1923 | 1929 | 1939 | 1942 | 1945 | 1950 | 1956 | 1965 | 1973 | 1975
1827
Founding of Freedom’s Journal at
5 Varick Street in downtown NYC
March 16, at 5 Varick Street in downtown NY
July 4, 1827
Slavery abolished in NY State for African Americans over 40
over 10,000 Slaves freed
1829
Russwurm emigrates to Liberia, serves as Governor of the Monrovia until his death in 1851.
While in Liberia, he establishes a paper, The Liberian Herald.
David Walker’s Anti-Slavery Pamphlet, Walker’s Appeal Published
May 29, 1829
Samuel Cornish continues publication of Freedom’s Journal under
the new name The Rights of All
(Rights of All ceases publication October 9, 1829).
1837
Samuel Cornish edits The Colored American
(formerly named The Weekly Advocate)
Martin R. Delaney begins publishing The Mystery in
Pittsburgh, PA
1852
Mary Ann Shadd Cary publishes prototype for The Provinical
Freeman (Windsor), a pro-emigration paper urging black
Americans to leave the US and come to Canada after the passage
of The Fugitive Slave Law
The Alienated American (Cleveland, OH)
The Christian Recorder, official organ of the A.M.E. Church,
longest running African American newspaper
1855
The Mirror of the Times is the first black paper in California), published in San Francisco, CA by Melvin Gibbs
1859
The Anglo-African magazine in NY city (Thomas Hamilton)
Douglass Monthly published (Published until 1863)
John Brown Raid at Harpers Ferry, WV
Beginning of Civil War (attack on Fort Sumter, SC by Confederacy)
By this time over 40 black owned and operated papers
had been established throughout the United States
1863
Douglass’ Monthly-begins appeal for Black men in the north
to heed the call to join the Union Army (the best way to win
equality-a "double battle" like the Double V campaign)
January 1, 1863
Emancipation Proclamation
1864
New Orleans Tribune, first black daily newspaper in the United
States, published in French and English
1864-1865
Thomas Morris Chester, first black correspondent for a major
daily paper, The Philadelphia Press during Civil War
End of Civil War (Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to
Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in
VA)on April 9
1865-1876
Reconstruction
1866
The New Orleans Louisianan (first semi-weekly-P.B.S. Pinchback)
1868
James Spelman - special correspondent to New York Tribune
to report on the Reconstruction from Mississippi
(later editor of Baptist Messenger)
1878
The Conservator (first published by DeBaptiste-later by
Ferdinand Barnett and Ida B. Wells)
John James Neimore founds The Owl in Los Angeles, California,
name later changed to The California Eagle
1880
T. Thomas Fortune becomes editor of The Rumor
(name later changed to The New York Globe)
1883
The Cleveland Gazette (H.C. Smith)
1884
T. Thomas Fortune becomes publisher of The New York Freeman (later called The New York Age)
Gertrude Mossell begins first black woman’s weekly column
in the New York Freeman, her "Our Woman’s Department" column
appears in the first issue of the newspaper (December)
Philadelphia Tribune
(publisher and editor, Christopher J. Perry)
The Star of Zion (John Dancy)
Delilah Beasley-begins writing for mainstream paper
(Cincinnati Enquirer)
1888
Indianapolis Freeman - first illustrated journal (Edward Elder Cooper)
1889
Ida B. Wells and partners publish Memphis Free Speech
1890
Associated Correspondents of Race Newspapers formed
1892
John H. Murphy Sr., a whitewasher and Sunday school superintendant, purchases the Afro-American
Chicago World’s fair, Columbian World Expo
1894
The Woman’s Era published by Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin
(first newspaper written for and by women), official organ of
The National Association of Colored Women
Indianapolis Recorder
February 20, 1895
Death of Frederick Douglass
1896
Plessy v/s Ferguson
November 9, 1901
Boston Guardian (William Monroe Trotter)
Robert S. Abbott launches Chicago Defender
1907
Pittsburgh Courier established by Edwin Nathaniel Harleston,
Robert L. Vann later becomes publisher, editor, and treasurer
December 4, 1909
James H. Anderson establishes Amsterdam News as a weekly
1910
Norfolk Journal and Guide purchased by P.B. Young Sr.
NAACP founded, Crisis magazine published, official
organ of the NAACP, edited by W.E.B.
