Arizona Sun (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1942-196?
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
793 issues from 1944 to 1963, published in Phoenix, Arizona, digitised for Chronicling America.
Doc F. Benson and Howard H. Pullins started the weekly African American newspaper, the Arizona Sun, in Phoenix, Arizona, in April 1942. Under its masthead, the Democratic newspaper stated, “Published in the interest of Social, Political and Economic Welfare of 15,000 Negroes of Arizona.” This was updated to 60,000 in 1949 to reflect the growing African American population in Arizona. In October 1950, the Arizona Sun‘s new masthead incorporated a drawing of the sun rising over the mountains with saguaro cacti in the valley below. The Arizona Sun was the only African American newspaper published in Phoenix during the 1940s and 1950s, after the Phoenix Index ceased about 1943 and before the Arizona Tribune began in 1958. During that time, the newspaper listed at the top of every front page: “Read Arizona’s Only Negro Newspaper.”
The Arizona Sun regularly featured issues of local and national importance, such as efforts to desegregate Arizona schools, news of the Phoenix Urban League, labor rights concerns, and veterans’ news. In the 1940s, Nellie Maye Taylor had a regular column, “Sunshine,” in which she commented on the racial, political, and economic challenges faced by people of color. Other regular columns included “The Fiction Corner” and “Sidewalk Opinion” which featured photos of school children and their views on issues of the day. In 1946, the paper introduced a comics section and a “Woman’s World” column about fashion and clothing.
In the April 1952 tenth…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Phoenix, Arizona, 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