom's Journal, started in New Y
ork City as a weekly abolitionist publication in 1827. More than 3,000 African American newspapers have appeared and disappeared since the debut of that first one. These newspapers are a vital part of the Black press and chronicle the social history of African Americans.
There were as many as 40 African American newspapers and magazines between the appearance of Freedom's Journal and the end of slavery. Post-Reconstruction years gave rise to the greatest increase in African American newspapers. Among the reasons for this were improved educational opportunities, support of religious groups, the establishment of political sheets for disfranchised African Americans, and the growth of an urban middle class which could support newspapers.
During the era of the New Journalism, between 1880 and WWI, both the mainstream press and the Black press grew in numbers, circulation, and stature. Between 1880 and 1915, more than 1,876 African American newspapers were operating in the United States. (From the Library of Congress)
On This Page:
- Black Newspaper Collections
- Newspaper Reference Sources
- Related digital and microfilm collections focused on the papers and works of prominent Black journalists
- Books about the history of African American newspapers
- Suggested subject headings
- Related research guides
- Websites where you can learn more about this topic
Image Right: A March 1942 black and white photo of a Black newsboy selling copies of The Chicago Defender, the first Black newspaper to have a circulation over 100,000. Image courtesy of Jack Delano/The Library of Congress.
A list of frequently asked questions and research tips
- Newspapers at the BPL LibGuide
Newspaper resources at the Boston Public Library and beyond.
Image Right: The October 4th, 1952 New England Edition of The Afro American newspaper. It includes headlines about murders committed by Air Force veteran Lawrence Goldsby, the Dixiecrat leanings of Eisenhower during his presidential campaign, and coverage of the Dodgers in the World Series (whose roster included Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella). The Baltimore-based Afro American was first published in 1915 and is still in operation today (2024). This photograph is part of the Leslie Jones Collection at the Boston Public Library.
Example Library of Congress Subject Headings for Black newspapers:
Image Right: The front page of the Sunday, May 4, 1941 edition of the Chicago Bee. The main headline refers to the Supreme Court case Mitchell v. United States, which ruled that a railroad could not provide different levels of service to African-American and white passengers who had the same class of ticket. While this did not end segregation outright, it set the important precedent that the Interstate Commerce Clause could be used to fight for desegregation in transportation. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
The Black Press: Soldiers Without Words
Guide to the 1999 PBS documentary. Includes a full transcript of the documentary, biographies of prominent figures, overviews of famous Black newspapers, a timeline of key events, a research bibliography, and educational activities.
- Honoring African American Contributions: The Newspapers
A Library of Congress blog post with a brief history of African American press.
- Black Quotidian Archives
A project of Stanford University, Black Quotidian explores everyday lives of African Americans in the twentieth century. Drawing on an archive of digitized African-American newspapers, Matthew F. Delmont guides readers through a wealth of primary resources that reveal how the Black press popularized African-American history and valued the lives of both famous and ordinary Black people.
Image Right: A World War II-era illustration advertising National Negro Newspaper Week. It draws connections between the work of Black soldiers fighting for freedom abroad and the Black press fighting for freedom at home. It was illustrated by Charles Alston, a prominent artist in the Harlem Renaissance.
Black Newspaper Collections
- AFRO News Archives
Digitized versions of several Black newspapers, including:
The Afro American – National Edition (digitized from January 1902 – December 1957)
Afro American – Ledger (digitized from October 1906 – June 1917)
Baltimore Afro – American (digitized from January 1943 – December 2003)
Washington Afro – American (digitized from August 1938 – June 1988) - The Ancestor Hunt: Historical African American Newspapers Online
A list with links to freely digitized newspapers online sorted by state. Note: This website contains ads.
- Black Liberation Movement Publications
This collection is comprised of position papers, monographs, newspapers and other publications from or about the Black Liberation Movement. Includes The Student Voice, The Movement Newspaper, Crossroads, Soulbook and a sub-collection filled with assorted writings.
- Black Panther Newspaper
The Black Panther was the official newspaper of the Black Panther Party. It began as a four-page newsletter in Oakland, California, in 1967, and was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. It was the main publication of the party and was soon sold in several large cities across the United States, as well as having an international readership. The newspaper distributed information about the party's activities, and expressed through articles the ideology of the Black Panther Party, focusing on both international revolutions as inspiration and contemporary racial struggles of African Americans across the United States.
- Digitized African American Newspapers from Chronicling America
A list of 299 African American newspapers digitized in part or in full by the Library of Congress. By clicking on the titles of different columns, you can also sort alphabetically, by publication date, number of issues, and state of publication.
- Frederick Douglass Newspapers, 1847 to 1874
This online collection presents newspapers edited by Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), the African American abolitionist who escaped slavery and became one of the most famous orators, authors, and journalists of the 19th century.
- Freedom's Journal, the First U.S. African-American Owned Newspaper
Freedom's Journal was the first African-American owned and operated newspaper published in the United States. Founded by Rev. Peter Williams, Jr. and other free black men in New York City, it was published weekly as a four-page, four-column newspaper, starting with the March 16, 1827 issue. Freedom's Journal circulated in 11 states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe, and Canada.
