List of African-American newspapers in Iowa

This is a list of African-American newspapers that have been published in Iowa.

Fragments of the first issue of the Iowa Bystander, from 1894

The first African-American newspaper in Iowa was the Colored Advance of Corning, Iowa, founded in 1882.[1] It was followed the next year by the Des Moines Rising Son.[1] By far the longest-lasting, however, was the Iowa Bystander, which spanned more than a century.

During the peak period of African-American newspaper founding in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the African American population in Iowa was less than 20,000.[2] As a result, the number of such papers established in Iowa is much lower than in some neighboring states such as Illinois.

A hotspot of African American newspaper publishing in the early 20th century was Buxton, a coal-mining town that no longer exists. Around eight African-American newspapers were published there in the first decades of the 20th century.[3]

Newspapers
City Title Beginning End Frequency Call numbers Remarks
Buxton Buxton Advocate 1911[4] 1912[4] Weekly[4]
Buxton Buxton Breeze ?[4] ?[4]
Buxton Buxton Bulletin 1914[5] 1916[5]
Buxton Iowa Colored Worker 1907[6] 1910[6]`
Buxton The Buxton Eagle 1903[7] 1905[7] Weekly[7]
Buxton Buxton Gazette 1903[8] 1909[8] Weekly[8]
  • Buxton's "most successful and respected weekly."[8]
Buxton Buxton Leader 1912[4] 1913[4] Weekly[4]
Buxton The Vindicator 1908[5] ?[5]
Corning Colored Advance 1882[9] ?[9] Twice monthly[9]
  • First African-American newspaper in Iowa.[1]
Davenport Cash Register 1980s[10] Weekly[10]
  • "probably a weekly shopper"[10]
Davenport Tri-City Advocate 1907[11] ?
Davenport Tri-City Observer 1940[11] ?
Des Moines Weekly Advocate 1891[11] 1894[11] Weekly
Des Moines Iowa Afro-Citizen 1976[12] 1977[12] Weekly[12]
Des Moines Afro Des Moines Communicator 1978[13] 1978?[13]
Des Moines The Weekly Avalanche 1891[14] 1895[14] or 1894[15] Weekly[14]
  • Official newspaper of the Afro-American Protective Association of Iowa.[14]
Des Moines Iowa Baptist Standard 1897[16] 1899[16] Weekly[16]
Des Moines Black Des Moines 1972[12] 1972?[13]
Des Moines Black Revolutionary 1971[11] ?
Des Moines The Iowa Bystander / Iowa State Bystander / Bystander 1894[17] 2015 Weekly[17]
  • By far Iowa's longest-lasting African-American newspaper, spanning over a century. Founded by "ten prominent black men who had migrated to Iowa during the 1870s."[18]
    Some issues available online
Des Moines Inner City Challenger / Challenger 1981[13] 1984[13] Monthly newspaper[13]
Des Moines and Buxton Iowa Colored Woman 1907[4] 1909[4] or 1910[5] Monthly[4]
  • Journal of the Iowa State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs.[4] Moved from Des Moines to Buxton in 1909, but ceased publication later that year.[4]
Des Moines The Communicator: Iowa’s Leading Multicultural Newspaper 1985[19] or 1986[20] 2018? Biweekly[20] or bimonthly[10]
Des Moines Monitor 1910[4]
Des Moines Iowa Observer 1936[11] or 1939[21] 1949[22]
  • Founded by Charles Howard, Sr., after he grew unhappy with the policies of the Iowa Bystander.[21] Circulation exceeded the Bystander by more than 1000 in the early 1940s.[22] No copies are known to survive.[22]
Des Moines Des Moines Register and Leader 1908[11] 1915[11]
Des Moines Rising Son 1883[1] 1885[1] Weekly[1]
  • Edited by Harry Graham, founder of the Western Negro Press Association.[1]
Des Moines Iowa Sepia News 1951[23] 1952[24] or 1954[11]
Des Moines They Say 1936[21] Weekly[21]
  • Founded by Charles Howard, Jr., while a high school student.[21]
Des Moines Western Ledger 1908[11] 1909[11] Monthly newspaper
  • Official newspaper of the Colored Co-operative League.[11]
Keokuk Baptist Herald ? 1901[11]
Keokuk Baptist Missionary 1917[4]
Keokuk Iowa State Citizen 1897[4]
Keokuk Western Baptist Herald 1881[11] 1885[11]
Oskaloosa Iowa District News 1890[25] 1891[25] Monthly[25]
Oskaloosa Negro Solicitor 1893[11] or 1895[25] 1899[25]
  • "[T]he only black Democratic paper published in Iowa before the 1930s."[25]
Oskaloosa Gazette 1896[25] 1896[25]
Ottumwa New Era 1901[4]
Sioux City Silent Messenger 1937[26] 1938[26]
Sioux City Enterprise 1936[26] 1938[26]
Sioux City Weekly Review 1928[26] 1930[26]
Sioux City Afro-American Advance 1908[26] 1912[26] Weekly[26]
Sioux City Searchlight 1899[27] 1902[27] Weekly[27]
Waterloo The Defender / The Waterloo Defender 1963[28] or 1966[29] ?[29] Weekly[29]
  • Played central role in the fight against racial discrimination in Waterloo.[30] Extant issues through 1979.[29]
Waterloo Observer 1941[31]
Waterloo and Cedar Falls Parker Tribune 1980s[10] 1980s[10]
Waterloo The Waterloo Post 1952[32] ?[32] Weekly[32]
  • Extant through 1953.[32]
Waterloo Special Delivery 1987[10] ?
Waterloo Star 1950s[10] 1950s[10] Weekly[10]

