Not one among the many Afro-American journalists has been more progressive and aggressive in journalistic work than Rev. Dr. R. L. Perry.
Rev. Perry was born in Smith County, Tenn. He is a highly educated man, having, as has been previously stated, two honorary degrees at the present time. He has an excellent idea of journalism, as one may see by a glance at The Monitor. He is a writer of vast learning and experience. The Monitor has survived many shocks in these twenty years of labor.
A writer says of our subject: "His pen has never in all these years failed to warn the race of dangers ahead. He always puts God first, and the race next."
Concerning the first paper he edited, in 1866, The Brooklyn Daily Union says: "It is edited by an intelligent, active, clear-headed colored man. It is temperate, sensible, and manly," This is the true estimate of his Monitor, to this day.
Mr. Jas. J. Spellman, now Special U. S. Lumber Agent, and Mr. John R. Lynch, now Fourth Auditor U. S. Treasury, began in this year, The Colored Citizen, in Mississippi. They were among the few able leaders in Mississippi, and their journal was creditably gotten up.
December 25th of that year, Mr. P. B. S. Pinchback started The New Orleans Louisianian, which was the first semi-weekly paper published by Afro-Americans. It was published in this way for three years, when it was issued weekly. This paper was a noteworthy effort, and a champion of the race. Its editor put into it all of the zeal and fire for which he is noted.
In this year W. Howard Day also published at Wilmington, Del., Our National Progress, which he edited with his accustomed vigor. It was a very good effort in this line, but eked out only a short existence, All during this time the intel-
