African American Newspapers in the Georgia Historic Newspapers Website

Issue of the Wolverine Observer, published by the students of Morris Brown College in May 1967

African American publishers in Georgia have a rich history of delivering news and recording the first-hand history of our state through newspaper journalism. Beginning in the early years of Reconstruction, Black entrepreneurs began establishing papers across the state and exercised their newly won freedoms in the face of harsh resistance. The growth of African American newspapers accelerated in the mid-twentieth century with the burgeoning of the American Civil Rights Movement and the proud tradition of Black newspaper journalism continues in the present day.

Over the last five years, the Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) has made a concerted effort to identify and seek funding to digitize African American newspapers published in Georgia between 1865 and the early twenty-first century. Through partnerships with the Atlanta University Center, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), the Georgia Public Library Service (GPLS), the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the R. J. Taylor Foundation, and the University of Georgia Libraries, we have made over twenty newspaper titles published by black Georgians available for browsing and searching on the Georgia Historic Newspapers (GHN) website.

A list of these titles is available at https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/types/#africanamerican

Highlights from the collection include:

  • The Spelman Spotlight 1957-1980 – College newspaper published by the students of Spelman College that covered the events of the American Civil Rights Movement.

The DLG is continuing to work with partners to make African American newspapers freely available to the public through our GHN website. Upcoming titles slated for digitization in the Spring include:

  • Augusta News-Review (1971-1985) – A partnership with the Georgia Public Library Service.
  • Savannah Tribune (1943-1960) – A partnership with Live Oak Public Libraries and the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC).
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Georgia Historic Newspapers Update Winter 2021

This past winter, the Digital Library of Georgia released several new grant-funded newspaper titles to the Georgia Historic Newspapers website. Included below is a list of the newly available titles.

Titles funded by the National Digital Newspaper Program with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Americus Times-Recorder, 1920-1925

Atlanta Constitution, 1897-1903

Atlanta Semi-Weekly Journal, 1901-1918

Golden Age (Atlanta), 1906-1914

People’s Party Paper (Atlanta), 1892-1898

Trench and Camp (Augusta), 1917-1919

Titles funded by the R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation in partnership with the Atlanta History Center.

Atlanta Daily Examiner. 1854-1855

Atlanta Daily Post, 1879-1880

Atlanta Evening Capitol, 1885-1887

Atlanta Evening Herald, 1893

Atlanta Post-Appeal, 1882

Atlanta Weekly Examiner, 1855-1856

Atlanta Weekly Post, 1880-1881

Cherokee Georgian (Canton), 1875-1876

Cherokee Intelligencer (Canton), 1833-1834

Christian Index (Atlanta), 1879-1881

Christian Index (Atlanta), 1892-1897

Christian index and Southern Baptist (Atlanta), 1881-1892

Daily Dispatch (Savannah), 1894

Daily Press (Atlanta), 1894

Evening Sentinel (Augusta), 1878-1879

Georgia Constitutionalist (Augusta), 1845

Georgia Courier (Augusta), 1833-1835

Great Kennesaw Route Gazette (Atlanta), 1886

Kennesaw Gazette (Atlanta), 1886-1890

Living Issues (Atlanta), 1893-1894

Looking Glass (Atlanta), 1894-1897

Marietta Advocate, 1861-1863

National Republican (Augusta), 1868

Savannah Daily Times, 1884-1886

Savannah Morning News, 1881-1883

Savannah Weekly News, 1894-1898

Southern Alliance Farmer, 1889-1892

Southern Confederacy (Atlanta), 1861

Sunday Gazette (Atlanta), 1878-1881

Sunday Phonograph (Atlanta), 1879-1881

Times (Savannah), 1880-1881

Weekly Chronicle & Constitutionalist (Augusta), 1881-1883

Weekly Chronicle & Sentinel (Augusta), 1843-1846

Weekly Georgia Constitutionalist and Republic (Augusta), 1852-1855

Western Georgian (Rome), 1838

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