The Weekly Echo (Meridian, Miss.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
163 issues from 1933 to 1942, published in Meridian, Mississippi, digitised for Chronicling America.
After a sporadic post-Civil War start, the Black press in Mississippi experienced sustained growth from 1900 to 1920 with nearly 90 papers being published during that period. The next twenty-years saw a diminution of African American journals as rigid racial segregation gripped the state. The Echo and its string of two related titles (1923-60), published in the railroad town of Meridian, the seat of Alabama-border county, Lauderdale, got its start during this period of decline.
Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church minister, Roy Lee Young, began the title run with the four-page twice monthly The Echo (1923-31). The newspaper served as the, “Official Organ of the Holbrook Benevolent Association” (HBA). For a time, Young was the organization’s secretary, his father Eugene Fred Young, Sr., the president, and younger brother, Eugene Fred Young, Jr., the vice-president. The goal of the Association was to provide low-cost medical care and affordable burial insurance to African Americans. Mottos, such as “render service” and “the poor man’s friend,” underscored the group’s philanthropic principle. The initial goal of The Echo was to inform current members on the status and operation of the Association and to recruit potential members. Reverend Young wrote editorials for each issue often expounding on the direction the HBA should take.
The newspaper’s purpose broadened in 1931 when Young switched to a weekly format. The better organized The Weekly Echo joined the Negro…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Meridian, Mississippi, 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