As African Americans moved to urban centers beginning during theReconstruction era, virtually every large city with a significant African American population had weekly or monthly newspapers directed towards African Americans. These newspapers gained audiences outside African American circles. Demographic changes continued withthe Great Migration from southern states to northern states from 1910 to 1930 and duringthe Second Great Migration from 1941 to 1970. In the 21st century, papers (like newspapers of all sorts)have shut down, merged, or shrunk in response to the dominance of the Internet in terms of providing free news and information, and providing cheap advertising.[1][2]
Most of the early African American publications, such asFreedom's Journal, were published in the North and then distributed, often covertly, to African Americans throughout the country.[3] The newspaper often covered regional, national, and international news. It also addressed the issues of American slavery and TheAmerican Colonization Society which involved the repatriation of free blacks back to Africa.[4]
In the 1860s, the newspapersThe Elevator and thePacific Appeal emerged in California as a result of black participation in theGold Rush.[6]The American Freedman was a New York-based paper that served as an outlet to inspire African Americans to use theReconstruction era as a time for social and political advancement. This newspaper did so by publishing articles that referenced African American mobilization during that era that had not only local support but had gained support from the global community as well.[citation needed] The nameThe Colored Citizen was used by various newspapers established in the 1860s and later.
In 1879,John J. Neimore foundedThe California Owl, later renamedThe California Eagle. The Los Angeles-based publication was one of the oldest African American newspapers in the West.[7]
Pdf of the 1892 bookThe Afro American Press and its Editors byIrvine Garland Penn
Many African American newspapers struggled to keep their circulation going due to the low rate of literacy among African Americans. Many freed African Americans had low incomes and could not afford to purchase subscriptions but shared the publications with one another.[14]
In the 1940s, the number of newspapers grew from 150 to 250.[17] At the end ofWorld War II, the black newspapers with the highest circulation in the United States were thePittsburgh Courier, theAfro-American, theChicago Defender, and theNorfolk Journal and Guide.[18]
Poster from the U.S. Office of War Information, 1943
During the 1930s and 1940s, the Black southern press both aided and, to an extent, hindered the equal payment movement of Black teachers in the southern United States. Newspaper coverage of the movement served to publicize the cause. However, the way in which the movement was portrayed, and those whose struggles were highlighted in the press, displaced Black women to the background of a movement they spearheaded. A woman's issue, and a Black woman's issue, was being covered by the press. However, reporting diminished the roles of the women fighting for teacher salary equalization and “diminished the presence of the teachers’ salary equalization fight” in national debates over equality in education.[22]
There were many specialized black publications, such as those ofMarcus Garvey andJohn H. Johnson. These men broke a wall that let black people into society. TheRoanoke Tribune was founded in 1939 byFleming Alexander, and recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. TheMinnesota Spokesman-Recorder is Minnesota's oldest black-owned newspaper[23] and one of the United States' oldest ongoing minority publication, second only toThe Jewish World.[citation needed]
Many Black newspapers that began publishing in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s went out of business because they could not attract enough advertising. As of 2002, about 200 Black newspapers remained. With the decline of print media and proliferation of internet access, more black news websites emerged, most notablyBlack Voice News,The Grio,The Root, andBlack Voices.[citation needed]
^Arvarh E. Strickland and Robert E. Weems, eds.The African American Experience: An Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (Greenwood, 2001), pp. 216–230.ISBN978-0313298387
^Simmons, Charles A.The African American press: a history of news coverage during national crises, with special reference to four black newspapers, 1827–1965. McFarland, 2006, p. 2.ISBN978-0786403875
^Bacon, Jacqueline (2003). "The History of Freedom's Journal: A Study in Empowerment and Community".The Journal of African American History.88 (1):1–20.doi:10.2307/3559045.JSTOR3559045.
^Rhodes, Jane (1998).Mary Ann Shadd Carry: The Black Press and Protest in the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 120–123.ISBN0253213509.
^Jacqueline Bacon,Freedom's journal: the first African-American newspaper (2007).
^Patrick S. Washburn,The African American Newspaper: Voice of Freedom (2006).
^Mott, Frank Luther (1950).American Journalism: The history of newspapers in the United States 1690–1950. Macmillan. p. 794.
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Dann, Martin E.The Black Press, 1827–1890: The Quest for National Identity (1972).online
Davis, Ralph N. "The Negro Newspapers and the War."Sociology and Social Research 27 (1943): 378–380.
Eldridge, Lawrence Allen.Chronicles of a Two-front War: Civil Rights and Vietnam in the African American Press (University of Missouri Press, 2012)
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Frisken, Amanda K. " 'A song without words': Anti-Lynching Imagery in the African American press, 1889–1898.”The Journal of African American History 97#3 2012, pp. 240–69.online
Gershenhorn, Jerry.Louis Austin and the Carolina Times: A Life in the Long Black Freedom Struggle. (U of North Carolina Press, 2018).
Grose, Charles William. " Black newspapers in Texas, 1868-1970" (PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1972. 7307558).
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Henritze, Barbara K.Bibliographic Checklist of African American Newspapers (Genealogical Publishing Com, 1995)
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Hutton, Frankie P. "The antebellum black press and the quest for inclusion: Ideals and messages of social responsibility, morality, class and style" (PhD dissertation, Rutgers U; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1990. 9123284).
Hutton, Frankie, " Social Morality in the Antebellum Black Press ,"Journal of Popular Culture, 26#1 (Fall 1992), 71-84.
Jones, Allen W. (1979). "The Black Press in the "New South": Jesse C. Duke's Struggle for Justice and Equality".The Journal of Negro History.64 (3):215–228.doi:10.2307/2717034.JSTOR2717034.
La Brie, Henry G.A survey of Black newspapers in America (Mercer House Press, 1973).
Meier, August (1953). "Booker T. Washington and the Negro Press: With Special Reference to the Colored American Magazine".The Journal of Negro History.38 (1):67–90.doi:10.2307/2715814.JSTOR2715814.
Morris, James McGrath.Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press (New York: Amistad, 2015). xii, 466 pp.
“Negro Higher Education as Seen Through the Antebellum Black Press.”The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 20, (1998), pp. 36–38.online
Odum-Hinmon, Maria E. "The Cautious Crusader: How the Atlanta Daily World Covered the Struggle for African American Rights from 1945 to 1985." (PhD Dissertation, U of Maryland, 2005).[1]Archived 2023-12-07 at theWayback Machine
Pride, Armistead Scott; Clint C. Wilson (1997).History of the Black Press. Howard University Press.ISBN978-0882581927.
Prides, Armistead S.A Register and History of Negro Newspapers in the United States: 1827–1950. (1950)
Shortell, Timothy. “The Rhetoric of Black Abolitionism: An Exploratory Analysis of Antislavery Newspapers in New York State.”Social Science History 28#1 (2004), pp. 75–109.online
Simmons, Charles A.The African American press: a history of news coverage during national crises, with special reference to four black newspapers, 1827–1965 (McFarland, 2006).
Simmons, Charles Alexander. "A comparative look at four black newspapers and their editorial philosophies during the eras of the northern migration and World War I, World War II, and the civil rights movement" (PhD dissertation, Oklahoma State University; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 1995. 9601684).
Spellman, Charles G. “The Black Press: Setting the Political Agenda During World War II.”Negro History Bulletin, vol. 51 1993, pp. 38–42.online
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