JOHN MITCHELL JR.
A NEWSPAPER
"Born in the Wake of Freedom"
“The Civil War and slavery lay just seventeen years behind. One of the stormiest periods in the history of the nation was drawing to a close. The assassination of Lincoln, the turmoil of reconstruction and the Hayes-Tilden controversy were fresh in the memories of Richmonders of that day. Gathering in an upper room of a building located near the corner of Third and Broad streets . . . thirteen formerly enslaved individuals (James H. Hayes, James H. Johnston, E. R. Carter, Walter Fitzhugh, Henry Hucles, Albert V. Norrell, Benjamin A. Graves, James E. Merriweather, Edward A. Randolph, William H. Andrews and Reuben T. Hill) pooled their meager resources and started America's oldest Negro newspaper on a career which was destined to play an important part in molding the opinions of Negroes in this city, state and nation.
The first editors of the paper were Edmund A. Randolph, a graduate of Yale and a leading politician of his day, who served as editor-in-chief with James E. Merriweather, an outstanding educator and civic leader, and E. R. Carter, also prominent in politics as contributing editors. Reuben T. Hill was selected to manage the paper, while other members of the group, mostly employed as public school teachers, contributed occasionally to its columns.”
No stranger to controversy even in its early days, the Richmond Planet took a strong editorial stance against the rumor that the Richmond School Board was planning to fire James H. Hayes, Albert V. Norrell, and James Johnston, Black school principals in the city. The school board was so displeased that many Black schoolteachers lost their jobs. Among them, John Mitchell Jr.
Although Mitchell did not found the Richmond Planet, nor was he its first editor, it was under his tenure that the Planet gained its well-deserved reputation as a proponent of racial equality and a voice for the African American community.
THE RISE
of the Fighting Editor
Born enslaved in Richmond on July 11, 1863, John Mitchell Jr. was appointed editor of the weekly newspaper the Richmond Planet in 1884 at the age of twenty-one. Fearless and outspoken, Mitchell quickly gained a reputation as a man determined to expose racial injustice. One writer described him as, "dar[ing] to hurl the thunderbolts of truth into the ranks of the wicked." "No stronger race man is known among us," the adulation continued. "Clinging to no party, subserving to no one interest save that of the oppressed, he throws the full force of heart and mind into every question that will affect . . . the welfare of his brethren." [Freeman, (Indianapolis, Indiana, 8/30/1890)]
Under Mitchell, the Planet's masthead, the “Strong Arm,” was a flexed bicep surrounded by shock waves that radiated out from a clenched fist, reflecting the force and energy with which Mitchell projected his opinions. For forty-five years, the Planet covered news: local, national, and worldwide. Much of the paper's focus, however, was on lynchings, segregation, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Deterred by none, Mitchell denounced racial prejudice and ridiculed its perpetrators in his reports, editorials, and cartoons.
THE FORMATION
OF JOHN MITCHELL JR'S
RICHMOND PLANET
THE FORMATION
OF JOHN MITCHELL JR'S
RICHMOND PLANET
THE FORMATION OF JOHN MITCHELL JR'S
RICHMOND PLANET
Following the Richmond School Board debacle in 1884, the organizers of the Richmond Planet chose John Mitchell Jr. to edit and manage the paper. Shortly thereafter he formed the Planet Printing Company. Under his direction, the Planet prospered to such a degree that James H. Hayes, Edmund A. Randolph, and other earlier owners of the paper attempted to reclaim control.
The paper was sold at public auction by the city sheriff for $400. The sum was put up by the Reverend W. W. Brown, a, “powerful figure in the community and Grand Worthy Master of the Grand Fountain United Order of True Reformers,” who turned the paper over to the young John Mitchell Jr. and his associates. [Richmond Planet, 5/28/1938]
Other factors complicated Mitchell's efforts to provide Richmond's African American community with a stable source of news and opinion. Nationwide, illiteracy posed a significant threat to the Black newspaper industry. During the 1860s, illiteracy among the Black population reached as high as 60 percent. Though the rate diminished by the turn of the century, this limited reader base made early publishing efforts extremely difficult. Other issues, such as internal distribution problems, the low income of potential readers, and the hostility of the white establishment also affected publication. [cf. Lawrence D. Hogan, A Black National News Service: The Associated Negro Press and Claude Barnett, 1919-1945 (London, 1983, pp.29, 15, 24-25)].
Despite formidable odds, from 1884 to 1929 Mitchell stood at the helm of the Richmond Planet, guiding it from the end of one century into the next. To assist him in this endeavor, Mitchell employed the services of an able staff.
Headquarters and Staff of Mitchell's Planet
Click to enlarge and read details about each image.
LYNCH LAW
MUST GO
LYNCH LAW
MUST GO
LYNCH LAW
MUST GO
Lynch law, a form of mob violence and putative justice usually involving (but was by no means restricted to) the illegal hanging of suspected criminals, cast its pall over the South from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Before the Civil War, its victims were usually abolitionists and/or persons suspected of aiding escaped enslaved people, as well as enslaved individuals accused of participating in slave revolts. During and after Reconstruction, the Ku Klux Klan (and common citizens) adopted lynching as a means to socially, economically, and politically terrorize Black populations, in support of a white supremacist status quo. Victims were usually Black men, often accused of assaulting or raping whites. Lynch law continued to operate throughout the nineteenth century, declining sharply after 1935.