- The Guardian Newspaper (BPL Collection)
On November 9, 1901, the Boston Guardian was first published in Boston, Massachusetts. William Monroe Trotter and George Forbes, former publisher of the Boston Courant and a reference librarian at the Boston Public Library, were the publishers. Trotter was the editor of the newspaper from its beginnings until his death in 1934. It was a weekly publication, coming out on Saturdays, that was aimed primarily at Boston's African American community, though eventually it had significant readership across the United States. The paper's content reflected Trotter's political views, championing a militant advocacy for civil rights for African Americans, in stark contrast to racial accommodationists such as Booker T. Washington. The newspaper was stridently non-partisan, endorsing Republican and Democratic political candidates solely based on their views on civil rights for African Americans.
- Historical African American Newspapers Available Online
This guide provides a list of historical African American Newspapers available online as part of digitization projects at libraries and historical societies as well as digitization projects done by Google. The content is available for free, though it is at the discretion of the institution providing the content. The newspapers contained within guide are those that have ceased to operate or are currently running papers with archives available. It does not include papers that are currently running and only offer access to the most recent articles.
- Independent Voices: Black American Newspapers
A focus on newspapers and magazines from the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, including The BAD Times, Black Americans for Democracy News, Grassroot Struggle, Muhammad Speaks, and Times - Black American for Democracy
- The Negro World
Negro World was the newspaper of the Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA).
Image Above, Top: The cover of the March 13, 1971 edition of The Black Panther Newspaper featuring the title "Free Angela" and a photo of Angela Davis with her signature afro. The wrongful incarceration of Angela Davis led to an international movement dedicated to freeing her and all political prisoners. This image was taken directly from the BPL's collection of the Black Panther Party Newspaper. Davis' papers are also held nearby at the Schlesinger Library.
Image Above, Bottom: An illustration from the April 3, 1971 edition of the Black Panther Party Newspaper. It appeared in an article entitled "People's Medical Center Vandalized." In addition to discussing the attack on the Chicago health center, the article describes the Preventative Medicine Campaign, "where medical teams, consisting of a community volunteer and a medical student, go from door to door in the community, testing for various diseases that plague our communities. Tests for lead poisoning, Sickle Cell Anemia, Diabetes, Gonnorhea, and others." This photo was taken directly from the BPL's collection.
Note: This list is a work in progress. To inquire about specific holdings, please contact us at ask@bpl.org.
- Bay State Banner (Previously the Boston Banner) (1965-Present)
- Digitized: Bay State Banner Archives (Nov 16, 2017-Present)
- BPL Microfilm: Yes (Sept 25, 1965- Mar 27, 2008; April 3, 2008-2015)
- Other libraries that have it
- Note: The Bay State Banner Photograph Collection is held in the Boston University archives
- The Boston Advance (1896-1907)
- Digitized: Yes, but only the February 17, 1900 edition
- BPL Microfilm: Check back soon for more information
- Other libraries that have it
- Boston Advocate (1885-1887)
- Digitized: Yes, through the MyHeritage database (available with your library card)
- BPL Microfilm: Yes (Jun 27- Oct 17, 1885; Jan 3- Mar 13, 1886; Jun 5, 1886- Jan 22, 1887)
- The Boston Banner
- See: The Bay State Banner
- Boston Chronicle (1915-1966)
- Digitized: Yes, through the MyHeritage database (available with your library card) and through Suffolk University
- BPL Microfilm: Yes (Jan 9, 1932- Apr 9, 1960)
- Other libraries that have it
- Notes: Has same publisher as: Hartford-Springfield chronicle; continued in part by the Providence chronicle
- The Boston Colored Citizen (1903-1905?)
- Check back soon for more information
- The Boston Courant (1890-1902)
- Digitized: Yes (Only the January 6, 1900 issue)
- BPL Microfilm: Check back soon for more information
- Other libraries that have it
- The Boston Haitian Reporter (2001-2010)
- Digitized: No
- BPL Microfilm: Yes (2001-2010)
- Boston Reliance (1912-?)
- The Boston Times (1943)
- Digitized: Check back soon for more information
- Other libraries that have it
- The Guardian (1901-1957)
- Digitized: Yes, including through Digital Commonwealth (1939-1957), Chronicling America (1939-57), and the MyHeritage database (available with your library card)
- BPL Microfilm: Yes (Jul 26, 1902-Nov 15, 1913]; Jan 7 ,1939- Apr 20, 1957)
- Other libraries that have it
- Hartford-Springfield Chronicle (1940-194?)
- Digitized: Yes (only the June 15, 1940 issue)
- New England Black Weekly (1980-1982)
- Digitized: No
- BPL Microfilm: Yes
- Pine and Palm (1861-1862?)
- Digitized: Yes, through the database Slavery and Anti-Slavery (available with your library card)
- BPL Microfilm: Yes (May 18, 1861- Sept 4, 1862)
- Other libraries that have it
- Rebellion News (1960?-19?)
- The Self Elevator (1853-?)
- The Woman's Era (1890-1897)
- Digitized: Available through the Boston Public Library and Emory University
- BPL Microfilm: Yes (1894-1897 only)
- BPL Ethnic Newspapers on MicrofilmThis list includes Black/African American newspapers that are part of the BPL's microfilm collections. Listing includes the title, the years we have available, and the state of origin
- Miscellaneous Negro NewspapersMiscellaneous Negro Newspapers Series. E185.5.M58
[The Library of Congress filmed this set of ”Miscellaneous Negro Newspapers" for the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies. In our guide the papers are arranged by state, then by city, then by title. In many cases only a few issues are available for a year. The final column shows on which reel of the set that the newspaper can be found. 12 reels. The set has been digitized on Ancestry Library edition under the title "U.S., African American Newspapers, 1829-1947."
