The Dallas Express (Dallas, Tex.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
183 issues from 1900 to 1922, published in Houston, Texas, digitised for Chronicling America.
Self-proclaimed as “the South’s Oldest and Largest Negro Newspaper,” the Dallas Express traces its roots to 1892, when William E. King began publishing the Dallas Bee. Renamed the Dallas Express in 1893, the paper served as an advocate for blacks in Dallas and throughout the South for over 70 years.
Although little exists to document the paper’s early years, the Express became one of the most influential black publications in Texas in the decades leading up to the Great Depression. In 1920, the Express boasted a circulation of over 10,000, second only to the Houston Informer in the state’s black weekly market. The eight-page paper ran on Saturdays and cost five cents for a single issue or one dollar and fifty cents for an annual subscription.
King edited the Express from its inception until his death in 1919. During King’s editorship–as well as John Rice’s from 1919 to 1928–the Express claimed to be a “plain, every day, sensible, conservative newspaper.” The Express, however, reported news ignored by most mainstream publications. In an era when the Birmingham News admonished blacks for placing “too much stress” on incidents of lynching, the Express blazoned such injustices across its front page. Editorials denounced segregation, voting restrictions, and mob violence, which flourished during the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Despite its frequently militant views, the Express strove to promote improved race relations and embody its motto “Champion of Justice,…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Houston, Texas, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress