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28-464: The Precinct Reporter is a weekly African-American newspaper published in San Bernardino, California . It was founded in 1965 by Art Townsend . As of 1989, it had a circulation of 55,000. This article about a California newspaper is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . African-American newspapers As African Americans moved to urban centers beginning during

56-513: A bronze bust in each was added to the Massachusetts State House ; the busts are of Ruffin, Florence Luscomb , Mary Kenney O'Sullivan , Dorothea Dix , Sarah Parker Remond , and Lucy Stone . Two quotations from each of those women (including Ruffin) are etched on their own marble panel, and the wall behind all the panels has wallpaper made of six government documents repeated over and over, with each document being related to

84-665: A private school in New York City because of her parents' objections to the segregated schools in Boston. She completed her studies at the Bowdoin School (not to be confused with Bowdoin College ), after segregation in Boston schools ended. At 16 years old, she married George Lewis Ruffin (1834–1886), who later became the first African American graduate from Harvard Law School , the first African American elected to

112-534: A school principal and co-founder of Woman's Era ; Stanley, an inventor; George, a musician; and Robert, who died before his first birthday. She died of nephritis at her home on St. Botolph Street, Boston, in 1924, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery , Cambridge. In 1995, Ruffin was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame . In 1999 a series of six tall marble panels with

140-711: A wall that let black people into society. The Roanoke Tribune was founded in 1939 by Fleming Alexander , and recently celebrated its 75th anniversary. The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder is Minnesota's oldest black-owned newspaper and one of the United States' oldest ongoing minority publication, second only to The Jewish World . Many Black newspapers that began publishing in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s went out of business because they could not attract enough advertising. They were also victims of their own substantial efforts to eradicate racism and promote civil rights. As of 2002 , about 200 Black newspapers remained. With

168-749: The Richmond Planet and president of the National Afro-American Press Association; Anthony Overton (1865–1946), publisher of the Chicago Bee ; Garth C. Reeves Sr. (1919–2019), publisher emeritus of the Miami Times ; and Robert Lee Vann (1879–1940), the publisher and editor of the Pittsburgh Courier . In the 1940s, the number of newspapers grew from 150 to 250. From 1881 to 1909,

196-570: The Woman's Era , the first national newspaper published by and for African American women. Ruffin was born in Boston , Massachusetts , to John St. Pierre, of French and African descent from Martinique , and Elizabeth Matilda Menhenick from Cornwall, England . Her father was a successful clothier and founder of a Boston Zion Church. She attended public schools in Charlestown and Salem , and

224-690: The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) in Boston. A group of these women, Howe and Stone also founded the New England Women's Club in 1868. Josephine Ruffin became its first black member when she joined in the mid-1890s. Ruffin founded the first black woman's newspaper, The Woman's Era . She also wrote for the black weekly paper , The Courant , and became a member of the New England Woman's Press Association . In 1910, Ruffin helped form

252-692: The Boston City Council , and the first African American municipal judge. The couple moved to Liverpool but returned to Boston soon afterwards and bought a house in the West End . Working with her husband, Ruffin became active in the abolitionist movement . During the American Civil War , they helped recruit black soldiers for the Union Army , specifically the 54th and 55th Massachusetts regiments . They also worked for

280-687: The First National Conference of the Colored Women of America in Boston, which was attended by women from 42 black women's clubs from 14 states. The following year, the organization merged with the Colored Women's League to form the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC). Mary Church Terrell was elected president and Ruffin served as one of the organization's vice-presidents. Just as

308-608: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She was one of the charter members of the NAACP. When her husband George died at the age of 52 in 1886, Ruffin used her financial security and organizational abilities to start the Woman's Era , the country's first newspaper published by and for African American women. She served as the editor and publisher from 1890 to 1897. While promoting interracial activities,

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336-550: The National Colored Press Association (American Press Association) operated as a trade association. The National Negro Business League -affiliated National Negro Press Association filled that role from 1909 to 1939. The Chicago-based Associated Negro Press (1919–1964) was a subscription news agency "with correspondents and stringers in all major centers of black population". In 1940, Sengstacke led African American newspaper publishers in forming

364-705: The Reconstruction era , virtually every large city with a significant African American population had newspapers directed towards African Americans. These newspapers gained audiences outside African American circles. Demographic changes continued with the Great Migration from southern states to northern states from 1910 to 1930 and during the 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

