Black newspapers in Columbus history: Amos Lynch, Jack Harris
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created free and equal.”
So began the first words of the first issue of the Palladium of Liberty, the first Black newspaper in the state, which was published Dec. 27, 1843 in Columbus.
In the front-page address to the citizens of Ohio, editor David Jenkins and his staff focus on the theme of being treated equally, describing the oppression faced by Black people in the state and across the country and arguing that all Americans should be included under the Declaration of Independence.
“WE ARE MEN,” the committee wrote. “All the heaven-born attributes of humanity find place in our being, and are cherished by us with the same fond regard that any other beings who claim the earth as their abiding place, cherish them. …These traits are as characteristic of us as they are of any others.”
While the Palladium of Liberty would close the following year due to a lack of subscribers, it became the first of a string of Black newspapers to make their mark in Columbus and across the state.
Publications like The Free American (1887), the Columbus Standard (1898), and The Columbus Voice (1928) followed, creating a forum to report on issues important to the Black community.
“A lot of the Black newspapers that were established in the 1800s were to establish a space for Black people to express themselves in a way that they controlled and to express their concerns and interests,” said Felecia Ross, an associate professor of communications at Ohio State University, who specializes in the history of the Black press. “There was no other place to do that.”
This need continued into the 20th and 21st centuries, with publications like the Columbus Call and Post, Columbus Post and The Communicator News sprouting up.
Nana Watson, president of the NAACP Columbus branch, said papers like the Call and Post and the Columbus Post offered community perspectives through the eyes of Black reporters.
“What I loved about the paper was that they reported on news that was taking place in the Black community,” she said. “That was our source of what’s going on in our community.”
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Ahead of its time
That has always been the point, going back to the Palladium, which was established by the resolutions of two African American citizens conventions in 1843, according to the website The Ohio Black Press in the 19th Century.
The paper’s motto hailed it as, “Devoted to the Interests of the Colored People Generally,” and it was widely circulated in urban areas across the state and in big cities across the Midwest and East Coast, such as Pittsburgh, Detroit, Indianapolis and New York City.
Content in the abolitionist paper featured editorials, news on discrimination and civil rights, as well as local, national and international political news, said Megan Sheeran, a librarian with the Columbus Metropolitan Library who this month helped host a virtual event on Black newspapers with Special Collections Librarian Nicole Sutton.
“It was completely fearless,” Sheeran said. “It was before the Civil War … so when slavery was still a really big force. There was just no fear and absolutely telling it like it was, saying exactly what was wrong with slavery in every kind of argument. I was really amazed by that.”
But even today with mainstream media offering more diverse coverage, Sheeran and Sutton said Black papers are essential to the community.
“The end goal, the impulse, is that there wouldn’t be a need for them, but we’re not in that place yet,” said Sutton. “We still need to make sure that people have a voice.”
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The next generation of journalists
One of the biggest names that would come out of the Columbus Black journalism scene in the 20th century was Amos Lynch. He started the Ohio Sentinel in 1949 and would later open the Columbus branch of the Cleveland paper, The Call and Post, in 1962.
Lynch was known as “The Godfather of Black Journalism,” according to Charles Farmer, an Ohio State University graduate who was a Call and Post reporter in the early 1990s.
“I was thinking, ‘I’ll do something part-time,'” Farmer said. “So, I went over to the office to talk to Mr. Lynch and we talked for an hour or so. And before I left, he was like, ‘You’re hired.’
Farmer, 57, worked as a part-time sports reporter for the Call and Post until 1995, when Lynch left to start another paper, the Columbus Post. Farmer followed him, becoming a full-time reporter for seven years. The Columbus resident said he covered a variety of areas, including high school, college and professional sports.
Working at such small papers was a crash course in journalism, said Chris Bournea, a news and entertainment reporter. He got his first journalism job at the Call and Post when he was only 19 after having one of his poems published. He began freelancing for the paper in 1992 and got hired full-time the following year. He then worked at the Columbus Post from 1995 to 1999.
“I had always been interested in creative writing, but that was the first time someone had suggested to me that I try journalism and was willing to give me an opportunity to do so,” Bournea said.
As an entertainment reporter, Bournea got to meet celebrities when they came to town, such as Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan. He also attended the BET and NAACP award shows.
Working at an African American paper also gave him a chance to interview local Black professionals and politicians, including future Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman when he was still part of city council.
“That was really a great education for me because even though I had grown up in Columbus, I wasn’t exposed to all these different things until I started working in the Black press,” said Bournea, who now works in media relations for Ohio State and as a reporter for ThisWeek Community News.
Lynch’s nephew, Orville Lynch Jr., also worked at the Columbus Post, serving as co-owner and general manager until the paper was sold to Freedom Media Group in 2004. He said he helped modernize the newspaper when many Black papers were still following a more traditional route. The paper began printing photos in color and were one of the first Black papers to develop a website, Lynch Jr. said.
“It was an exciting time, a lot of great news was happening,” he said. “That’s when Mayor Coleman became elected. There was a lot of high energy every day. There was always something going on. It was great times for positive Black press in Columbus.”
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Missed opportunities for Black papers
There were unique challenges for reporters at small, Black papers, however, including that it could be harder to gain access to certain events or pursue certain stories compared to mainstream papers.
“Sometimes, when there were major crimes stories, like a murder or a shooting … a lot of those stories, you have to be really persistent because the police don’t always call you back right away, or the family is not answering the phone, so you’d have to go out and knock on the family’s door,” Bournea said.
“And a lot of times, if they’re not in the Black community, they’re like, ‘What’s the Call and Post?’ It’s not like having the name recognition of The Columbus Dispatch.”
But despite the challenges that included long hours and small staff, Farmer said the rewards were much greater.
“Mr. (Amos) Lynch was very prideful, and we had a pride about being an African American newspaper,” said Farmer, who went on to start a consulting firm. “He really drilled into the fact how important it was to be respected in the community for his publication. Particularly, when we moved over to the Columbus Post, we were in there to show the Columbus area and the whole world that minority papers were the real deal.”
Still standing
There has been so much change in the newspaper industry in recent years, and the same is true for Black media.
Amos Lynch died in 2015, and Farmer believes the Columbus Post went out of business in 2018. The publication’s Facebook and Twitter pages have not been updated since then.
Meanwhile, the Call and Post still has a print edition and an online presence, but is based in and focused on Cleveland.
Still standing today is The Communicator News, which serves Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Dayton.
CEO and founder Jack Harris started the newspaper in 1988 after operating two radio stations in Omaha, Nebraska, and one in Columbus at WCKX.
“I went against the Call and Post, which they said I’d never make it a year,” he said.
The publication covers local and national news, health, sports and entertainment. A recent edition featured an article on the front page…
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