PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 15, 2012 –
New to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is Chicago Defender by Myiti Sengstacke Rice. This pictorial history boasts more than 200 vintage images and provides readers with a unique opportunity to reconnect with the history that shaped their community.
Robert Sengstacke Abbott had a vision, purpose and a slogan that said it all: “American race prejudice must be destroyed.” In 1905, Abbott created the Chicago Defender with 25¢ and a dream in his landlady’s kitchen. The Defender was a platform and voice for talents such as Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and W.E.B. DuBois.
What began as a humble weekly grew into the largest and most influential black newspaper in the country, leading an entire race to leave the oppressive South for a better life in the North. Born in 1868 on the heels of the Reconstruction Era, Abbott, the son of former slaves, managed to influence the first two decades of the 20th century and was a major contributor to the prolific movement known as the “Great Northern Migration.”
Boasting a circulation of over 300,000 nationally, the Defender was secretly delivered by Pullman porters across the United States. By 1920, the paper’s tagline read, “The World’s Greatest Weekly.” The story of the Defender is one of inspiration, struggle, triumph, and irreversible pathways being forged.
Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.
Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places. Have we done a book on your town? Visit arcadiapublishing.com.