ADDRESSING THE SUBJECT
HEAD ON
“The best remedy for a lyncher or a cursed midnight rider is a 16-shot Winchester rifle in the hands of a dead shot Negro who has nerve enough to pull the trigger.” -John Mitchell Jr.
“Under the direction of the courageous Mitchell, the Planet grew in influence and prestige. The political rights of the American Negro were fearlessly and unflinchingly championed. Lynching was fought and lynchers were defied. . . . Neither threat of violence nor punishment, neither lure of reward nor favor, deterred nor turned this matchless defender of his race from his chosen course.” [Richmond Planet, 5/28/1938]
Any lynching that occurred, whether in Virginia or any other state, was exposed in the Planet. Tallies of the known dead, together with their alleged crimes, were noted; images, however graphic, were reprinted. Nothing that might convey the horror of lynching was spared the Planet's readers.
Mitchell himself was threatened with hanging at the hands of a Charlotte County mob angered by his reporting of the lynching of Richard Walker in May 1886. Mitchell received a rope with a note attached warning him that he would be lynched himself if he ever set foot in the county. In reply, borrowing a line from Shakespeare, Mitchell responded, “There are no terrors, Cassius, in your threats, for I am so strong in honesty that they pass by me like the idle wind, which I respect not.” Then, armed with two Smith and Wesson pistols, he boarded a train for Smithville, and undeterred, walked the five miles from the station to the site of the hanging. [Maurice Duke and Daniel P. Jordan, eds., A Richmond Reader: 1733-1983, (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1983), 327-328]
CASESMITCHELL COVERED
ISAAC JENKINS
Perhaps no other story highlights the crusading character of John Mitchell Jr. and his work with the Richmond Planet better than the yearlong saga of the Isaac Jenkins case.
Jenkins, a Black man with a wife and three children, was arrested in July 1893 on charges of selling whiskey without a license in Nansemond County. Before he could be brought to the jail, however, he was taken by a lynch mob, beaten, hung, and shot twice. With an abraded neck, nine wounds on his head, and the bullets still lodged in his body, he staggered thirteen miles into Norfolk. He was discovered there and put in jail on charges of arson and poisoning someone's horses, as well as the original charge of selling whiskey without a license.
It was at this point that John Mitchell Jr. interceded on Jenkins' behalf. Mitchell visited him in jail and found him legal support. Jenkins' defense team, including former Judge R. H. Rawles and lawyers Merritt Briggs and W. H. Arrington, uncovered inconsistencies in the testimony of the eyewitnesses (one of whom was arrested for perjury after contradicting the other witnesses), and after their examination the case was submitted without further argument. The result was Jenkins' prompt acquittal by the jury, his only penalty a $300 fine by the court. Jenkins' attorney fees were paid by Mitchell and Richmond Planet readers who had donated money for the cause. Yet Jenkins languished in jail for many more months after the judge in the case ruled that, despite his acquittal, he would still have to pay the fine.
More than a year after his ordeal began, Isaac Jenkins finally found himself a free man. Although acquitted in February 1894, it took more fighting by Mitchell, and a governor's pardon, before Jenkins was released from jail on May 24, 1894. Within two weeks, and not withstanding his "pitiable condition," he traveled to Richmond to meet with Mitchell and to speak to church groups about his experience. There, "in a thrilling recital," he told the audiences, "of the attack by the mob, how they beat him about the head and body, the feeling when they hanged him and how they fired two bullets into his neck. He told of his escape from death, how the rope slipped, and bathed in his own blood he went from neighbor to neighbor seeking help . . . of the coroner's jury coming to hold an inquest over his dead body and finding nothing but his hat and blood for their pains." [Richmond Planet 6/9/1894]
He stayed in Richmond for a time, where he lived in the house of city councilman Benjamin Jackson, receiving donations of both money and hospitality, as well as a new suit from Mitchell. His attackers were never brought to justice.
SIMON WALKER
In 1889, 15-year-old Simon Walker was accused of raping Mary Ann Quill, a young white woman, and was sentenced to hang in Chesterfield County. Thanks to Mitchell's bold actions and persistent coverage of the story, Walker's sentence was commuted to twenty years in prison by Governor Fitzhugh Lee on November 7, 1889.
“Mitchell saved Walker's life, but he also salvaged the self-respect of countless blacks who read the story and learned how the race had rallied to support one of its own. 'It's a grand thing to be on the side of the oppressed,' he told readers. 'It gives you something for which to fight.'” (Race Man p. 47)
JIM CROW
AND THE
KU KLUX KLAN
JIM CROW
AND THE
KU KLUX KLAN
JIM CROW AND THE
KU KLUX KLAN
Reconstruction-era policies that came with the end of the Civil War, which guaranteed rights to formerly enslaved people living in the South, were extremely unpopular among most southern whites. White resistance after the war took several forms, among them the Ku Klux Klan and local legislation that supported the white establishment.
