BLACK INK ON WHITE PAPER: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN PRESS IN RHODE ISLAND

The Black Press in Rhode Island is a remarkable yet virtually unknown history. In 1857 we find Alexander P. Niger, an accomplished typesetter, in the Providence print shop of A. C. Greene. In 1860, the first African American newspaper, Rev. George W. Hamblin’s L’Overture, begins publication. In 1906, John Carter Minkins became the nation’s first Black editor of an all-white newspaper, the News-Democrat, starting a seventy-year career in Rhode Island media. In 1950, the Providence Journal hires its first Black reporter, James N. Rhea, who remains for thirty-three challenging years, writing on the plight of African Americans locally and nationally and winning a Pulitzer for doing so. 1968 through 2018 is the longest stretch of Black publications in the state, with six different newspapers coming and going, and for the most part, creating a continuous pipeline of information for and about the Black community. For further information, visit stagesoffreedom.org/riblackpress