First Black Daily Newspaper Founded
by: Dr. Clint Wilson
Thirty-seven years after the first Black newspaper in America was founded in New York City (Freedom’s Journal, 1827) the Black press reached another milestone with the launching of the New Orleans Tribune, destined to become the race’s first daily news publication.
The Tribune’s roots can be traced to another landmark event that saw the first Black newspaper published in the South. That was L’Union (the Union) a paper published in both French and English beginning in 1862 during the Civil War.
After L’Union ceased publication in 1864, Dr. Louis C. Roudanez, a wealthy Black physician, bought its printing equipment and issued another bilingual newspaper called La Tribune de la Nouvelle-Orleans – the New Orleans Tribune. The Tribune debuted on July 21, 1864 as a tri-weekly and became a daily organ in October that year.
The Tribune was a champion of equal rights for Blacks and called for an end to discrimination in employment, education and voting privileges. Dr. Roudanez was vice-president of New Orleans’ Freedmen’s Aid Association and the following excerpt from the Tribune attests to its work.
“The Freedmen’s Aid Association will meet this evening, and will ...
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