This Day in Black History: The Chicago Defender was Founded

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An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

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Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow

Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters

Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two

Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali

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What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829

Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

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May 5, 2012

From the EBONY Pictorial History of Black America

The Chicago Defender was founded on this date in 1905. The brainchild of Robert Abbott, it was one of the first African-American newspapers in this country to reach a circulation of more than 100,000.

During the era classified by the historians as the “Great Migration,” 1915 to 1948, The Chicago Defender and Mr. Abbott played a major role. Using its pages, Mr. Abbott was able to influence more than 50,000 African-Americans to leave southern states and come to Chicago. In Chicago the opportunities for employment, education and personal freedom were immensely greater. On February 4, 1956, Abbott’s nephew, John H. Sengstacke took over the Chicago Daily Defender.

This publication became the largest African-American daily in the country. Continuing the work of his uncle, he used the Defender to help “improve the quality of life” for all Americans. He was directly involved in the desegregation of the U. S. armed forces. He also worked closely with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to create jobs in the United States Postal Service for African-Americans.

Read more about the Chicago Defender here.

More Black media plays a crucial role in the press and may reduce the racist portrayals seen daily.

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1 Comment

Cari Mason on February 21, 2013 at 2:00 PM

Working on project for African American History for 5-year old grandson.

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