Du Bois
St. Louis Argus (founded by Joseph Edward Mitchell)
May 1912
Charlotta Bass buys Eagle at public auction for $50 and
becomes its owner and publisher (she establishes activist tradition with crusade against Birth of A Nation)
July 28, 1914
Beginning WWI
1915
Oklahoma Black Dispatch (Roscoe Dungee-Oklahoma City)
Great Migration (migration to north) peaks after its encouragement in pages of Chicago Defender
November 14, 1915
Death of Booker T. Washington
1917
The Messenger, published by A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen
April 6, 1917
U.S. enters WWI
Marcus Garvey’s Negro World established
November 11, 1918
WWI ends
1919
The Call (Kansas City - founded by C.A. Franklin)
The Chicago Whip (competitor to Chicago Defender - printed until 1939)
"Red Summer" - series of race riots in several cities across
the United States including in Chicago, New York, Washington, DC, and Longview, TX
March 1919
Claude Barnett founds The Associated Negro Press (ANP)
August 26, 1920
19th Amendment (suffrage for women)
1921
Race Riot - Tulsa, Oklahoma
Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life, official organ of the
Urban League, editor: Charles S. Johnson
1925
Louisiana Weekly (founded by C.C. Dejoie)
Chicago Bee (founded by Anthony Overton-staffed
entirely by women)
1927
Robert Jervay begins the Cape Fear Journal (later called
Wilmington Journal under Thomas Jervay)
1928
William Alexander Scott publishes The Atlanta Daily World, the first successful black daily newspaper (the paper becomes a daily in 1932)
St. Louis American (A.N. Johnson, Nathan Young, Nathaniel Sweets)
Double V (in Chicago, The Chicago Whip launches "Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work" campaign, eventually a nationwide campaign supported by
black newspapers across the country)
October 24, 1929
Stock Market Crash (beginning Great Depression)
1932
Robert Vann of the Pittsburgh Courier gives speech in
Cleveland - Patriot and the Partisan: "...turn Lincoln’s
picture to the wall..."
1933
Los Angeles Sentinel founded by Leon Washington
1935
American Newspaper Guild-1st newspaper guild at a
Black newspaper
June 22, 1937
Joe Louis wins boxing heavyweight title after knocking out James Braddock
(Madison Square Garden, NY)
First regular television broacasts in the United States
September 1, 1939
Start of World War II after Germany invades Poland
1940
Death of Robert S. Abbott his nephew, John Sengstacke, takes over company
Death of Robert Vann
December 7, 1941
Attack on Pearl Harbor forcing U.S. to declare war on axis powers on following day
Dorie Miller, 22 year old navy messman first class on board battleship
Arizona shoots down 4 Japanese planes, made hero by black press,
receives Navy Cross, an award given for heroism in battle
Marvel Cooke joins staff of People’s Voice
(owned by Adam Clayton Powell)
(January)
FBI begins unofficial investigation of black press
(February)
Pittsburgh Courier begins Double V campaign
(June)
John Sengstacke meets with Attorney General Francis Biddle
Army Intelligence (G-2) looks into process of preventing distrib.
on Army posts
1943
Major Race Riots - Harlem, Detroit, Beaumont, TX, and
Los Angeles
February 8, 1944
Harry S. Alpin, a reporter for the National Negro Press and
Atlanta Daily World, becomes first African-American allowed
to attend White House conferences
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
September 2, 1945
Japan signs surrender agreement, end of WWII
1947
Louis Lautier, Washington Bureau Chief of The Negro
Newspapers Publishers Association becomes first African
American accredited to the United States Senate and
House Press Galleries
April 10, 1947
Jackie Robinson breaks into major league baseball,
signs contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers
June 17, 1947
Alice Allison Dunnigan, a beat reporter for the ANP,
becomes the first black woman certified to cover the White
House and the State Department
Marvel Cooke becomes 1st full time black female reporter at a mainstream press - the Daily Compass
Ethel Payne begins work at The Chicago Defender
(becomes full time in 1951)
June 25, 1950
Start of Korean War
December 10, 1950
Ralph Bunche becomes first African American recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
July 27, 1953
End of Korean War
May 17, 1954
Brown v/s Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
1955
Lucille Bluford becomes executive editor of Kansas City Call
Montgomery Bus Boycott
February 5, 1956
Percival Prattis, executive editor of The Pittsburgh Courier,
becomes first African American admitted to National Press Club
1957
Beginning of Vietnam War
June 1960
Elijah Muhammed founds Muhammed Speaks (a weekly), the official organ of the
Nation of Islam
August 28, 1963
Martin Luther King delivers famous
"I Have a Dream" speech during March on Washington
1964
California Eagle Shuts down
Passage of Civil Rights Act (bans discrimination on the basis
of race, color, national origin, religion, sex)
December 10, 1964
Martin Luther King Jr. accepts Nobel Peace Prize
(2nd African American to receive award)
1965
Pittsburgh Courier sold
Malcolm X assassinated at Audubon Ballroom (Harlem, NY)
April 11-21, 1965
Watts Riots (Los Angeles, CA)
1967
Black Panther Paper (based in Oakland, CA)
March 2, 1968
Release of Kerner Commission Report
April 4, 1968
Martin Luther King Jr. assassinatedin Memphis, TN
Association of Black Journalists established in Philadelphia
(predecessor to NABJ)
1974
Hazel Garland, editor-in-chief of Pittsburgh Courier,
becomes first black female head of black newspaper chain circulated
nationally in US
End of Vietnam War
December 12, 1975
National Association of Black Journalists founded in
Washington, DC by 44 black news reporters