The Chicago Defender, Chicago, IL

Filed under Chicago

Founded by Robert S. Abbott in 1905, the Chicago Defender, whose banner once touted itself as “The Mouthpiece of 14 Million People: Carries More Live News of Racial Interest Than Any Ten Weeklies,” was the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper by the advent of World War I, with more than two thirds of its readership base located outside of Chicago. The “Great Migration” of the early-20th century was largely initiated by Defender editorials urging African-Americans to leave the poverty of the South for new opportunities in the North. Later, the newspaper became nationally known for its outspoken editorial policies on behalf of civil rights issues.

Designated a Chicago Landmark in 1998, the Chicago Defender Building (below) is the former Jewish synagogue building that housed the Chicago Defender from 1920 until 1960. It was at this site where Abbott burnished the paper’s national reputation.