The title of this collection does a disservice to the contents. Claude Barnett ran the Associated Negro Press, a wire service for African American newspapers. It includes correspondence, clippings, reports, minutes, speeches, and financial records of Claude Albert Barnett, the director of the Associated Negro Press (ANP); news releases of the ANP (1928-1964) and of the World News Service (1961-1963). Topics include African American newspapers and journalists; colleges, especially Tuskegee Institute and t
he Conference of Presidents of Negro Land Grant Colleges; businesses, especially advertising, beauty products, and insurance; churches; hospitals; fraternal societies; entertainment; agricultural extension services; racial segregation and integration of the United States armed forces; the home front during World War II; and African travel and culture, especially in Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria. Also includes materials on Barnett's family and the singing and acting career of Etta Moten (Mrs. Barnett), including correspondence and advertising.
- Account Book of the Pine and Palm Newspaper : Manuscript
Account book listing subscribers by state, including Canada, for the Boston-based Black newspaper Pine and Palm. Original manuscript.
- Digital Commonwealth : African American Newspapers
Digitized collections from around the state of Massachusetts related to African American newspapers.
- W. E. B. Du Bois Papers
Scholar, writer, editor of The Crisis and other journals, co-founder of the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, and the Pan African Congresses, international spokesperson for peace and for the rights of oppressed minorities, W.E.B. Du Bois was a son of Massachusetts who articulated the strivings of African Americans and developed a trenchant analysis of the problem of the color line in the twentieth century. Includes over 100,000 items of correspondence (more than three quarters of the papers), speeches, articles, newspaper columns, nonfiction books, research materials, book reviews, pamphlets and leaflets, petitions, novels, essays, forewords, student papers, manuscripts of pageants, plays, short stories and fables, poetry, photographs, newspaper clippings, memorabilia, videotapes, audiotapes, and miscellaneous materials. Located at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Special Collections.
Image Right: A 1907 gelatin silver print of W.E.B. Du Bois by James E. Purdy. Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and Purdy was a Boston-based photographer who captured images of prominent figures in Boston and the surrounding areas. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery
Newspaper Reference Sources
There are several types of reference sources that can assist with African American newspaper research. These resources provide biographical, circulation, and other information about African American newspapers and the Black press.
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Newspaper bibliographies and union lists. Bibliographies include title, dates, place of publication, as well as a paper's focus. Union lists present lists of newspapers in geographic order according to place of publication, and specify w
hich institutions hold collections of those newspapers with dates of their holdings. These can be especially useful for tracking title changes throughout a newspaper's history. -
Newspaper indexes list articles classified by subjects, names, or other items found in a newspaper. They can be used to find citations that will lead to specific issues and page numbers for articles.
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Newspaper histories document the progress of newspaper publishing. Some newspapers have a published history compiled by the newspaper itself or by independent historians. Other works cover the history of the printers and printing of newspapers in a state, county, or region more generally, and provide more condensed histories of the editors, journalists, and evolution of the newspapers in a specific area.
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Newspaper directories identify newspaper titles published in specific locations or time periods.
Some of these resources are also available digitally through HathiTrust.
(From the Library of Congress)
Image Right: The May 1st, 1894 edition of The Woman's Era, the first newspaper in the United States produced and funded by Black women. The newspaper played a starring role in holding the first National Conference of Colored Women and the establishment of the National Association of Colored Women. Copies of the Woman's Era are held in the BPL's Special Collections and digitized online.
African-American Newspapers and Periodicals by Call Number: Z6944.N39 A37 1998ISBN: 9780674007888Publication Date: 1999-02-25A bibliography of over 6,000 African American newspapers and periodicals and where and how to find them through databases, microfilm, or traditional catalogs.- The Afro-American Press and Its Editors byCall Number: PN4888.N4 P4Publication Date: 1891Significant portions of this book have also been digitized by the New York Public Library at digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/the-afro-american-press-and-its-editors#/?tab=about
An Annotated Bibliography of Mary McLeod Bethune's "Chicago Defender" Columns - 1948-1955 by Call Number: Z1361.N39 B47 2001ISBN: 9780773475908Publication Date: 2001-01-01As well as writing weekly newspaper columns for The Chicago Defender from 1948 to 1955, Bethune (1875-1955) founded the National Council of Negro Women and Bethune-Cookman College, and served as an advisor to Presidents from Coolidge to Truman. Dividing the 323 columns into 21 categories, Bennett (journalism and mass communication, U. of Maine, Orono) provides an abstract, citations, and excerpts from editorials for each category. One of several photos shows Bethune with Eleanor Roosevelt, with whom she teamed to address social issues. The author writes columns for the same newspaper. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Bibliographic Checklist of African American Newspapers by Call Number: Z6944.N39 H46 1995ISBN: 9780806314570Publication Date: 1995-01-01This book contains a complete checklist of African American newspapers identified in all major bibliographic sources--newspaper directories, union lists, finding aids, African American bibliographies, yearbooks, and specifically African American newspaper sources. In short, it is a comprehensive checklist of every newspaper that has served African Americans since 1827--a total of 5,539 newspapers. For reference purposes the text is arranged in tabular format under the following headings: newspaper title, city and state of publication, frequency of publication, dates, and sources. Newspapers are listed by state and city, which are in alphabetical order, then, by city, in alphabetical order by title. The papers are again listed alphabetically in the index, this time in a single, comprehensive list which serves as the best fingertip reference to black newspapers in existence.- Black Periodicals and Newspapers a Union List of Holdings in Libraries of the University of Wisconsin and the Library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin byCall Number: Z1361.N39 B79 1975Publication Date: 1975A list of the holdings at the University of Wisconsin Libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society, which have significant collections of African American newspapers.
