List of African American newspapers in Montana

First page of the first issue of The Colored Citizen from September 1894.

This is a list of African American newspapers that have been published in the state of Montana.

Montana's first such newspaper was The Colored Citizen, published in Helena in the fall of 1894.^[1] During this period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the African American population of Montana fluctuated between 1000 and 1500 people.^[2]

Montana has the unique position of being entirely surrounded by states (Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota) that have never had an African American newspaper.^[3] The state's early Black press accordingly covered a particularly wide geographic sweep, and many of Montana's early African American papers carried news from communities in other Western states.^[4] Some other states' newspapers returned the favor: the Seattle Northwest Enterprise ran a column of Montana news from the 1920s to 1960s.^[5]

Newspapers

City	Title	Beginning	End	Frequency	Call numbers	Remarks
Butte	The New Age or Montana New Age[7]	1902[6]	1903?[6]	Weekly[6]	ISSN 2326-9669, 2326-9650 LCCN 2013218599, sn84036148 OCLC 828631031, 11076647	Available online Carried local news from California, Utah, Washington, and Idaho in addition to various Montana cities.[8]
Fort Harrison	Knocker	1902[9]	?			Known only through mentions in other papers.[9]
Helena	The Colored Citizen	1894[11]	1894[10]	Weekly[11]	ISSN 2326-9693, 2326-9685 LCCN 2013218600, sn84036198 OCLC 828631189, 11254796	Available online Edited by J.P. Ball Jr., son of James Presley Ball.[12] Carried local news from Billings and Seattle as well as Helena.[13] Published from September 3 to November 6, 1894, shutting down after the 1894 Montana elections.[14]
Helena	The Montana Plaindealer	1906[15]	1911[15]	Variable: weekly, monthly, or irregular[16]	LCCN sn84036199 OCLC 11254801	Available online Edited and published by Joseph Blackburn Bass, who earlier published the Topeka Call and later edited the California Eagle.[17]
Helena	Reporter	1899?[18]	1901[18]	Twice monthly[18]
Missoula	Everybody	1959[5]	1987[5]

See also

• List of African American newspapers and media outlets
• List of newspapers in Montana

Works cited

• Abajian, James De Tarr (1974). Blacks and Their Contributions to the American West: A Bibliography and Union List of Library Holdings Through 1970. G. K. Hall. ISBN 9780816111398.
• Berardi, Gayle K.; Segady, Thomas W. (1990). "The Development of African-American Newspapers in the American West: A Sociohistorical Perspective". The Journal of Negro History. 75 (3/4): 96–111. doi:10.2307/3031501. JSTOR 3031501. S2CID 142393523.
• Danky, James Philip; Hady, Maureen E., eds. (1998). African-American newspapers and periodicals : a national bibliography. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674007888.
• Junne, George H. (2000). Blacks in the American West and Beyond--America, Canada, and Mexico: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313312083.
• Pride, Armistead Scott; Wilson, Clint C. (1997). A History of the Black Press. Howard University Press. ISBN 9780882581927.
• Smith, Jessie Carney (2012). Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. Visible Ink Press. ISBN 9781578593699.

References

1. Smith 2012, p. 409.
2. Berardi & Segady 1990, p. 110.
3. Pride & Wilson 1997, p. 105.
4. Abajian 1974, p. 391.
5. Junne 2000, p. 406.
6. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 406, ¶ 4229.
7. Berardi & Segady 1990, p. 111.
8. Abajian 1974, p. 391, ¶ 4243.
9. Abajian 1974, p. 391, ¶ 4244.
10. "About The Colored citizen. [online resource] (Helena, Montana) 1894-1894". Chronicling America. Library of Congress. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
11. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 162, ¶ 1685.
12. "Newspapers". Montana Historical Society. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
13. Abajian 1974, p. 391, ¶ 4245.
14. Pride & Wilson 1997, p. 109.
15. Danky & Hady 1998, p. 373, ¶ 3892.
16. Abajian 1974, p. 391, ¶ 4246.
17. Lang, William (2007-01-21). "Joseph Blackburn Bass (1863-1934)". Retrieved 2020-01-09.
18. Abajian 1974, p. 392, ¶ 4247.

External links

• Montana Historical Society resource page