Savannah Tribune
History
Newspaper
October 23, 1886 - December 15, 1888 was digitized as a part of the 2016/2021 NDNP grant cycle.
Note: The master microfilm for this title is located at the Library of Congress.
Essay written for Chronicling America: "John H. Deveaux, Louis B. Toomer, Sr., and Louis M. Pleasant, three prominent African American businesspeople and Republican officials, published the first issue of the Colored Tribune on December 4, 1875, in Savannah, Georgia. They renamed the weekly paper the Savannah Tribune in 1876, and that title persisted while it became one of the longest-running African American newspapers in the South. As the paper's manager and editorial voice, Deveaux dedicated the pages of the Tribune principally to the advancement of Savannah's African American community and Republican Party. That same year, Deveaux published editorials encouraging Savannah's Black residents to register to vote and garnered attention by condemning the Savannah Theatre for segregating seats at a performance of the all-Black Braham Musical Club. Despite the publication's success, there were no printing presses owned by African Americans in Savannah, and the Tribune was forced to suspend publication in 1878 after White Democratic printers refused to print the newspaper.
When Deveaux and R. W. White revived the Tribune on October 23, 1886, the paper published from its own printing plant located on St. Julian Street. In that issue's salutatory editorial, Deveaux explained that "the main and higher object of our paper will be to promote the cause of education, cooperating with all teachers and workers in that cause, and the moral and material advancement of the colored people." In 1889, editorial control of the Tribune passed to Solomon "Sol" C. Johnson when Deveaux accepted an appointed position as collector of customs in Brunswick, Georgia. Under Johnson's direction and with a reach extending to north Florida, the Tribune crucially reported injustices of the Jim Crow era. Beginning in 1892, Johnson particularly criticized segregated streetcars in the city and played an instrumental role in the boycott movement that emerged in the early 20th century.
After Deveaux's death in 1909, Johnson purchased the Tribune, and, by the 1920s, he shifted the newspaper's editorial tone from the ideology of Booker T. Washington to a more activist voice for civil rights and social equality. Continuing its history of featuring prominent black thinkers in its columns, Harlem Renaissance writer James Weldon Johnson served as a correspondent for the Tribune during his tenure as executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1928, the Tribune, Georgia's leading African American newspaper, faced significant competition with the establishment of the Atlanta World (later Atlanta Daily World), which became the preeminent black newspaper in the state. Following Sol Johnson's death in 1954, his goddaughter Willa Ayers Johnson became the first woman owner and editor of the Tribune, and she managed the paper until it ceased publication in September 1960. Robert E. James, a banker, then reestablished the Tribune in 1973, and he managed the paper until 1983 when his wife, Shirley Barber James, became the publisher and sole owner. To this day, the Tribune continues to serve Savannah-Chatham County's African American community."
Other
City
Savannah is the county seat of Chatham County
County
Superior Court Districts
Eastern Circuit, Dec. 23, 1789 -
Population - Census
1790: 10709
1800: 12046
1810: 13540
1820: 14737
1830: 14127
1840: 18801
1850: 23901
1860: 31043
1870: 41279
1880: 45023
1890: 57740
1900: 71239
1910: 79690
1920: 100032
1930: 105431
1940: 117970
1950: 151481
1960: 188299
1970: 187816
ALREADY DIGITIZED BY DLG
FILM HOLDINGS (44 Reels)
Dec. 4, 1875 - Dec. 31. 1892
Jan. 7, 1893 - Dec. 29, 1894
Jan. 5, 1895 - Dec. 26, 1896
Jan. 2, 1897 - Dec. 31, 1898
Jan. 7, 1899 - Dec. 29, 1900
Jan.19, 1901 -Dec. 26, 1903
Jan. 2, 1904 - Dec. 30, 1905
Jan. 6, - Dec. 29, 1906
Jan. 5, 1907 - Dec. 26, 1908
Jan.2 - Dec. 25, 1909
Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 1910
Jan. 7 - Dec. 30, 1911
Jan. 6 - Dec. 28, 1912
Jan. 4 - Dec. 27, 1913
Jan. 3 - Dec. 26, 1914
Jan. 2 - Dec. 25, 1915
Jan 1 - Dec. 30, 1916
Jan. 6 - Dec. 29, 1917
Jan. 5 - Dec. 28, 1918
Jan. 4 - Dec. 27, 1919
Jan. 3 -Dec. 25, 1920
Jan. 1 - Dec. 29, 1921
Jan. 5 - Dec. 28, 1922
Jan. 4 - Dec. 27, 1923
Jan. 3 - Dec. 25, 1924
Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 1925
Jan. 7 - Dec. 30, 1926
Jan. 6 - Dec. 29, 1927
Jan. 5 - Dec. 27, 1928
Jan. 3 - Dec. 26, 1929
Jan. 2 - Dec. 25, 1930
Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 1931
Jan. 7 - Dec. 29, 1932
Jan. 5 - Dec. 28, 1933
Jan. 4 - Dec. 27, 1934
Jan. 3 - Dec. 26, 1935
Jan. 2 - Dec. 31, 1936
Jan. 7 - Dec. 30, 1937
Jan. 6 - Dec. 29, 1938
Jan. 5 - Dec. 28, 1939
Jan. 4 - Dec. 26, 1940
Jan. 2 - Dec. 25, 1941
Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 1942
Jan. 7 - Oct. 7, 1943