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Saturday August 23rd 2008 |
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Saturday August 23rd 2008 |
a non-profit education organization | |
December 4
The four page newspaper was established by James H. Anderson with initial capital of $10, with its startup location in the heart of Harlem, The Amsterdam News was the mouthpiece for one of the largest African-American communities in the United States. It focused on covering the Black community's social news: weddings, engagements, births and charity events and so forth. In its heyday, it had a circulation of over 100,000. By the mid 1940s it was one of the four leading black newspapers in the country, along with The Pittsburgh Courier, The Afro-American, and The Chicago Defender. The Amsterdam News was named after the avenue on which James H. Anderson lived, once known as San Juan Hill. The business offices were relocated to Harlem in 1910. During this early period, between the 1910s and '20s, renowned black journalists such as T. Thomas Fortune wrote for and edited the paper. In 1926, Sadie Warren, the wife of Edward Warren, one of its first publishers, purchased the paper. It was resold ten years later to two West Indian physicians, Clelan Bethan Powell, and Phillip M. H. Savory, who served as editor-publisher and secretary-treasurer. Under their management, the now semi-weekly paper became the first African-American newspaper to have all of its departments unionized. The Amsterdam News then began to focus on not only local, but also national events as well. Many prominent African-Americans including W.E.B. Du Bois, Roy Wilkins, and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. contributed columns and articles. Marvel Cooke, joined the staff, becoming the paper's first female news reporter. The Amsterdam News supported many civil rights causes. During World War II with other black papers it fought for civil rights in the armed forces. In the 1950's and '60s, it chronicled events of the civil rights movement such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Freedom Riders bus burning incident, and numerous riots. The paper was the first to focus attention on Malcolm X, and in 1958 published his column "God's Angry Man." In 1971, the paper was purchased for $2.3 million by a group of investors that included Percy E. Sutton, Wilbert A. Tatum and several Harlem business associates. In 1997, Eleanor Tatum was appointed publisher and editor-in-chief. to be a Journalist or Reporter
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The African American Registry®, The African American Registry® Copyright 2005, 2006
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