Black Press (United States)

Early Development

On March 16, 1827, Freedom's Journal in New York City became the country's first Black newspaper. Published weekly by a group of free Blacks who wanted to combat local Anti–Black sentiments, the first issue informed readers, “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us” (http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/aanp/freedom). The newspaper lasted only slightly more than 2% years before closing for lack of money. By the end of the Civil War in 1865, there were about 40 Black newspapers in six states and one territory, slightly more than half published in New York State. Burdened by low circulations, little advertising, and shaky funding, along with a high illiteracy rate among potential Black subscribers, it was not surprising that the longest one lasted merely 12 years and the shortest only 2 months.

Among the early publishers, Frederick Douglass stood out. A runaway slave who became an outspoken abolitionist, he started the North Star in 1847 in Rochester, New York, and 4 years later merged it with another paper to become Frederick Douglass' Paper, which lasted until 1860. The papers' strong and well-written attacks on slavery and other Black injustices attracted national attention and numerous White readers, including reportedly U.S. presidents.

From 1866 to 1905, the number of Black newspapers increased dramatically to more than 1,200. The largest paper, the New York Freeman, had a weekly circulation of 5,000, though papers continued to appear and disappear quickly, some within months, mainly because they had little advertising and had to depend on sales. However, as the country's Black literacy rose—from only 5% in 1865 to 55.5% in 1900—the papers became increasingly indispensable to Blacks because they were essentially the only place where they could get news about themselves.

White-owned newspapers virtually refused to write about Blacks unless they were involved in criminal activities or lynched by White mobs, mostly in the South. Incensed by the lynchings and forced to leave Memphis when Whites destroyed her paper and its press in 1892 because of her uncompromising editorials, Ida B. Wells launched a famous antilynching campaign in the Black New York Age that lasted until she died in 1931.

Robert Abbott and the Chicago Defender

In 1905, Robert Abbott started a fourth Black newspaper in Chicago, the Defender, because, according to a friend, he wanted “to express his views on the race question.” In 5 years, he had about 10,000 in circulation. Always looking for a [Page 82]way to sell more papers, he made a decision that permanently changed the Black press. His newspaper became sensationalistic as it featured injustices against Blacks, sometimes with large front-page headlines in red, thus appealing to the masses rather than being directed primarily at Blacks with education and money. Within 10 years, his circulation grew to around 200,000, making the Defender the largest Black newspaper up to that time, and other Black papers quickly followed his lead.

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