Dangerous Press

The Dangerous Press archive brings together digitized issues of African American newspapers from the early twentieth century, spanning the years 1905 to 1929. This period witnessed the Great Migration, World War I, the Red Summer of 1919, the Harlem Renaissance, and the rise of the "New Negro" movement—all documented in real time by the Black press.

These newspapers served as vital organs of information, advocacy, and community building for African Americans during an era of segregation, disenfranchisement, and systemic violence. They reported on local and national news often ignored or misrepresented by white-owned media, championed civil rights causes, celebrated cultural achievements, and provided a platform for Black voices and perspectives.

The name Dangerous Press honors this legacy and the risks these publications faced. During World War I, federal agents labeled the Chicago Defender "the most dangerous of all Negro journals" because of its unflinching coverage of lynching, segregation, and northern migration. Its editor, Robert S. Abbott, and other Black journalists were monitored, threatened, and censored for their outspoken defense of racial justice. What made these newspapers "dangerous" was not disloyalty, but their insistence on truth in an age of repression—their power to awaken, mobilize, and connect Black readers across the nation.

This collection draws primarily from the Library of Congress's Chronicling America digital newspaper archive, supplemented with materials from other sources. The archive is a work in progress, with new issues and newspapers being added regularly.