Chicago Defender Distributed South by Pullman Porters, Fueling Great Migration

Robert Abbott's Chicago Defender, founded in 1905, became one of the most influential Black newspapers in America by the 1910s. Pullman porters — the Black men who worked sleeping cars on Southern rail routes — smuggled bundles of the Defender south, where it was banned in many localities. The paper published letters from Northern migrants about wages and conditions, advertised job opportunities, and explicitly called for Black Southerners to migrate north. Southern whites recognized its power: possessing the Defender in some communities was grounds for violence.