- The Black Press; a Bibliography byCall Number: Z6944.N39 P68
- Extant Collections of Early Black Newspapers byCall Number: Z6944.N39 C35 PN4882.5ISBN: 9780878751976Publication Date: 1981-03-01A research guide to the Black press, 1880-1915, with an index to the Boston guardian, 1902-1904
- A History of Journalism in the Black Community byCall Number: Z5942 .C68 no. 862Publication Date: 1975
- Newspapers and Periodicals by and about Black People : Southeastern Library Holdings byCall Number: Z1361.N39 N67 1978 E185.5Publication Date: 1978Approximately 1,000 titles. Includes bibliographic data, summaries of holdings, and locations, arranged alphabetically.
- A Reference Guide to Afro-American Publications and Editors, 1827-1946 byCall Number: Z6944.N39 P63 1993xISBN: 9780813806778Publication Date: 1993-03-01This is a collection of indexes based on Warren Henry Brown's alphabetical checklist of nearly 500 African American publications: place of publication, year of publication, and editors.
- Antebellum Black Newspapers : Indices to New York Freedom's Journal (1827-1829), The Rights of All (1829), The Weekly Advocate (1837), and The Colored American (1837-1841) byCall Number: E185.5 .J33Publication Date: 1976This extensive index provides a heretofore unavailable approach to the content of the four New York City black, pre-Civil War newspapers named in the subtitle. An important volume for serious research in black history.
Anti-Slavery Newspapers and Periodicals by Call Number: Z1249.S6 A57ISBN: 9780816181636Publication Date: 1980-06-01- Black Newspapers Index (Microfilm)Call Number: AI3 .I547Publication Date: 1987Many of the foremost black publications are represented in this collection. There is an index to about 10 papers considered the core of the collection that covers the years 1977-1996.
- Blacks in Selected Newspapers, Censuses and Other Sources : An Index to Names and Subjects byCall Number: Z1361.N39 A28 E185.96Publication Date: 1977Indexes 19th and early 20th century newspapers, censuses, and city directories. Strongest on, but by no means limited to, the western U.S.
- Index to Black Newspapers byCall Number: AI3 .I547Publication Date: 1977-1986Comprehensive indexing to articles found in a select number of significant Black newspapers, specifically those microfilmed by ProQuest (e.g. Baltimore Afro American, Amsterdam News, Chicago Defender, etc.).
- The Kaiser Index to Black Resources, 1948-1986 byCall Number: Z1361.N39 K34 1992 E185ISBN: 0926019600Publication Date: 1992-05-01A landmark reference event, making generally accessible to researchers, librarians, and the just plain curious the approximately 174,000 citations to the periodical literature on the African-American experience compiled by Ernest Kaiser and innumerable other librarians at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of The New York Public Library. The index is selective rather than all-inclusive (based on the needs of researchers and the capacities of the Schomburg Center staff), but more than 150 periodicals are represented, including not only the standard black periodical literature, but also obscure newspapers and chapters in books, newsletters, college bulletins, ephemeral publications, African and Caribbean periodicals, and any other source deemed useful to researchers (e.g. The New York times). The records are arranged under more than 15,000 alphabetical subject heads, and each entry includes an annotation, or, on occasion, the title and author of the article, the periodical in which it was published, the date, and the page number. The presence of illustrations or portraits is noted. If material can be found in the Schomburg's vertical file, this is noted, especially beneficial for libraries that own the file on microfiche as published by Chadwyck- Healey. The reference desk at the Schomburg makes itself available to clarify for reference librarians any questions regarding the citations found herein. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
The Black Press in Mississippi, 1865-1985 by Call Number: Z1361.N39 T52 1993 PN4882.5ISBN: 9780813011745Publication Date: 1994-03-20In spite of the historical conditions of poverty, illiteracy, and fear that have prevailed in Mississippi, blacks in the state have struggled to create a viable press that would record their world view. From Reconstruction to the present, the Black press has been a major institution in their effort to secure freedom and equality. This work, attempting a complete treatment of the journalism experience of blacks in a single state, documents all known examples of the Black press in Mississippi from 1865 to 1985, taken from newspapers, newsletters, magazines, and radio and television.
Directory of Afro-American Resources by Call Number: Z1361.N39 R3ISBN: 0835202607Publication Date: 1970-12-01A comprehensive compilation of all the major holdings of information on African Americans by state and city.- The Negro Entrepreneur byCall Number: E185.8 .O2Publication Date: 1948Offers a directory of Black newspapers, including some college publications. Also provides background information about the Black press throughout different time periods.
- A Survey of Black Newspapers in America byCall Number: Z6944.N39 L3 1979ISBN: 0890800340Publication Date: 1980-05-01A list of Black newspaper supplied by various government agencies and press research groups. Includes publisher, addresses, phone numbers, frequency, and cost information.
