The Defender: How Chicago's Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America

This is a major work of American history the compelling and richly researched story of the legendary African American newspaper and the astonishing collection of history-makers whose lives are forever intertwined. Jonathan Alter, author of The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies Giving voice to the voiceless, TheChicago Defender condemned Jim Crow, catalyzed the Great Migration, and focused the electoral power of black America. Robert S. Abbott founded The Defender in 1905, smuggled hundreds of thousands of copies into the most isolated communities in the segregated South, and was dubbed a Modern Moses, becoming one of the first black millionaires in the process. His successor wielded the newspaper s clout to elect mayors and presidents, including Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy, who would have lost in 1960 if not for TheDefender s support. Along the way, its pages were filled with columns by legends like Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, and Martin Luther King Jr. Drawing on dozens of interviews and extensive archival research, Ethan Michaeli constructs a revelatory narrative of race in America and brings to life the reporters who braved lynch mobs and policemen s clubs to do their jobs, from the age of Teddy Roosevelt to the age of Barack Obama."
ISBN : 9780547560694