Black-Owned Newspapers in Columbia

Over the years, there have been several newspapers published in Columbia covering news and events for Black readers. Let’s take a look at some of these titles and find out where you can access them.

Newspapers are supposed to report "Just the Facts," but we know that no media is without its slant, angle, or bias. In the past, Columbia's African-American readers often found white-owned newspapers lacked news stories that pertained to their community or recounted local events in a racially-biased perspective.

To fill the need for information written for and about the Black community, Columbia has been home to several Black-owned newspapers since the late nineteenth century. Their editors were men and women dedicated to enlightening their readers with the truth, sometimes at great personal risk.

Not all of Columbia's former Black-owned newspapers have issues that have survived to the present, but those that do are listed below. Check out some of these newspapers both in our collections and other local libraries to get a different perspective on events of our past.

Redfren II — James Redfern II, editor of Black On News, Black News and owner of JuJu Publishing, 1978. Image from The State Newspaper Photograph Archive at Richland Library.

Black On News / Black News – edited by James Redfern II, Black On News began in Sept. 1972 and was issued on an irregular schedule. It was renamed Black News in 1977 and in 1984 became Columbia’s Black News. It was published by that title until 2013. Richland Library has Black On News and Black News issues from 1974 to 1986 available on microfilm in the Walker Local and Family History Center.

Carolina Panorama – a weekly newspaper established in 1986 by Nathaniel Abraham, Sr. (1934-2021) covering events and issues for Black residents of central South Carolina, and is still published online by Nathanial Abraham, Jr.

Nathanial Abraham, editor, 1966 — Nathaniel Abraham, editor of The Palmetto Leader, Palmetto Times, Palmetto Post and Carolina Panorama,1966. Image from The State Newspaper Photograph Archive at Richland Library.

Lighthouse and Informer – an independent weekly created by the merger of the Charleston Lighthouse and the People’s Informer (Sumter) when editor John McCray relocated to Columbia in 1941 at the urging of civil rights activist Modjeska Simkins. The newspaper provided an important communication outlet for the South Carolina Chapter of the NAACP. Issues from 1941-1954 are available online through the University of South Carolina.

Palmetto Leader – a weekly newspaper covering social, religious, and political events for the Black community in Columbia. It began publication in 1925 and was edited by N. J. Frederick (1877-1936), a prominent lawyer and educator in Columbia. The Palmetto Leader ceased publication in the 1960s. Issues from 1925 to 1957 are available on microfilm in the Walker Local and Family History Center and available online through the University of South Carolina.

People’s Recorder – a weekly, Republican newspaper published in Barnwell, Columbia, and Orangeburg from 1893 to 1925. Editors were C. F. Holmes and S. H. Nix. Only a few issues remain and are available online through Chronicling America.

Southern Indicator – a weekly, Republican newspaper published in Columbia from 1903 until 1925. Edited by N. J. Frederick. Some issues from 1913 to 1922 are available online from the Library of Congress through Chronicling America.

Nathaniel J. Frederick, lawyer, educator, and editor of the Southern Indicator and the Palmetto Leader. Image from the Isaiah DeQuincey Newman Papers at the University of South Carolina.

Interested in reading other Black-owned newspapers? Richland Library card holders can access a historic collection of 19th-century African-American newspapers through Accessible Archives. The collection includes the North Star edited by Frederick Douglass, The Christian Recorder edited by Elisha Weaver, and The Freedman's Record, edited by the New England Freedman's Aid Society. These newspapers may have reported about events in South Carolina and are keyword searchable.