African American History in the Press : From the Coming of the Civil War to the Rise of Jim Crow as Reported and Illustrated in Selected Newspapers of the Time by Call Number: E185.2 .A25 1996ISBN: 9780810395565Publication Date: 1996-03-01This collection offers an overview of events and personalities that were involved in such historical milestones as: the Dred Scott decision of 1857; Lincoln's candidacy for the presidency and his 1860 election; the printed announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863; and the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. Chronological coverage begins with an illustrated report of the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1851. Each year following is covered in separate chapters that begin with an introduction and overview written by a historian. In all, 1200 articles are reproduced.
The African American Newspaper : Voices of Freedom by Call Number: PN4882.5 .W37 2006ISBN: 9780810122901Publication Date: 2006-12-21Winner, 2007 Tankard Award In March of 1827 the nation's first black newspaper appeared in New York City--to counter attacks on blacks by the city's other papers. From this signal event, The African American Newspaper traces the evolution of the black newspaper--and its ultimate decline--for more than 160 years until the end of the twentieth century. The book chronicles the growth of the black press into a powerful and effective national voice for African Americans during the period from 1910 to 1950--a period that proved critical to the formation and gathering strength of the civil rights movement that emerged so forcefully in the following decades. In particular, author Patrick S. Washburn explores how the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago Defender led the way as the two most influential black newspapers in U.S. history, effectively setting the stage for the civil rights movement's successes. Washburn also examines the numerous reasons for the enormous decline of black newspapers in influence and circulation in the decades immediately following World War II. His book documents as never before how the press's singular accomplishments provide a unique record of all areas of black history and a significant and shaping affect on the black experience in America.
The African American Press by Call Number: PN4882.5 .S57 2005xISBN: 9780786403875Publication Date: 1997-12-01This work examines both predominately black newspapers in general and four in particular - The Chicago Defender, the Pittsburgh Courier, the Black Dispatch (Oklahoma City), and the Jackson (Mississippi) Advocate - and their coverage of national events.- The Afro-American Periodical Press, 1838-1909 byCall Number: PN4882.5 .B8ISBN: 0807106631Publication Date: 1981-07-01
- Black literature, 1827-1940 byCall Number: PS508.N3 B5223 1990xPublication Date: 1990Full text of over 86,000 literary works on microfiche, including fiction, poetry, book reviews and other literary forms by African-Americans and Whites writing in African-American periodicals and newspapers.
A Black National News Service by Call Number: PN4841.A73 H63 1984ISBN: 9780838631379Publication Date: 1984-02-01- The Black Press, 1827-1890: The Quest for National Identity byCall Number: E185.5 .D35 1971Publication Date: 1971collection of articles selected from Black newspapers between 1827 and 1890. The writings of Black journalists reveal a history of struggle to survive and a quest for national identity.
The Black Press, U. S. A. by Call Number: PN4882.5 .W64 1990ISBN: 9780813804965Publication Date: 1990-02-01
The Black Press and the Struggle for Civil Rights by Call Number: PN4882.5 .S46 1993ISBN: 0531110362Publication Date: 1993-10-01Beginning with the first black newspaper, founded in 1827, this book documents the contribution of the black press to the struggle for freedom and civil rights, through the abolitionist period, the Civil War, Reconstruction, the period of segregation, and the movement for integration.
The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America : From the Age of the Pullman Porters to the Age of Obama by Call Number: PN4899.C395 D55 2016ISBN: 9781328470249Publication Date: 2018-03-06"An extraordinary history...Deeply researched, elegantly written...a towering achievement that will not be soon forgotten."--Brent Staples, New York Times Book Review "[This] epic, meticulously detailed account not only reminds its readers that newspapers matter, but so do black lives, past and present."--USA Today Giving voice to the voiceless, The Chicago Defender condemned Jim Crow, catalyzed the Great Migration, and focused the electoral power of black America. Robert S. Abbott founded The Defender in 1905, smuggled hundreds of thousands of copies into the most isolated communities in the segregated South, becoming one of the first black millionaires in the process. His successor wielded the newspaper's clout to elect mayors and presidents, including Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy, who would have lost in 1960 if not for The Defender's support. Drawing on dozens of interviews and extensive archival research, Ethan Michaeli constructs a revelatory narrative of race in America and brings to life the reporters who braved lynch mobs and policemen's clubs to do their jobs, from the age of Teddy Roosevelt to the age of Barack Obama.- Emigration vs. Assimilation: the Debate in the African American Press, 1827-1861 byCall Number: E185 .K49 1988ISBN: 9780899503387Publication Date: 1988-08-01From 1827 to 1861, most Africans in America were either enslaved, propertyless or without citizenship. Yet during that period at least 28 African American newspapers were published. Perhaps the most frequent and controversial topic of debate in these papers was the issue of emigration vs. assimilation. Should blacks in America emigrate to Africa, the Caribbean, and Canada, or continue their quest for assimilation within the American culture? Editors of the black press influenced the self-view of countless African Americans.
