 | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner | Real Times Inc. |
| Publisher | Hiram Jackson |
| Editor | Jeremy Allen |
| Founded | 1936, asDetroit Chronicle |
| Headquarters | 1452 Randolph St #400,Detroit,Michigan, 48226 U.S. |
| Circulation | 27,000 weekly (as of 2015)[1] |
| Readership | 120,000 weekly in 2015 |
| Website | michronicleonline.com |
TheMichigan Chronicle is aweeklyAfrican-American newspaper based inDetroit, Michigan. It was founded in 1936 byJohn H. Sengstacke, editor of theChicago Defender. Together with theDefender and a handful of other African-American newspapers, it is owned by Detroit-basedReal Times Inc. Its headquarters are in the Real Times offices inMidtown Detroit.[2]
TheChronicle's first editor wasLouis E. Martin, whom Sengstacke sent to Detroit on June 6, giving him a $5.00 raise above his $15-per-week salary at theChicago Defender, $10 in cash and a one-way bus ticket. TheChronicle's first issue had a circulation of 5,000 copies. In 1944, long-time publisherLongworth Quinn joined Martin at theChronicle. Quinn became a leader in Detroit's African-American business and church groups, and those groups supported theChronicle.[3]
TheChronicle garnered national attention in its early years for its "radical" approach to politics -- advocacy oforganized labor and theDemocratic Party. Albert Dunmore, who edited the Detroit edition of thePittsburgh Courier in the 1940s, remarked in 2010 that most African-American newspapers of the time took the opposite stance, because of "the anti-Black attitude prevalent in the organized labor ranks and the heavily southern influence in the Democratic Party".[3]
James Ingram of theMichigan Chronicle was one of several negotiators involved in theAttica Prison Riots in September 1971.
In 2001,Detroit City Council memberKay Everett credited theMichigan Chronicle with having played a key role in local civil rights struggles of the 20th century, such as supporting the election of MayorColeman A. Young and, especially, reporting on violence against African Americans:[4]
"It was a lone voice in the wilderness when police brutality against African Americans was commonplace", Everett wrote. "Its coverage ofSTRESS, theDetroit Police Department's controversial undercover unit, should have won the paper aPulitzer Prize. During STRESS's four-year run, White STRESS officers shot and killed 23 young Black men. Most shot in the back. TheMichigan Chronicle was the only newspaper in the city that told the truth about the killings."[4]
Originally located at 1727 St. Antoine Street, theMichigan Chronicle is now located at 1452 Randolph St #400,Detroit,Michigan, 48226 U.S.[3]
Sengstacke Enterprises Inc., publisher of theChronicle and the dailyDefender, would later also include theNew Pittsburgh Courier and theTri-State Defender in Tennessee. When Sengstacke died in 1997, theChronicle was described as his most profitable newspaper, "fat with local and national advertising", with a weekly circulation of 43,582. Inheritance tax bills and provisions in Sengstacke's will made it likely that the chain would be sold, but it was administered by a trust in the interim.[5]
Amid the uncertainty over theChronicle's ownership, longtime publisher Sam Logan left the paper in 2000 and in May of that year formed a competing weekly,The Michigan FrontPage, which he envisioned as "a weekend read", published on Fridays.[6]
TheChronicle and its sister papers were finally sold in 2003, toReal Times Inc., a group of African-American business leaders from Chicago and Detroit. Logan returned as publisher of both theChronicle and theFrontPage, which became part of the group.[7]
Logan died in late December 2011. Hiram Jackson, president of Real Times Inc., was appointed interim publisher in his place.[8]
In June 2024, Real Times and Michigan Chronicle co-owner William Pickard died.[9] Pickard was known for being influential businessman in Detroit,[9] where Real Times Media and the Michigan Chronicle are headquartered.[10][11]
