The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America

ISBN: 0547560699

Author: Michaeli, Ethan

Condition: New

An extraordinary historyDeeply researched, elegantly writtena towering achievement that will not be soon forgotten. -Brent Staples, New York Times Book ReviewNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYThe New York Times Book Review The Washington Post AmazonGiving voice to the voiceless, the Chicago 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 newspapers clout to elect mayors and presidents, including Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy, who would have lost in 1960 if not for TheDefenders support. Along the way, its pages were filled with columns by legends like Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, and Martin Luther King.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 policemens clubs to do their jobs, from the age of Teddy Roosevelt to the age of Barack Obama.