By Robin D. Everson
A New Voice Will Be Heard
The Black Press started 197 years ago when slavery was abolished in New York. The mainstream newspapers of the time ignored Black news and didn’t bother to cover it. This act ushered in the first Black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, which was published on March 16, 1827, in New York. Started by Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm it was a daring move as this paper was being published while half the country was still pro-slavery. By the time the Civil War started, over 40 Black newspapers were being published.
Twenty years later in 1847, The North Star, founded and edited by Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany advocated for the freedom of all enslaved people and covered politics in Europe as well as literature and culture.
How did people find out what was going on in their community? By going to church twice a week. In 1852, the Christian Recorder published church news, politics, and information requests looking for family members who had been displaced by the Civil War or by being sold to another slave owner.
The California Eagle was founded in 1879 by John J. Neimore. Upon Neimore’s death, Charlotta Bass became the publisher in 1912. This strong Black woman battled racial injustice and derogatory images in D.W. Griffith’s film, Birth of a Nation, police brutality, discriminatory hiring practices, restrictive housing rules, and the Klu Klux Klan. She was under surveillance by the FBI for having a newspaper that was seditious. She was labeled a communist. Not to be deterred by threats, she continued on and after retiring from the newspaper business in 1951, she ran for Vice President on the Progressive Party ticket.
Founded in 1884, the Philadelphia Tribune is considered the oldest published African American newspaper in the U.S. It survived four other newspapers serving the Philadelphia area. It brought to light the unfair business practices of white businesses, raising the standard of living conditions for its readers, and raising funds to end school segregation in the city.
The Memphis Free Speech & Headlight was founded by the Reverend Taylor Nightingale in 1888. Co-owner and editor Ida B. Wells wrote an editorial calling into question the public justifications for lynching to supposedly protect white womanhood. White newspapers called for retaliation and a mob destroyed the Memphis Free Speech & Headlight newspaper office. Undeterred by their vicious act, Wells published “Southern Horrors” which was her investigation of lynching in the U.S.
The longest-running African American, family-owned newspaper in the U.S., the Baltimore Afro-American started in 1892. Later, in 1941, it was known for its ground-breaking coverage by Vincent Tubbs who traveled to the South to cover lynchings in remote locations in the South. Tubbs was a black war correspondent during World War II and the managing editor of Jet Magazine.
The Cleveland Call & Post published a weekly newspaper in 1902 founded by Williams O. Walker. It was saved from bankruptcy in 1998 by boxing promoter Don King who outbid others and paid $760,000 for the paper. In 2002 after turmoil was purchased for $10 million by Real Times, Inc. a Chicago-based multimedia company.
The Chicago Defender was founded in 1905 and was the newspaper that kicked off the Great Migration of the early 1900s. It was a call out to Blacks in the southern states to leave the morale-crippling, post-slavery regions ruled by the terrorists’ Klan to opportunity and encouraging northern states. This leading African American newspaper had contributions from Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Ethel Payne, and Ida B. Wells.
The Pittsburgh Courier was founded in 1907 and had local and national editions. The newspaper’s focus was advocating for African Americans politically and financially. In 1942, it launched the Double V campaign promoting democracy overseas and fighting discrimination at home. Inspiration for this double victory campaign came from a letter to the editor penned by James G. Thompson a 26-year-old Black man entitled “Should I Sacrifice to Live Half American?” This letter highlighted the broad discrepancy between Black American soldiers fighting for democracy overseas while being denied equality at home in the United States. This prompted the start of the Civil Rights movement.
The Black Press is more than just newspapers. The Crisis magazine was founded by the NAACP (the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in 1910 to end violence against Black people, display the accomplishments of Blacks, and cover higher education and the literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
Associated Negro Press was founded by Claude Barnett in Chicago in 1919. This national news service served the African American newspapers and grew into an international organization against colonialism and Jim Crow laws.
As most newspapers were owned and published by whites, the news that affected Black people was ignored and Black newspapers flourished by the 1920s and 1930s. White papers wouldn’t print any positive news about Blacks, even obituary requests were ignored.
The power of the Black press was clear. It gave hope to members of the Black community sharing inspirational achievements and challenges. Such power was a voice that steered political action and some towns in the South banned the sale of Black newspapers to curb the Great Migration. Southern states had reaped their wealth from free Black labor. These states weren’t about to advertise paying jobs and other opportunities for Blacks offered in northern states.