- Forum for Protest : The Black Press During World War II byCall Number: PN4888.N4 F5Publication Date: 1975
Freedom's Journal: the First African-American Newspaper by Call Number: PN4899.N42 F743 2007ISBN: 9780739118931Publication Date: 2007-02-09On March 16, 1827, Freedom's Journal, the first African-American newspaper, began publication in New York. Freedom's Journal was a forum edited and controlled by African Americans in which they could articulate their concerns. National in scope and distributed in several countries, the paper connected African Americans beyond the boundaries of city or region and engaged international issues from their perspective. It ceased publication after only two years, but shaped the activism of both African-American and white leaders for generations to come. A comprehensive examination of this groundbreaking periodical, Freedom's Journal: The First African-American Newspaper is a much-needed contribution to the literature. Despite its significance, it has not been investigated comprehensively. This study examines all aspects of the publication as well as extracts historical information from the content.
A History of the Black Press by Call Number: PN4882.5 .P75 1997ISBN: 9780882581927Publication Date: 1997-04-01"In this work, Dr. Wilson chronicles the development of black newspapers in New York City and draws parallels to the development of presses in Washington, D.C., and in 46 of the 50 United States. He describes the involvement of the press with civil rights and the interaction of black and nonblack columnists who contributed to black- and white-owned newspapers."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
It's Life As I See It : Black Cartoonists in Chicago, 1940-1980 by Call Number: NC1427.C5 I87 2021ISBN: 9781681375618Publication Date: 2021-06-01Originally published by Chicago's Black press, long neglected by mainstream publishing, and now included in a Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago exhibition, these comics showcase some of the finest Black cartoonists. Between the 1940s and 1980s, Chicago's Black press-from The Chicago Defender to the Negro Digest to self-published pamphlets-was home to some of the best cartoonists in America. Kept out of the pages of white-owned newspapers, Black cartoonists found space to address the joys, the horrors, and the everyday realities of Black life in America. From Jay Jackson's anti-racist time travel adventure serial Bungleton Green, to Morrie Turner's radical mixed-race strip Dinky Fellas, to the Afrofuturist comics of Yaounde Olu and Turtel Onli, to National Book Award-winning novelist Charles Johnson's blistering and deeply funny gag cartoons, this is work that has for far too long been excluded and overlooked. Also featuring the work of Tom Floyd, Seitu Hayden, Jackie Ormes, and Grass Green, this anthology accompanies the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago's exhibition Chicago Comics- 1960 to Now, and is an essential addition to the history of American comics. The book's cover is designed by Kerry James Marshall. Published in conjunction with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, on the occasion of Chicago Comics- 1960s to Now,June 19-October 3, 2021. Curated by Dan Nadel.
Mediating America : Black and Irish Press and the Struggle for Citizenship, 1870-1914 by Call Number: PN4882 .S55 2019ISBN: 9781439915585Publication Date: 2019-01-30Until recently, print media was the dominant force in American culture. The power of the paper was especially true in minority communities. African Americans and European immigrants vigorously embraced the print newsweekly as a forum to move public opinion, cohere group identity, and establish American belonging. Mediating America explores the life and work of T. Thomas Fortune and J. Samuel Stemons as well as Rev. Peter C. Yorke and Patrick Ford--respectively two African American and two Irish American editor/activists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Historian Brian Shott shows how each of these "race men" (the parlance of the time) understood and advocated for his group's interests through their newspapers. Yet the author also explains how the newspaper medium itself--through illustrations, cartoons, and photographs; advertisements and page layout; and more--could constrain editors' efforts to guide debates over race, religion, and citizenship during a tumultuous time of social unrest and imperial expansion. Black and Irish journalists used newspapers to recover and reinvigorate racial identities. As Shott proves, minority print culture was a powerful force in defining American nationhood.- The Negro in the Philadelphia Press byCall Number: PN4899.P48 S5 1934Publication Date: 1936The author provides an analysis of African American material published in mainstream Philadelphia newspapers during 1908-1932, and whether this material affected the racial attitudes of white readers.
- The Negro Press Re-examined : Political Content of Leading Negro Newspapers byCall Number: PN4888.N4 B7Publication Date: 1959
- Other Voices: Black, Chicano and American Indian press byCall Number: PN4882 .M8ISBN: 0827800142Publication Date: 1974-03-01
A Question of Sedition : The Federal Government's Investigation of the Black Press During World War II by Call Number: D799.U6 W37 1986ISBN: 9780195039849Publication Date: 1986-05-22A Question of Sedition tells the story of an event that almost happened, didn't, and why it never occurred. That event was the attempt by the Rossevelt Administration to use its special wartime sedition powers to suppress publication of the major black newspapers during World War II. Historians have long believed that the massive press suppressions of 1917-1921 did not recur during World War II simply because of a relative absence of dissent. Many have also believed that Franklin Roosevelt, who generally enjoyed good relations with the press, would not have been a supporter of censorship. This book shows that in fact an intense battle raged within the highest levels of Roosevelt's government over censorship of the black press. On the side of suppressing, or at least silencing, the black press was the powerful team of Franklin Roosevelt and J. Edgar Hoover; working virtually alone on the other side was Attorney General Francis Biddle. Drawing on interviews and thousands of pages of government documents, many obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and declassified for the first time, Washburn tells the full story of the conflict, setting the record straight on this important period in the country's libertarian history. About the Author: Patrick S. Washburn is Associate Professor of Journalism at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism of Ohio Univeristy. He was formerly a newspaper reporter and columnist for more than ten years.
