List of African American newspapers in Iowa Facts for Kids

Fragments of the first issue of the Iowa Bystander, from 1894

This is a list of African American newspapers that have been published in Iowa.

The first African American newspaper in Iowa was the Colored Advance of Corning, Iowa, founded in 1882. It was followed the next year by the Des Moines Rising Son. By far the longest-lasting, however, was the Iowa Bystander, which spanned more than a century.

During the peak period of African American newspaper founding in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the African American population in Iowa was less than 20,000. As a result, the number of such papers established in Iowa is much lower than in some neighboring states such as Illinois.

A hotspot of African American newspaper publishing in the early 20th century was Buxton, a coal-mining town that no longer exists. Around eight African American newspapers were published there in the first decades of the 20th century.

Newspapers

City	Title	Beginning	End	Frequency	Remarks
Buxton	Buxton Advocate	1911	1912	Weekly
Buxton	Buxton Breeze	?	?
Buxton	Buxton Bulletin	1914	1916
Buxton	Iowa Colored Worker	1907	1910`
Buxton	The Buxton Eagle	1903	1905	Weekly
Buxton	Buxton Gazette	1903	1909	Weekly	Buxton's "most successful and respected weekly."
Buxton	Buxton Leader	1912	1913	Weekly
Buxton	The Vindicator	1908	?
Corning	Colored Advance	1882	?	Twice monthly	First African American newspaper in Iowa.
Davenport	Cash Register	1980s		Weekly	"probably a weekly shopper"
Davenport	Tri-City Advocate	1907	?
Davenport	Tri-City Observer	1940	?
Des Moines	Weekly Advocate	1891	1894	Weekly
Des Moines	Iowa Afro-Citizen	1976	1977	Weekly
Des Moines	Afro Des Moines Communicator	1978	1978?
Des Moines	The Weekly Avalanche	1891	1895 or 1894	Weekly	Official newspaper of the Afro-American Protective Association of Iowa.
Des Moines	Iowa Baptist Standard	1897	1899	Weekly
Des Moines	Black Des Moines	1972	1972?
Des Moines	Black Revolutionary	1971	?
Des Moines	The Iowa Bystander / Iowa State Bystander / Bystander	1894	2015	Weekly	By far Iowa's longest-lasting African American newspaper, spanning over a century. Founded by "ten prominent black men who had migrated to Iowa during the 1870s." Some issues available online
Des Moines	Inner City Challenger / Challenger	1981	1984	Monthly newspaper
Des Moines and Buxton	Iowa Colored Woman	1907	1909 or 1910	Monthly	Journal of the Iowa State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. Moved from Des Moines to Buxton in 1909, but ceased publication later that year.
Des Moines	The Communicator: Iowa’s Leading Multicultural Newspaper	1985 or 1986	2018?	Biweekly or bimonthly	Edited by Jonathan R. Narcisse (1963–2018). Official site: https://www.facebook.com/thecommunicatorgoodnews/
Des Moines	Monitor	1910
Des Moines	Iowa Observer	1936 or 1939	1949		Founded by Charles Howard, Sr., after he grew unhappy with the policies of the Iowa Bystander. Circulation exceeded the Bystander by more than 1000 in the early 1940s. No copies are known to survive.
Des Moines	Des Moines Register and Leader	1908	1915
Des Moines	Rising Son	1883	1885	Weekly	Edited by Harry Graham, founder of the Western Negro Press Association.
Des Moines	Iowa Sepia News	1951	1952 or 1954
Des Moines	They Say	1936		Weekly	Founded by Charles Howard, Jr., while a high school student.
Des Moines	Western Ledger	1908	1909	Monthly newspaper	Official newspaper of the Colored Co-operative League.
Keokuk	Baptist Herald	?	1901
Keokuk	Baptist Missionary	1917
Keokuk	Iowa State Citizen	1897
Keokuk	Western Baptist Herald	1881	1885
Oskaloosa	Iowa District News	1890	1891	Monthly
Oskaloosa	Negro Solicitor	1893 or 1895	1899		"[T]he only black Democratic paper published in Iowa before the 1930s."
Oskaloosa	Gazette	1896	1896
Ottumwa	New Era	1901
Sioux City	Silent Messenger	1937	1938
Sioux City	Enterprise	1936	1938
Sioux City	Weekly Review	1928	1930
Sioux City	Afro-American Advance	1908	1912	Weekly
Sioux City	Searchlight	1899	1902	Weekly
Waterloo	The Defender / The Waterloo Defender	1963 or 1966	?	Weekly	Played central role in the fight against racial discrimination in Waterloo. Extant issues through 1979.
Waterloo	Observer	1941
Waterloo and Cedar Falls	Parker Tribune	1980s	1980s
Waterloo	The Waterloo Post	1952	?	Weekly	Extant through 1953.
Waterloo	Special Delivery	1987	?
Waterloo	Star	1950s	1950s	Weekly

List of African American newspapers in Iowa facts for kids

Newspapers

See also