The African American Press, or the Black Press, refers primarily to newspapers published by African Americans for the African American community. The first such newspaper was Freedom's Journal, published from 1827 to 1829 in New York City. On this page you will find a number of resources about the Black Press, as well as information on locating representative newspapers in the library collection.
A number of useful resources exist on the Web to help researchers find and learn about Black newspapers. Here are several good ones:
A number of African American newspapers are available to the University of Maryland community through the databases of Research Port. Three principal databases are listed here. In addition, some newspapers are available on microfilm in the McKeldin Library periodicals room. Refer to the "Newspapers on Microfilm" tab of this subject guide for more information about accessing the microfilm collection.
A number of excellent histories on the Black Press are available in the library collection. Some are general histories of African American newspapers and others focus discussion on particular time frames or themes in African American journalism. A sample of the collection is presented here.