List of African American newspapers in Iowa

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

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

The first African American newspaper in Iowa was the Colored Advance of Corning, Iowa, founded in 1882.^[1] It was followed the next year by the Des Moines Rising Son.^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[3]

Newspapers

City	Title	Beginning	End	Frequency	Call numbers	Remarks
Buxton	Buxton Advocate	1911[4]	1912[4]	Weekly[4]
Buxton	Buxton Breeze	?[4]	?[4]
Buxton	Buxton Bulletin	1914[5]	1916[5]
Buxton	Iowa Colored Worker	1907[6]	1910[6]`
Buxton	The Buxton Eagle	1903[7]	1905[7]	Weekly[7]
Buxton	Buxton Gazette	1903[8]	1909[8]	Weekly[8]		Buxton's "most successful and respected weekly."[8]
Buxton	Buxton Leader	1912[4]	1913[4]	Weekly[4]
Buxton	The Vindicator	1908[5]	?[5]
Corning	Colored Advance	1882[9]	?[9]	Twice monthly[9]		First African American newspaper in Iowa.[1]
Davenport	Cash Register	1980s[10]		Weekly[10]		"probably a weekly shopper"[10]
Davenport	Tri-City Advocate	1907[11]	?
Davenport	Tri-City Observer	1940[11]	?
Des Moines	Weekly Advocate	1891[11]	1894[11]	Weekly
Des Moines	Iowa Afro-Citizen	1976[12]	1977[12]	Weekly[12]
Des Moines	Afro Des Moines Communicator	1978[13]	1978?[13]
Des Moines	The Weekly Avalanche	1891[14]	1895[14] or 1894[15]	Weekly[14]		Official newspaper of the Afro-American Protective Association of Iowa.[14]
Des Moines	Iowa Baptist Standard	1897[16]	1899[16]	Weekly[16]
Des Moines	Black Des Moines	1972[12]	1972?[13]
Des Moines	Black Revolutionary	1971[11]	?
Des Moines	The Iowa Bystander / Iowa State Bystander / Bystander	1894[17]	2015	Weekly[17]		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."[18] Some issues available online
Des Moines	Inner City Challenger / Challenger	1981[13]	1984[13]	Monthly newspaper[13]
Des Moines and Buxton	Iowa Colored Woman	1907[4]	1909[4] or 1910[5]	Monthly[4]		Journal of the Iowa State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs.[4] Moved from Des Moines to Buxton in 1909, but ceased publication later that year.[4]
Des Moines	The Communicator: Iowa’s Leading Multicultural Newspaper	1985[19] or 1986[20]	2018?	Biweekly[20] or bimonthly[10]		Edited by Jonathan R. Narcisse (1963–2018).[19] Official site
Des Moines	Monitor	1910[4]
Des Moines	Iowa Observer	1936[11] or 1939[21]	1949[22]			Founded by Charles Howard, Sr., after he grew unhappy with the policies of the Iowa Bystander.[21] Circulation exceeded the Bystander by more than 1000 in the early 1940s.[22] No copies are known to survive.[22]
Des Moines	Des Moines Register and Leader	1908[11]	1915[11]
Des Moines	Rising Son	1883[1]	1885[1]	Weekly[1]		Edited by Harry Graham, founder of the Western Negro Press Association.[1]
Des Moines	Iowa Sepia News	1951[23]	1952[24] or 1954[11]
Des Moines	They Say	1936[21]		Weekly[21]		Founded by Charles Howard, Jr., while a high school student.[21]
Des Moines	Western Ledger	1908[11]	1909[11]	Monthly newspaper		Official newspaper of the Colored Co-operative League.[11]
Keokuk	Baptist Herald	?	1901[11]
Keokuk	Baptist Missionary	1917[4]
Keokuk	Iowa State Citizen	1897[4]
Keokuk	Western Baptist Herald	1881[11]	1885[11]
Oskaloosa	Iowa District News	1890[25]	1891[25]	Monthly[25]
Oskaloosa	Negro Solicitor	1893[11] or 1895[25]	1899[25]			"[T]he only black Democratic paper published in Iowa before the 1930s."[25]
Oskaloosa	Gazette	1896[25]	1896[25]
Ottumwa	New Era	1901[4]
Sioux City	Silent Messenger	1937[26]	1938[26]
Sioux City	Enterprise	1936[26]	1938[26]
Sioux City	Weekly Review	1928[26]	1930[26]
Sioux City	Afro-American Advance	1908[26]	1912[26]	Weekly[26]
Sioux City	Searchlight	1899[27]	1902[27]	Weekly[27]
Waterloo	The Defender / The Waterloo Defender	1963[28] or 1966[29]	?[29]	Weekly[29]		Played central role in the fight against racial discrimination in Waterloo.[30] Extant issues through 1979.[29]
Waterloo	Observer	1941[31]
Waterloo and Cedar Falls	Parker Tribune	1980s[10]	1980s[10]
Waterloo	The Waterloo Post	1952[32]	?[32]	Weekly[32]		Extant through 1953.[32]
Waterloo	Special Delivery	1987[10]	?
Waterloo	Star	1950s[10]	1950s[10]	Weekly[10]

See also

• List of African American newspapers and media outlets
• List of African American newspapers in Illinois
• List of African American newspapers in Minnesota
• List of African American newspapers in Missouri
• List of African American newspapers in Nebraska

Works cited

• Danky, James Philip; Hady, Maureen E., eds. (1998). African-American newspapers and periodicals : a national bibliography. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674007888.
• Jones, Allen W. (1996). "Equal Rights to All, Special Privileges to None: The Black Press in Iowa, 1882-1985". In Suggs, Henry Lewis (ed.). The Black Press in the Middle West, 1865-1985. ISBN 9780313255793.
• Junne, George H. (2000). Blacks in the American West and Beyond--America, Canada, and Mexico: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313312083.
• Patterson, Elaine (1987). The Iowa Bystander : a history of the second 25 years (1920-1945) (MS thesis). Iowa State University.