392-543: The Woman's Era called on black women to demand increased rights for people of their race. In 1891, Ruffin served as the first president of Boston's Co-Worker's Club . In 1894, Ruffin organized the Woman's Era Club , an advocacy group for black women, with the help of her daughter Florida Ridley and Maria Baldwin , a Boston school principal. In 1895, Ruffin organized the National Federation of Afro-American Women with Julia O. Henson . She convened

420-679: The 1860s, the newspapers The Elevator and the Pacific Appeal emerged in California as a result of black participation in the Gold Rush. The American Freedman was a New York-based paper that served as an outlet to inspire African Americans to use the Reconstruction 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

448-798: The NACWC was forming, Ruffin was integrating the New England Woman's Club. When the General Federation of Women's Clubs met in Milwaukee in 1900, she planned to attend as a representative of three organizations: the Woman's Era Club, the New England Woman's Club and the New England Woman's Press Club. Southern women were in positions of power in the General Federation and, when the executive committee discovered that all of

476-519: The New Era's club members were black, they would not accept Ruffin's credentials. Ruffin was told that she could be seated as a representative of the two white clubs but not the black one. She refused on principle and was excluded from the proceedings. These events became known as "The Ruffin Incident" and were widely covered in newspapers around the country, most of whom supported Ruffin. Afterwards,

504-599: The Sanitation Commission, which provided aid for the care of soldiers in the field. After the war ended, Ruffin turned her attention to organizing for the Kansas Freedmen's Relief Association , collecting money and clothes to send to aid southern blacks resettling in Kansas, known as Exodusters . Ruffin supported women's suffrage and, in 1869, joined with Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone to form

532-604: The Woman's Era Club made an official statement "that colored women should confine themselves to their clubs and the large field of work open to them there." The New Era Club was disbanded in 1903, but Ruffin remained active in the struggle for equal rights. Along with other women who had belonged to the New Era Club, she co-founded the League of Women for Community Service, which still exists today. Ruffin and her husband had five children: Hubert, an attorney; Florida Ridley ,

560-466: The decline of print media and proliferation of internet access, more black news websites emerged, most notably Black Voice News , The Grio , The Root , and Black Voices . Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin ( née  St. Pierre ; August 31, 1842 – March 13, 1924 ) was a publisher, journalist, civil rights leader, suffragist , abolitionist , and editor of

588-589: The dominance of the Internet in terms of providing free news and information, and providing cheap advertising. Most of the early African American publications, such as Freedom's Journal, were published in the North and then distributed, often covertly, to African Americans throughout the country. The newspaper often covered regional, national, and international news. It also addressed the issues of American slavery and The American Colonization Society which involved

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616-547: The founding of the National Federation of Afro American Women in 1895. It was also one of the first newspapers, along with the National Association Notes , to create journalism career opportunities for Southern black women. 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

644-539: The global community as well. The name The Colored Citizen was used by various newspapers established in the 1860s and later. In 1885, Daniel Rudd formed the Ohio Tribune , said to be the first newspaper "printed by and for Black Americans ", which he later expanded into the American Catholic Tribune , purported to the first Black-owned national newspaper. The Cleveland Gazette

672-496: 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. There were many specialized black publications, such as those of Marcus Garvey and John H. Johnson . These men broke

700-583: The publications with one another. African American newspapers flourished in the major cities, with publishers playing a major role in politics and business affairs. By the 20th century, daily papers appeared in Norfolk , Chicago , Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Representative leaders included Robert Sengstacke Abbott (1870–1940) and John H. Sengstacke (1912–1997), publishers of the Chicago Defender ; John Mitchell Jr. (1863–1929), editor of

728-825: The repatriation of free blacks back to Africa. Some notable black newspapers of the 19th century were Freedom's Journal (1827–1829), Philip Alexander Bell 's Colored American (1837–1841), the North Star (1847–1860), the National Era , The Aliened American in Cleveland (1853–1855), Frederick Douglass' Paper (1851–1863), the Douglass Monthly (1859–1863), The People's Advocate , founded by John Wesley Cromwell and Travers Benjamin Pinn (1876–1891), and The Christian Recorder (1861–1902). In

756-587: The trade association known in the 21st century as the National Newspaper Publishers Association . 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

784-529: Was established in the 1880s and continued for decades. The national Afro-American Press Association was formed in 1890 in Indianapolis, Indiana . In 1894, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin founded The Woman's Era , the first nationally distributed newspaper published by and for African American women in the United States. The Woman's Era began as the official publication of the National Association of Colored Women , and grew in import and impact with

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