Black Press: Chicago Defender and Pittsburgh Courier as Resistance Media

The Chicago Defender (founded 1905) and Pittsburgh Courier (founded 1907) became the two most influential Black newspapers in America during the 1920s, each reaching hundreds of thousands of readers weekly. The Defender's 1916–1920 Great Migration campaign actively encouraged Southern Black readers to move North. Both papers reported on lynchings, racial violence, and discrimination that white newspapers ignored. The Defender was banned in some Southern counties; Pullman porters smuggled it South on train routes. The Courier had the largest Black newspaper circulation by the 1930s and ran campaigns on Amos 'n' Andy and wartime discrimination.