The Chicago Defender is back in Bronzeville. Tuesday marked the paper’s first official day at its new headquarters, 4445 S. King Dr., and the building was “blessed” by the Rev. Willie T. Barrow of Rainbow/PUSH.
The Chicago Defender is back in Bronzeville.
Tuesday marked the paper’s first official day at its new headquarters, 4445 S. King Dr., and the building was “blessed” by the Rev. Willie T. Barrow of Rainbow/PUSH.
Also on hand for the first-day celebration was the Rev. Jesse Jackson; prominent Chicago developer Elzie Higginbottom; Joslyn DiPasalegne, relative of the Abbott-Sengstacke family; and Hiram Jackson, chief executive officer of Real Times Media Inc., the parent company of the Defender.
The paper’s new location, formerly the Metropolitan Funeral Home, will mark the fifth home for the Defender, which was founded on May 5, 1905 by Robert Abbott.
Abbott started the paper in a second floor loft at 2935 S. State St. – two blocks away from the room he rented – with 25 cents – and produced his first run of 300 copies.
By the start of World War I, the Defender was the nation’s most influential Black weekly, tackling issues of racial injustice, anti-lynching campaigns and for integrated sports. It also facilitated The Great Migration from the South.
It became the first Black newspaper to boast a circulation over 250,000, thanks to the Pullman Porters who secretly distributed the paper south of the Mason-Dixon line.
The paper later moved to 3435 S. Michigan Ave.
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