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List of African American newspapers in Iowa

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Fragments of the first issue of the Iowa Bystander, from 1894

This is a list of African American newspapers that have been published in Iowa.

The first African American newspaper in Iowa was the Colored Advance of Corning, Iowa, founded in 1882.[1] It was followed the next year by the Des Moines Rising Son.[1] By far the longest-lasting, however, was the Iowa Bystander, which spanned more than a century.

During the peak period of African American newspaper founding in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the African American population in Iowa was less than 20,000.[2] As a result, the number of such papers established in Iowa is much lower than in some neighboring states such as Illinois.

A hotspot of African American newspaper publishing in the early 20th century was Buxton, a coal-mining town that no longer exists. Around eight African American newspapers were published there in the first decades of the 20th century.[3]

Newspapers

[edit]
City Title Beginning End Frequency Call numbers Remarks


Buxton Buxton Advocate 1911[4] 1912[4] Weekly[4]
Buxton Buxton Breeze ?[4] ?[4]
Buxton Buxton Bulletin 1914[5] 1916[5]
Buxton Iowa Colored Worker 1907[6] 1910[6]`
Buxton The Buxton Eagle 1903[7] 1905[7] Weekly[7]
Buxton Buxton Gazette 1903[8] 1909[8] Weekly[8]
  • Buxton's "most successful and respected weekly."[8]
Buxton Buxton Leader 1912[4] 1913[4] Weekly[4]
Buxton The Vindicator 1908[5] ?[5]
Corning Colored Advance 1882[9] ?[9] Twice monthly[9]
  • First African American newspaper in Iowa.[1]
Davenport Cash Register 1980s[10] Weekly[10]
  • "probably a weekly shopper"[10]
Davenport Tri-City Advocate 1907[11] ?
Davenport Tri-City Observer 1940[11] ?
Des Moines Weekly Advocate 1891[11] 1894[11] Weekly
Des Moines Iowa Afro-Citizen 1976[12] 1977[12] Weekly[12]
Des Moines Afro Des Moines Communicator 1978[13] 1978?[13]
Des Moines The Weekly Avalanche 1891[14] 1895[14] or 1894[15] Weekly[14]
  • Official newspaper of the Afro-American Protective Association of Iowa.[14]
Des Moines Iowa Baptist Standard 1897[16] 1899[16] Weekly[16]
Des Moines Black Des Moines 1972[12] 1972?[13]
Des Moines Black Revolutionary 1971[11] ?
Des Moines The Iowa Bystander / Iowa State Bystander / Bystander 1894[17] 2015 Weekly[17]
  • By far Iowa's longest-lasting African American newspaper, spanning over a century. Founded by "ten prominent black men who had migrated to Iowa during the 1870s."[18]
    Some issues available online
Des Moines Inner City Challenger / Challenger 1981[13] 1984[13] Monthly newspaper[13]
Des Moines and Buxton Iowa Colored Woman 1907[4] 1909[4] or 1910[5] Monthly[4]
  • Journal of the Iowa State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs.[4] Moved from Des Moines to Buxton in 1909, but ceased publication later that year.[4]
Des Moines The Communicator: Iowa’s Leading Multicultural Newspaper 1985[19] or 1986[20] 2018? Biweekly[20] or bimonthly[10]
Des Moines Monitor 1910[4]
Des Moines Iowa Observer 1936[11] or 1939[22] 1949[21]
  • Founded by Charles Howard, Sr., after he grew unhappy with the policies of the Iowa Bystander.[22] Circulation exceeded the Bystander by more than 1000 in the early 1940s.[21] No copies are known to survive.[21]
Des Moines Des Moines Register and Leader 1908[11] 1915[11]
Des Moines Rising Son 1883[1] 1885[1] Weekly[1]
Des Moines Iowa Sepia News 1951[24] 1952[23] or 1954[11]
Des Moines They Say 1936[22] Weekly[22]
  • Founded by Charles Howard, Jr., while a high school student.[22]
Des Moines Western Ledger 1908[11] 1909[11] Monthly newspaper
Keokuk Baptist Herald ? 1901[11]
Keokuk Baptist Missionary 1917[4]
Keokuk Iowa State Citizen 1897[4]
Keokuk Western Baptist Herald 1881[11] 1885[11]
Oskaloosa Iowa District News 1890[25] 1891[25] Monthly[25]
Oskaloosa Negro Solicitor 1893[11] or 1895[25] 1899[25]
  • "[T]he only black Democratic paper published in Iowa before the 1930s."[25]
Oskaloosa Gazette 1896[25] 1896[25]
Ottumwa New Era 1901[4]
Sioux City Silent Messenger 1937[26] 1938[26]
Sioux City Enterprise 1936[26] 1938[26]
Sioux City Weekly Review 1928[26] 1930[26]
Sioux City Afro-American Advance 1908[26] 1912[26] Weekly[26]
Sioux City Searchlight 1899[27] 1902[27] Weekly[27]
Waterloo The Defender / The Waterloo Defender 1963[29] or 1966[28] ?[28] Weekly[28]
  • Played central role in the fight against racial discrimination in Waterloo.[30] Extant issues through 1979.[28]
Waterloo Observer 1941[31]
Waterloo and Cedar Falls Parker Tribune 1980s[10] 1980s[10]
Waterloo The Waterloo Post 1952[32] ?[32] Weekly[32]
  • Extant through 1953.[32]
Waterloo Special Delivery 1987[10] ?
Waterloo Star 1950s[10] 1950s[10] Weekly[10]