See also

Works cited
  • Danky, James Philip; Hady, Maureen E., eds. (1998). African-American newspapers and periodicals : a national bibliography. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674007888.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Jones, Allen W. (1996). "Equal Rights to All, Special Privileges to None: The Black Press in Iowa, 1882-1985". In Suggs, Henry Lewis (ed.). The Black Press in the Middle West, 1865-1985. ISBN 9780313255793.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Junne, George H. (2000). Blacks in the American West and Beyond--America, Canada, and Mexico: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313312083.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Patterson, Elaine (1987). The Iowa Bystander : a history of the second 25 years (1920-1945) (MS thesis). Iowa State University.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

References
  1. Jones 1996, p. 72.
  2. Patterson 1987, p. 99.
  3. Henry, Rachelle D. (2019). Creating the Black Utopia of Buxton, Iowa. Arcadia Publishing. p. 64.
  4. Jones 1996, p. 84.
  5. Patterson 1987, p. 11.
  6. Junne 2000, p. 338.
  7. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 126, ¶ 1311.
  8. Jones 1996, p. 83.
  9. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 161, ¶ 1671.
  10. Jones 1996, p. 101.
  11. Junne 2000, p. 339.
  12. Jones 1996, p. 99.
  13. Jones 1996, p. 100.
  14. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 605, ¶ 6329.
  15. Jones 1996, p. 75.
  16. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 306, ¶ 3218.
  17. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 306, ¶ 3219.
  18. Jones 1996, p. 76.
  19. Gruber-Miller, Stephen. "Publisher and activist Jonathan Narcisse dies at age 54". Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  20. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 167, ¶ 1738.
  21. Jones 1996, p. 90.
  22. Jones 1996, p. 91.
  23. Jones 1996, p. 93.
  24. Jones 1996, p. 94.
  25. Jones 1996, p. 73.
  26. Jones 1996, p. 82.
  27. Jones 1996, p. 81.
  28. Jones 1996, p. 102.
  29. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 189, ¶ 1964.
  30. Jones 1996, p. 102–104.
  31. Junne 2000, p. 340.
  32. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 604, ¶ 6313.
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