"25
Books That Changed the History of
African-America"
Book
4: Freedom's Journal
On
March 16, 1827, Samuel Cornish and John B. Russwurm published
the first edition of "Freedom's Journal" and with it launched
the history of African-American journalism.
"We
wish to plead our own cause," their editorial began. Pleading
the cause from that day to this African-American-owned newspapers,
periodicals, broadcasts, and websites - though not "books," technically-speaking
- do, in the tradition of journalism the world over, author "the
first draft of history" with their firsthand reports of the historic
events. Most importantly, where majority presses have excluded
us summarily or distorted our reality, African-American journalism
has truly filled in the missing pages of history.
Collections
of our premier African-American newspaper and hundreds of descendant
presses are now available in book form and on CD-ROM. Among them,
the following are available in research libraries nationwide or
through interlibrary loan:
"A
Check List of Negro Newspapers in the United States (1827-1946)"
by Warren Brown (1946)
"Extant
Collections of Early Black Newspapers: A Research Guide to the
Black Press, 1880-1915, with an Index to the Boston Guardian,
1902-1904" by Georgetta Merritt Campbell (1981)
"African-American
Newspapers: The 19th Century" a CD-ROM compilation available through
Accessible Archives, Inc. Included are: "Freedom's Journal" (1827-1830),
"The Colored American" (1837-1842), "The North Star" (1847-1851),
and "The National Era" (1847-1860).
Archives
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