Weekly Defiance

History

Newspaper

• John H. Brown and Alonzo W. Burnett, two Black business owners in Atlanta, founded the Weekly Defiance in August 1881. The small weekly paper supported the Republican Party and circulated every Saturday at a subscription cost of one dollar. Following Brown's death in October 1882, Reverend William Henry Heard (a freedman and future Ambassador of the United States to Liberia) joined as editor, and this arrangement continued until a stock company of Black business men in Atlanta purchased the Defiance in February 1883. Burnett, however, maintained partial ownership of the publication.

• With some periods of interruption, the paper served Atlanta's Black community until completely ceasing publication in 1889. 

• According to the Ayer & Son's American Newspaper Annual from 1889, the paper's final owners were J. A. Sykes and A. W. Burnett.

City

• Atlanta is the county seat of Fulton County

• New Georgia Encyclopedia entry

County

• New Georgia Encyclopedia entry

Superior Court Districts

• Coweta Circuit Dec. 20, 1869

• Atlanta Circuit, 1869-

Population - Census

• 1860: 14,427

• 1870: 33,446

• 1880: 49,137

• 1890: 84,665

• 1900: 117,363

• 1910: 177,733

• 1920: 232,606

• 1930: 318,587

• 1940: 392,886

• 1950: 473,572

• 1960: 556,326

• 1970: 607,210

Already Digitized By DLG

• The weekly defiance, Oct. 24, 1882 & Feb. 24, 1883

  • These issues were digitized by the Library of Congress, from a miscellaneous reel: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016184/

• List of other digitized Atlanta titles

Film Holdings (Single-Issue Reel)

• Oct 3, 1885