See also

[edit]

Works cited

[edit]
  • Danky, James Philip; Hady, Maureen E., eds. (1998). African-American newspapers and periodicals : a national bibliography. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674007888.
  • Jones, Allen W. (1996). "Equal Rights to All, Special Privileges to None: The Black Press in Iowa, 1882-1985". In Suggs, Henry Lewis (ed.). The Black Press in the Middle West, 1865-1985. ISBN 9780313255793.
  • Junne, George H. (2000). Blacks in the American West and Beyond--America, Canada, and Mexico: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313312083.
  • Patterson, Elaine (1987). The Iowa Bystander : a history of the second 25 years (1920-1945) (MS thesis). Iowa State University.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Jones 1996, p. 72.
  2. ^ Patterson 1987, p. 99.
  3. ^ Henry, Rachelle D. (2019). Creating the Black Utopia of Buxton, Iowa. Arcadia Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 9781467140461.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Jones 1996, p. 84.
  5. ^ a b c d e Patterson 1987, p. 11.
  6. ^ a b Junne 2000, p. 338.
  7. ^ a b c Danky & Hady 1998, p. 126, ¶ 1311.
  8. ^ a b c d Jones 1996, p. 83.
  9. ^ a b c Danky & Hady 1998, p. 161, ¶ 1671.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Jones 1996, p. 101.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Junne 2000, p. 339.
  12. ^ a b c d Jones 1996, p. 99.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Jones 1996, p. 100.
  14. ^ a b c d Danky & Hady 1998, p. 605, ¶ 6329.
  15. ^ Jones 1996, p. 75.
  16. ^ a b c Danky & Hady 1998, p. 306, ¶ 3218.
  17. ^ a b Danky & Hady 1998, p. 306, ¶ 3219.
  18. ^ Jones 1996, p. 76.
  19. ^ a b Gruber-Miller, Stephen. "Publisher and activist Jonathan Narcisse dies at age 54". Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  20. ^ a b Danky & Hady 1998, p. 167, ¶ 1738.
  21. ^ a b c Jones 1996, p. 91.
  22. ^ a b c d e Jones 1996, p. 90.
  23. ^ Jones 1996, p. 94.
  24. ^ Jones 1996, p. 93.
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h Jones 1996, p. 73.
  26. ^ a b c d e f g h i Jones 1996, p. 82.
  27. ^ a b c Jones 1996, p. 81.
  28. ^ a b c d Danky & Hady 1998, p. 189, ¶ 1964.
  29. ^ Jones 1996, p. 102.
  30. ^ Jones 1996, p. 102–104.
  31. ^ Junne 2000, p. 340.
  32. ^ a b c d Danky & Hady 1998, p. 604, ¶ 6313.
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