The Race Beat : the Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation by Call Number: PN4888.R3 R63 2006ISBN: 0679403817Publication Date: 2006-10-31This is the story of how America awakened to its race problem, of how a nation that longed for unity after World War II came instead to see, hear, and learn about the shocking indignities and injustices of racial segregation in the South—and the brutality used to enforce it. It is the story of how the nation’s press, after decades of ignoring the problem, came to recognize the importance of the civil rights struggle and turn it into the most significant domestic news event of the twentieth century. Drawing on private correspondence, notes from secret meetings, unpublished articles, and interviews, veteran journalists Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff go behind the headlines and datelines to show how a dedicated cadre of newsmen—first black reporters, then liberal southern editors, then reporters and photographers from the national press and the broadcast media—revealed to a nation its most shameful shortcomings and propelled its citizens to act. We watch the black press move bravely into the front row of the confrontation, only to be attacked and kept away from the action. Following the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision striking down school segregation and the South’s mobilization against it, we see a growing number of white reporters venture South to cover the Emmett Till murder trial, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the integration of the University of Alabama. We witness some southern editors joining the call for massive resistance and working with segregationist organizations to thwart compliance. But we also see a handful of other southern editors write forcefully and daringly for obedience to federal mandates, signaling to the nation that moderate forces were prepared to push the region into the mainstream. The pace quickens in Little Rock, where reporters test the boundaries of journalistic integrity, then gain momentum as they cover shuttered schools in Virginia, sit-ins in North Carolina, mob-led riots in Mississippi, Freedom Ride buses being set afire, fire hoses and dogs in Birmingham, and long, tense marches through the rural South. For many journalists, the conditions they found, the fear they felt, and the violence they saw were transforming. Their growing disgust matched the mounting countrywide outrage asThe New York Times,Newsweek, NBC News, and other major news organizations, many of them headed by southerners, turned a regional story into a national drama. Meticulously researched and vividly rendered,The Race Beatis an unprecedented account of one of the most volatile periods in our nation’s history, as told by those who covered it.
Race News : Black Journalists and the Fight for Racial Justice in the Twentieth Century by Call Number: PN4882.5 .C38 2017ISBN: 9780252083037Publication Date: 2017-11-06Once distinct, the commercial and alternative black press began to crossover with one another in the 1920s. The porous press culture that emerged shifted the political and economic motivations shaping African American journalism. It also sparked disputes over radical politics that altered news coverage of some of the most momentous events in African American history. Starting in the 1920s, Fred Carroll traces how mainstream journalists incorporated coverage of the alternative press's supposedly marginal politics of anti-colonialism, anti-capitalism, and black separatism into their publications. He follows the narrative into the 1950s, when an alternative press re-emerged as commercial publishers curbed progressive journalism in the face of Cold War repression. Yet, as Carroll shows, journalists achieved significant editorial independence, and continued to do so as national newspapers modernized into the 1960s. Alternative writers' politics seeped into commercial papers via journalists who wrote for both presses and through professional friendships that ignored political boundaries. Compelling and incisive, Race News reports the dramatic history of how black press culture evolved in the twentieth century.- The Social Impact of the Black Press byCall Number: PN4882.5 .B76 1994xISBN: 9780806248097Publication Date: 1994-01-01
Within the Veil : Black Journalists, White Media by Call Number: PN4882.5 .N49 2000ISBN: 9780814758007Publication Date: 2002-09-01Winner of the National Press Club Prize for Media Criticism Unmasks race-related conflicts in the newsrooms and the push for more equitable coverage of racial minorities Thirty years ago, the Kerner Commission Report made national headlines by exposing the consistently biased coverage afforded African Americans in the mainstream media. While the report acted as a much ballyhooed wake-up call, the problems it identified have stubbornly persisted, despite the infusion of black and other racial minority journalists into the newsroom. In Within the Veil, Pamela Newkirk unmasks the ways in which race continues to influence reportage, both overtly and covertly. Newkirk charts a series of race-related conflicts at news organizations across the country, illustrating how African American journalists have influenced and been denied influence to the content, presentation, and very nature of news. Through anecdotes culled from interviews with over 100 broadcast and print journalists, Newkirk exposes the trials and triumphs of African American journalists as they struggle in pursuit of more equitable coverage of racial minorities. She illuminates the agonizing dilemmas they face when writing stories critical of blacks, stories which force them to choose between journalistic integrity, their own advancement, and the almost certain enmity of the black community. Within the Veil is a gripping front-line report on the continuing battle to integrate America's newsrooms and news coverage. Companion website: http://www.nyupress.nyu.edu/authors/veil.html
Alone Atop the Hill: the Autobiography of Alice Dunnigan, Pioneer of the National Black Press by Call Number: PN4874.D85 A3 2015ISBN: 9780820347981Publication Date: 2015-02-15In 1942 Alice Allison Dunnigan, a sharecropper's daughter from Kentucky, made her way to the nation's capital and a career in journalism that eventually led her to the White House. With Alone atop the Hill, Carol McCabe Booker has condensed Dunnigan's 1974 self-published autobiography to appeal to a general audience and has added scholarly annotations that provide historical context. Dunnigan's dynamic story reveals her importance to the fields of journalism, women's history, and the civil rights movement and creates a compelling portrait of a groundbreaking American. Dunnigan recounts her formative years in rural Kentucky as she struggled for a living, telling bluntly and simply what life was like in a Border State in the first half of the twentieth century. Later she takes readers to Washington, D.C., where we see her rise from a typist during World War II to a reporter. Ultimately she would become the first black female reporter accredited to the White House; authorized to travel with a U.S. president; credentialed by the House and Senate Press Galleries; accredited to the Department of State and the Supreme Court; voted into the White House Newswomen's Association and the Women's National Press Club; and recognized as a Washington sports reporter. A contemporary of Helen Thomas and a forerunner of Ethel Payne, Dunnigan traveled with President Truman on his coast-to-coast, whistle-stop tour; was the first reporter to query President Eisenhower about civil rights; and provided front-page coverage for more than one hundred black newspapers of virtually every race issue before the Congress, the federal courts, and the presidential administration. Here she provides an uninhibited, unembellished, and unvarnished look at the terrain, the players, and the politics in a roughand- tumble national capital struggling to make its way through a nascent, postwar racial revolution.