Atlanta Daily World was the first successful African American daily newspaper founded in 1928 by William Alexander Scott II. It obtained advertisements by nationally known brands such as Coca-Cola. It is still in print and owned by the Chicago Defender.
In 1944, Harry McAlpin was the first Black reporter to cover a presidential press conference. He covered the White House under Presidents Roosevelt and Truman.
In 1945 Ebony was founded by John H. Johnson and was modeled on the photo array of Life magazine for the Black audience. It published the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of Moneta Sleet Jr. of Coretta Scott King and her daughter at Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral.
Jet was the sister publication to Ebony and was founded in 1951. This weekly news and culture magazine published the 1955 photographs of 14-year-old Emmett Till’s mutilated body following his lynching by white men in Mississippi. These photos ignored by mainstream white publications outraged the African American community and spurred the civil rights movement.
Essence was a monthly lifestyle magazine targeting the Black female audience. It was one of the largest Black-owned companies in the 1970s. It was sold to Time Inc. but in 2018 Essence was again a fully Black-owned publication.
Black Enterprise was founded in 1970 by Earl G. Graves. This monthly magazine championed Black businesses by advocating for African Americans to build wealth from entrepreneurship, career advancement, and money management.
Northend Agent’s was founded in 1974 by John R. Allen. Originally serving the greater Hartford area in Connecticut it has grown to be a nationwide resource that promotes positive images in Hartford and the city’s north-end neighborhoods. To this day it continues to be family owned and operated. The newsroom is now ran by John and Yolanda’s daughters Sasha and Endera. It continues to shines a light on marginalized communities within Connecticut and its connection to the world.
The Powerful Black Voice in Politics and Business
As the vessel of information, the Black Press did more than publish job opportunities and lost family advertisements to reconnect those previously enslaved with other family members who had made it up North. It was a strong advocate for the political advancements of Blacks and the promotion of Black businesses. It helped shape the voice of previously ignored, considered voiceless millions of Blacks in America. In 1928, the Black press helped elect Oscar DePriest as the first black congressman after Reconstruction and pushed President Harry Truman to integrate the U.S. military in the 1940s. This powerful Black voice demanded racial equality that ushered in the civil rights movement.
The Chicago Defender was started by Robert S. Abbott with $13.75. Abbott became one of America’s first black millionaires. In less than 25 years, the Chicago Defender boasted a circulation of 230,000 a week. Robert L. Vann of the Pittsburgh Courier had a circulation of 300,000 with 15 editions across the country. This kind of combined circulation helped break the ties of Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party and steer black voters to the Democratic Party. Years later, this kind of influence helped get Franklin D. Roosevelt elected as president of the United States. Gunnar Myrdal’s 1944 study, “An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy,” noted that the strongest, most influential institution among blacks was its crusading press. This study helped engineer massive change in 1954 for school desegregation and the Voting Rights Bill of 1957 which also led to marches, sit-ins, civil disobedience, and in 1964 civil rights legislation. In 1956 the Chicago Defender became a daily publication. When its publisher John H.H. Sengstacke died in 1997 the paper was in limbo. In 2002, Real Times, Inc. purchased the paper for $10 million a Chicago-based multimedia company headed by Thomas Picou, a Sengstacke family member.
The Future of the Black Press
In this new century, all newspapers including the Black Press have seen readership numbers dwindle as people look for news and other information on the Internet. Many newspapers have an online presence which allows them to update their platforms at the speed of breaking news. One thing that makes newspapers thrive and survive is advertising revenue. As companies fight for the eyes of the consumer, the Black Press must pursue advertising aggressively, and attract younger readers which means readers under 45 years old. They must seek not only small, local Mom-and-Pop stores but also national and international businesses like FedEx and auto manufacturers. Through diversification and aggressive advertising efforts, the Black Press can survive and thrive in any economy.
Along with writing for major news outlets, publicly speaking about the benefits of a whole-foods, plant-based diet, and being a host for food and health documentaries, Robin is a part of the NutritionFacts.org team that shares the latest science-based nutrition information with the public. Robin shares her interesting and unique view of the vegan lifestyle as the editor for The Only Vegan At The Table. www.theonlyveganatthetable.com
