Page:The Afro-American Press.djvu/115

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CHAPTER XV.

GENERAL IDEA OF AFRO-AMERICAN JOURNALISM.


THE establishment of The Communicator and The Tenneseean opened the way for the introduction of like papers all over the South.

From the year 1866 on, Afro-American newspapers were being founded in almost every state, some of which died an early death, while others survived many years. Some dropped their original name, and, under another, exist to-day.

These papers were started by some of the ablest men of the race at that time. They were men whose loyalty to their people could not be questioned, and whose efforts for race development could not fail to win appreciation. They labored at a time when the Afro-American, just out of slavery, did not engage to any great extent in literary efforts; and consequently a support for their journals was obtained by the hardest efforts only.

While the South did not accept defeat with any great magnanimity of soul, and consequently was not interested in the Afro-American's development,—in fact, did not, as a whole, wish to see it, yet there were a few whose love of principles and a desire to do what is right in the sight of