Black Journalists : The NABJ Story by Call Number: PN4882 .D39 1997ISBN: 0963572040Publication Date: 1997-06-01Early history of the National Association of Black Journalists (1975-83). Moreover, it was an oral history of how & why modern day African-American newsmen & women entered mainstream journalism. Chronicles the growth & development of NABJ through the 1980s.
Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press by Call Number: PN4874.P39 M677 2015xISBN: 9780062198860Publication Date: 2017-02-07James McGrath Morris's groundbreaking biography illuminates the life and accomplishments of pioneering journalist Ethel Lois Payne, and pays tribute to the critical role of the black press in the civil rights era. A self-proclaimed "instrument for change," Payne publicly prodded President Dwight D. Eisenhower to support desegregation. From Alabama to Vietnam, from Indonesia to Ghana, her reporting on legislative and judicial civil rights battles enlightened and motivated black readers, for whom she served as an eyewitness on the frontlines of the struggle for freedom. At great personal risk, Payne covered such landmark events as the Montgomery bus boycott, the desegregation of the University of Alabama, the integration of Little Rock's schools, and the service of black troops in Vietnam. A trailblazing black woman in an industry dominated by white men, Payne also broke the glass ceiling, becoming the first female African-American radio and television commentator on a national network, working for CBS. Inspiring and instructive, moving and enlightening, Eye on the Struggle celebrates this extraordinary woman and her achievements--and reminds us of the power one person has to transform our lives and our world.
Jackie Ormes : the First African American Woman Cartoonist by Call Number: PN6727.O74 G65 2008ISBN: 9780472116249Publication Date: 2008-02-21At a time of few opportunities for women in general and even fewer for African American women, Jackie Ormes (1911-85) blazed a trail as a popular cartoonist with the major black newspapers of the day. Her cartoon characters (including Torchy Brown, Candy, Patty-Jo, and Ginger) delighted readers and spawned other products, including an elegant doll with a stylish wardrobe and "Torchy Togs" paper dolls. Ormes was a member of Chicago's black elite, with a social circle that included the leading political figures and entertainers of the day. Her cartoons and comic strips provide an invaluable glimpse into American culture and history, with topics that include racial segregation, U.S. foreign policy, educational equality, the atom bomb, and environmental pollution, among other pressing issues of the times--and of today's world as well. This celebrated biography features a large sampling of Ormes's cartoons and comic strips, and a new preface.
Les Brownlee : The Autobiography of a Pioneering African-American Journalist by Call Number: PN4874.B784 A3 2007ISBN: 9781933338101Publication Date: 2007-01-01Raised by a single mother in a racist Chicago suburb, Les Brownlee overcame hardships to become a journalism pioneer and educator. Though he lived in an era when most people of color were held back in both career and education, Brownlee played football for the University of Wisconsin, fought as an artillery officer in World War II, and launched a career in journalism that spanned 60 years. Throughout his life, Brownlee opened many new doors for the African American community, breaking into daily news reporting and television reporting and becoming a TV executive -- all firsts for a person of color.
The Lonely Warrior : The Life and Times of Robert S. Abbott, Founder of the Chicago Defender by ISBN: 9780997672404Publication Date: 2016-03-01In May 1905 Robert S. Abbott started publishing the Chicago Defender. The paper attacked racial injustice, particularly lynching in the south. The Defender did not use the words "Negro" or "black" in its pages. Instead, African Americans were referred to as "the Race" and black men and women as "Race men and Race women." Many places in the south effectively banned the paper, especially when, during World War I, Abbott actively tried to convince southern blacks to migrate to the north. Abbott managed to get railroad porters to carry his papers south and he ran articles, editorials, cartoons -even train schedules and job listings to convince the Defender's southern readers to come north. The "Great Northern Migration," as it was called in the Defender, resulted in more than one million blacks migrating north, about 100,000 of them coming to Chicago. The Defender was passed from person to person, and read aloud in barbershops and churches. It is estimated that at its height each paper sold was read by four to five African Americans, putting its readership at over 500,000 people each week. Son of ex-slaves, Abbott passed from small-town obscurity to national preeminence, due neither to great wealth nor hereditary status, but by sheer character, determination and imagination. He was a crusading journalist, who ultimately developed into a national leader, and, in the process, became a millionaire. As a newspaper editor, he influenced and molded the opinions of millions of Negroes in the United States, and therefore his career is of unique interest--indeed, his extraordinary achievement is a triumphant American success story.
