Black Press Day: Documenting Chicago’s Journalism History

Helen and Robert Abbott, 1923Abbott started his journalism career as a printer’s apprentice. Disheartened by racial discrimination in the industry, he started his own newspaper, the Chicago Defender, in 1905. (Source: Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, Box 19, Photo 1491, Harsh Research Collection, Chicago Public Library)

John Sengstacke, standing, and Robert Abbott, circa 1935Abbott’s nephew, John H. Sengstacke, took over the Defender after the death of his uncle in 1940. He went on to establish the Michigan Chronicle and other news publications. He also founded what is now called the National Newspaper Publishers Association. (Source: Abbott-Sengstacke Family Papers, Box 27, Photo 2086, Harsh Research Collection, Chicago Public Library)

Nathan McGill, Sr.McGill worked closely with the Defender’s Abbott as general legal counsel and vice president of the paper. In 1935 he started his own newspaper, Metropolitan News. (Source: McGill Family Papers, Box 16, Photo 094, Harsh Research Collection, Chicago Public Library)

Metropolitan News office, 1936(Source: McGill Family Papers, Box 8, Photo 006, Harsh Research Collection, Chicago Public Library)

Frank Marshall DavisPoet Frank Marshall Davis arrived in Chicago during the Great Migration and wrote for the Chicago Evening Bulletin, the Chicago Whip and Gary American. (Source: George Cleveland Hall Branch Archives, Box 14, Photo 296, Harsh Research Collection, Chicago Public Library)

Richard Durham, 1949Durham worked for the Defender and as a freelance journalist. He also wrote and produced his own radio show and became editor of Muhammad Speaks newspaper. (Source: Richard Durham Papers, Box 13, Photo 012, Harsh Research Collection, Chicago Public Library)

Publisher John H. Johnson and Ebony editor Ben Burns, 1940sJohnson was the founder of Ebony and Jet magazines. After a stint at the Defender, Burns served as executive director for Ebony, Jet and Sepia magazines.

Doris Saunders,Saunders was a librarian at CPL’s Hall Branch during the 1940s. In 1949, she went to work at Johnson Publishing Company, eventually establishing its corporate library. From the 1970s through the 1990s, she was chair of the Department of Mass Communications at Jackson State University. (Source: Doris Saunders Papers, Photo 126, Harsh Research Collection, Chicago Public Library)

Chester Commodore, 1970sCommodore worked as a Defender cartoonist from 1948-1980 and again from 1992-2004. He garnered a dozen Pulitzer Prize nominations during his tenure. (Source: Chester Commodore Papers, Box 20, Photo 873, Harsh Research Collection, Chicago Public Library)

Black Press Day, March 16, commemorates the date in 1827 that the first issue of Freedom’s Journal hit the streets of New York City. The newspaper is considered to be the first African American-owned and -operated newspaper in the United States. Its editors declared, “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.” And so began the history of the black press in America.

For nearly 200 years Black newspapers, publishers, editors, writers and photographers have worked toward implementing that initial declaration. Never pretending to be unbiased, papers such as the Chicago Defender, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier and many others have chronicled the Black experience while seeking to inspire, inform and unite.

The Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection at Woodson Regional Library is fortunate to be the repository for a number of journalism collections. Most notably we hold the papers for the Abbott-Sengstacke Family. Robert Abbott started the Chicago Defender newspaper in 1905 at his landlady’s kitchen table. The paper initially became the voice of Black America, guiding African Americans to Chicago during the Great Migration and beyond. The paper bore witness to the atrocities of Jim Crow, the victories of the civil rights movement, the birth of jazz, blues and hip hop and the election of our first African American president.

Chicago has been home to a long list of well-respected African American journalists and proud members of the black press, including Ida B. Wells, Claude Barnett, Ethel Payne (the “First Lady of the Black Press”), Era Bell Thompson, John H. Johnson, Lester Holt, Merri Dee, Vernon Jarrett, Hermene Hartman, Natalie Moore and Dawn Turner Trice. Just to name a few!

To learn more, explore our journalism archival collections. For recent books, check out our African American Journalism booklist.

How will you celebrate the day? Let us know in the comments who your go-to Black journalist is or what Black news outlet you get your news from!