The Wisconsin Weekly Blade (Madison, Wis.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
143 issues from 1916 to 1922, published in Madison, Wisconsin, digitised for Chronicling America.
The Wisconsin Weekly Blade was published from 1916 to 1925 and was the first African American newspaper in Madison. It was run by Jarius (J.) Anthony Josey, an Augusta, Georgia native. After attending Atlanta University and gaining journalistic experience as co-editor of the Atlanta Independent, Josey moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 1905. Here, he eventually attended law school at the University of Wisconsin and helped found the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, one of the state’s oldest, predominately African American congregations, in 1911.
Although the state capital’s African American community more than doubled between 1910 and 1930, existing local newspapers paid little attention to it. Josey started the Blade to change that. Run out of his own house, Josey’s newspaper focused on the social and political lives of African American Madisonians and Wisconsinites.
The Blade was a Republican publication and covered many social justice issues, including criticism of African American enlistment during World War I, racial bias in other local newspapers, and advocacy for Black women’s rights. The newspaper also became a medium to promote local African American businesses and served as the official press organ for the orders of Odd Fellows and Household of Ruth in both Wisconsin and Illinois.
Throughout the Blade‘s existence, a variety of other community members, including Reverend Zachary Smith, L.J. Ousley, and attorney George De Reef, contributed to the publication as co-editors. In…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Madison, Wisconsin, 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