Summary
At the same time, a relatively unknown South Carolina native, James Henry Anderson, dared to dream of a newspaper that could inform, uplift and serve African-Americans. His first edition was laid out on his wife's dressmaker's table with six sheets of paper and a lead pencil. It sold for two cents a copy from Anderson's home at 132 West 65th Street in the San Juan Hill section of Manhattan. For the next 100 years, the Amsterdam News chronicled the struggles, the hopes and the challenges of Black America. In that sense, it became a strong partner of the work of NAACP-giving voice to those fighting for the rights of Black people.
Now, 100 years later, the Amsterdam News, under the leadership of Elinor Tatum, has become one of New York's largest and most influential Black-owned and -operated businesses and one of the nation's leading African-American newspapers. In a brutal climate that has seen newspapers folding by the dozen, the Amsterdam News remains strong and unwavering in its commitment to bring vital information to its readers.After Wilbert Tatum's death, his daughter Elinor began to run the Amsterdam News. Elinor Tatum's visionary leadership brought the newspaper into the 21st century, making use of online technology to continue the paper's legacy and broaden its reach. But while some of the tools of communications changed, she never wavered from Anderson's goal - reflected by her father's legacy - of tirelessly serving the needs of the Black community and being its mouthpiece.A multiracial group of progressives gathered in New York to form the NAACP, daring to dream of a successful movement that would end the horrors of lynch mob violence and build a sustained movement for civil rights. The newspaper has a long tradition of giving space to African-American leaders seeking to play a leadership role in our democracy often when the rest of New York's newspapers would not.See the full content of this document
Extract
The Amsterdam News at 100
Every movement for justice needs someone who chronicles its ebbs and flows in a way that challenges the present context and preserves a record for posterity. You find their names in the footnotes of history, but without them, there would be no reco...
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