Southern Black Press Museum

Southern Black Press Museum

A digital museum dedicated to elevating African American editors and black newspapers in the South using interactive and detailed exhibits.

The black press is traditionally described as “black-owned and operated newspapers that focused on the interests of African Americans.” [1] The black press played an essential role during the Civil Rights Movement, informing and uniting African Americans across the country.

In the South, the black press provided a distinct perspective of southern life. While the southern black press was viewed as more ‘conservative’ than black newspapers in the North, these newspapers and its editors played an essential role in motivating African Americans in the South to action, while also providing them with news white newspapers would not cover.

Certain civil rights museums uphold this trend as they largely overlook the black press, opting to utilize recognizable white newspapers or black newspapers from the North. Though local communities memorialize these publications, the wider American public lacks the resources to interact and learn about these newspapers and different viewpoints of American history.

This digital museum seeks to rewrite this trend by detailing how African Americans editors navigated social and political pressures, racial violence, and Jim Crow segregation, to keep their readers informed and motivate change before and during the Civil Rights Movement.

[1] Felecia Jones Ross, “Black Press Scholarship: Where We Have Been, Where We Are, and Where We Need to Go,” American Journalism 37, no. 3 (2020): 301, https://doi.org/10.1080/08821127.2020.1790846.