 | |
| Type | Digital newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | 1905–2019; print 2019–present; online |
| Owner(s) | Real Times Inc. |
| Founder(s) | Robert S. Abbott |
| Founded | May 5, 1905 |
| Headquarters | 4445 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| ISSN | 0745-7014 |
| Website | www |
The Chicago Defender is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind.[1] Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim Crow-era violence and urged black people in the American South to settle in the north in what became the Great Migration. Abbott worked out an informal distribution system with Pullman porters who surreptitiously (and sometimes against southern state laws and mores) took his paper by rail far beyond Chicago, especially to African American readers in the southern United States. Under his nephew and chosen successor, John H. Sengstacke, the paper dealt with racial segregation in the United States, especially in the U.S. military, during World War II.[1] Copies of the paper were passed along in communities, and it is estimated that at its most successful, each copy was read by four to five people.[2]
In 1919–1922,[3] the Defender attracted the writing talents of Langston Hughes; from the 1940s through 1960s, Hughes wrote an opinion column for the paper. Washington, D.C., and international correspondent Ethel Payne, poet Gwendolyn Brooks, author Willard Motley, music critic Dave Peyton, journalists Ida B. Wells, L. Alex Wilson and Louis Lomax wrote for the paper at different times. During the height of the civil rights movement era, it was published as The Chicago Daily Defender, a daily newspaper, beginning in 1956. It became a weekly paper again in 2008.[4]
In 2019, its publisher, Real Times Media Inc., announced that the Defender would cease its print edition but continue as an online publication.[5][6] The editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, observing the impact The Defender has had in its 114 years, praised the continuation of the publication in its new form.[7]
- ^ a b Staples, Brent (January 4, 2016). "A 'Most Dangerous' Newspaper ('The Defender,' by Ethan Michaeli)". Sunday Book Review. New York Times. p. 12. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
- ^ "The Chicago Defender". PBS. Archived from the original on July 12, 2000. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
- ^ Streitmatter, Rodger (2001). Voices of Revolution: The Dissident Press in America. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 141–158. ISBN 0231122497.
- ^ Katz, Brigit (July 9, 2019). "The 'Chicago Defender,' an Iconic Black Newspaper, to Release Its Last Print Issue". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on July 9, 2019.
- ^ "Chicago Defender Moves Iconic News Content Digital". Cover Story. Chicago Defender. Vol. 114, no. 11. Real Times Media, Inc. July 9, 2019. p. 1. ISSN 0745-7014. Archived from the original on July 9, 2019.
- ^ Davey, Monica; Eligon, John (July 9, 2019). "The Chicago Defender, Legendary Black Newspaper, Prints Last Copy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
- ^ "Editorial: After 114 forceful years, another evolution for the Chicago Defender". Editorial Board. Chicago Tribune. July 9, 2019. Archived from the original on July 9, 2019. Retrieved July 9, 2019.