Columbus Post Staff Report

"We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us." From the first issue of Freedom’s Journal
The African-American press has a long history of chronicling stories and events overlooked or ignored by the mainstream media. Since slavery, black newspapers have served as advocates for the underserved and disenfranchised while also applauding the achievements of individuals who have overcome considerable obstacles.
Freedom's Journal, founded by Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm in New York, is considered the first African-American newspaper owned and operated in the United States. The paper, which was first published in 1827, provided international, national, and regional news on current events and printed editorials against slavery and lynching.
Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass founded the Northern Star in 1847. Douglas, a former and escaped slave, recognized that the press was a powerful weapon against slavery and used his paper as a forum to advocate for the men and women he left behind in the South.
The end of the Civil War brought about a large number of black newspapers in the South. By 1865, black newspapers had been established in Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia. Although former slaves published approximately 500 black newspapers between 1861 and 1870, the early papers rarely lasted more than two years. A significant part of the problem was that the target audience of educated free blacks was seldom large enough to provide financial support for a weekly newspaper.
The black press of the Reconstruction period tended to be conservative in tone and supported the Republican Party almost unanimously until the 1920s. The newspaper owners and editors believed that the GOP would create a world where black economic, social, and political interests would be promoted. As blacks eventually became disillusioned with the party of Lincoln, the Republicans still appeared to be a better alternative than the Democrats who represented the old South.
The tradition of Douglass’ advocacy journalism was continued by editors like Ida B. Wells, one of the first female newspaper owners in America and a leader in the fight against lynching, the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow. When white violence toward blacks reached epidemic proportions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Wells and other black reporters, often at great risk to their personal safety, provided details about the lynchings that were frequently ignored by white newspapers.
Robert S. Abbott built the Chicago Defender into the most powerful and successful black-owned newspaper of its time. Often credited with inspiring the great migration of African Americans from the south to the northern cities, Abbott and The Defender adopted a sensational style of reporting. Stories about crime and violence attracted a large number of regular readers that previously had seldom read newspapers. The Defender also published articles on lynching, segregation, and black achievement as well as editorials. By 1920, the Defender claimed a circulation of almost 300,000 and had a large readership in the South.
After World War II, the black press played a strong role in reporting and providing commentary on the Civil Rights Movement including the desegregation of the armed services, Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Freedom Riders, and the March on Washington. Today, with the passing of civil rights legislation and the integration of predominantly white newspapers, the black media’s role has been weakened as the white press implemented more reporting about their local African American communities in their papers. However, many large cities still have black newspapers that provide a forum for editorials on the specific issues and problems in black America.

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