Chicago Bee
Newspaper in Chicago, Illinois / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Chicago Bee or Chicago Sunday Bee was a Chicago-based weekly newspaper founded by Anthony Overton, an African American, in 1925. Its readership was primarily African American and the paper was committed to covering "wholesome and authentic news",[1] and adopted a middle-class, conservative tone.[4] Politically, it was aligned with the Republican Party.[5] Overton established Half-Century Magazine in 1916 and it was published until 1925.
Type | Weekly newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Broadsheet, later Tabloid[1] |
Owner(s) | Anthony Overton |
Founded | 1925[2] |
Language | English |
Ceased publication | 1947[3] |
Headquarters | Chicago Bee Building, 3647 S. State Street, Chicago |
After sharing quarters with the Hygienic Company in the 1920s, the Bee moved into the new Chicago Bee Building, an Art Deco structure built between 1929 and 1931.[6] However, after Overton's bank failed in the 1930s, the two businesses shared quarters once again, as the Hygienic Company moved into the Bee building.[7]
Chandler Owen became editor of the Bee after moving to Chicago.[8] The Bee initially supported the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which Owen supported, but later joined other publications including the Chicago Defender in opposing the union.[9]
Subsequent editors of the paper included Ida B. Wells and Olive Diggs.[10] The Bee's editorial staff was mostly female,[11] and the newspaper covered the black women's club movement extensively.[1] It distinguished itself from other newspapers in the Chicago black press in its promotion of black history and literature.[12][11]
The Bee sponsored the original "Mayor of Bronzeville" contest which led to the use of the term "Bronzeville" for the neighborhood.[1] The concept was originally suggested by theater editor James Gentry, who coined the term and had been sponsoring a beauty contest in the neighborhood since 1916.[13] When Gentry left the paper in 1932, he took his concept with him to the Chicago Defender, which continued the contests.[13]
The paper's founder and owner Anthony Overton was a wealthy industrialist, owning such concerns as the Overton Hygienic Company, a cosmetics firm.[14] He had also made a previous venture in publishing, in the form of the Half Century Magazine.[14] After Overton's death in 1946, the Bee was briefly continued by his sons in a tabloid format, but was unsuccessful.[1] It ceased publication in 1947.[3]
Very little of the Bee survives today, apart from the building it occupied. One historian was unable to find a single intact issue from the years 1925 to 1935.[15]