The Lee County Journal (Leesburg, Georgia; Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
897 issues from 1904 to 1923, published in Leesburg, Georgia, digitised for Chronicling America.
George L. Keen published the first four-page issue of the Lee County Journal in January 1898 in Smithville, Georgia. Previously, the county relied on newspapers in the nearby cities of Americus and Albany to carry legal advertisements and local news. Even after the Journal‘s founding, the paper experienced several temporary suspensions as the county’s impoverished sharecropping community could not support a robust paper. The Journal‘s editorial tone mirrored that of papers from neighboring counties and featured partisan content that firmly supported the Democratic Party and White supremacy. This editorial direction continued into the 20th century, when Lee County’s notorious reputation for violence against its Black residents led civil rights activists to select the county for early integration efforts in the 1960s.
Keen managed the paper until March 1900, when he sold it to C. A. Wallace, who subsequently moved the publication to the county seat of Leesburg in November 1901. Wallace managed the Journal until Alfred Z. Wesley and M. E. Tison purchased the paper in March 1904. Wesley left a month later, and illness forced Tison’s retirement in April 1905. Tison’s wife, Minnie Tison, then published the paper until Charles Howell Beazley acquired it in September 1905. Beazley gained attention across the state for his “Crackerlings and Caramels” column, which featured animated poems and editorials.
Beazley’s sprawling business interests and political aspirations resulted in…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Leesburg, Georgia, 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