WHITE RESISTANCE TO RECONSTRUCTION
The Ku Klux Klan was organized throughout the South as a white underground resistance to the forces of Reconstruction. In 1867, Nathan Bedford Forrest consolidated the Klan into the “Invisible Empire of the South.” Dressed in white robes designed to frighten victims and protect the identity of its members, the Klan mobilized to restore white supremacy using intimidation and direct violence against Black freedmen and white supporters. Eventually, even white communities grew fearful of the Klan's excessive violence. Responding to this shift in public opinion, Forrest ordered the Klan to disband in 1869, though local branches remained active throughout the 1870's.
The Klan resurfaced in the years preceding World War I, and again during the height of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
JIM CROW AND SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
STREETCAR BOYCOTT
After Richmond's streetcars were segregated in 1904, John Mitchell Jr. organized a boycott of the streetcar system. Mitchell published weekly editorials in the Richmond Planet urging African Americans to keep walking to protest the advance of Jim Crow.
Although momentum for the boycott slowed during the stifling summer months, the Planet's continued efforts to sustain it may have helped hasten the bankruptcy of the Virginia Passenger and Power Company. On July 23, 1904, the Planet ran the story “The Street Car Co. Here Busted.” By December 3 of that year, the Planet reported that the “Virginia Passenger and Power Co., better known as the ‘Jim Crow’ Street Car Company continues to have no end of trouble and it now seems that the entire system will be sold at auction.” While the boycott probably did contribute to the company’s collapse, it blamed its failure on the 1903 conductor’s strike, with no acknowledgment of the boycott.
After the local streetcar system was taken over by new management, the policy to segregate continued. In 1906, the Virginia legislature passed a mandatory law “to provide separate but equal compartments to white and colored passengers.” Passengers and companies who failed to comply would be guilty of a misdemeanor and fined. Sadly, Mitchell’s pursuit to end segregation instead ended with Jim Crow firmly entrenched in Virginia.
THE RICHMOND PLANET
SPEAKS
THROUGH EDITORIAL CARTOONS
THE RICHMOND PLANET
SPEAKS
THROUGH EDITORIAL CARTOONS
THE RICHMOND PLANET
SPEAKS THROUGH EDITORIAL CARTOONS
Newspapers have long employed caricature as a means of editorial expression. The popularity of Thomas Nast's images published in Harper's Weekly during the Civil War helped to transform cartoons into an art form firmly rooted in American newspaper culture. What the editorial column could not express in reasoned or impassioned argument, the editorial cartoon could express directly in image. In the pages of the Richmond Planet, the cartoon became a tool wielded to some advantage.
Editorial Cartoons Drawn by John Mitchell Jr.
The following images represent the "Fighting Editor's" battle against racial injustice. Of particular note are John Mitchell, Jr.'s own editorial cartoons, which satirized the situation of the day.
In addition to his other roles as editor and manager, Mitchell became the Richmond Planet's first cartoonist. He designed the "Strong Arm" that appeared in the paper's masthead. He also drew the haunting image of a trio of lynched men (traced from a photo of the scene). This graphic depiction of the horrors of lynching ran above a weekly tally of men and women of all races who were lynched throughout the United States.
Mitchell expressed his editorial opinion on other political and topical issues through cartoons as well. While his drawing style might be considered rather crude by today's standards, this fact should not diminish his efforts. His pen was a double-edged sword, as both his written word and his images fought the Planet's battles.
George H. Ben Johnson's Cartoons
The apex of the editorial cartoon in the Richmond Planet, however, was reached when George H. Ben Johnson came aboard as the editorial cartoonist. Almost nothing is known about Johnson aside from his name and the legacy of his cartoons. His first cartoons ran in 1918, and he drew weekly cartoons for almost a year from 1919 to 1920.
Johnson's images are notable, both as beautifully crafted drawings and as well-articulated statements of his Afrocentric beliefs. He consistently reminded Planet readers of their African heritage with references to African Americans as "Builders of the Sphinx and Pyramids," or as "Ethiopians." His messages were of Black pride, history, strength and dignity, and not only equality under the law, but of the soul. His cartoons represented an unflinching belief that African Americans were the full equals of whites, with as rich a history and as important a destiny to fulfill.
This editorial cartoon by George H. Ben Johnson, which appeared in 1919, is a good example of Mitchell's fundamental conviction that racism was destructive to the nation. It underscores his basic position: "When separation is based upon conditions, we accept it because we can improve our conditions. When it is based upon physical characteristics stamped upon us by the Creator and for which we are no ways responsible, we are opposed to it.” [Harry M. Ward, Richmond: an Illustrated History, (Northridge, CA, 1985), p. 154.]
THE PERSONAL AND PUBLIC LIFE OF THE
FIGHTING EDITOR
THE PERSONAL AND PUBLIC LIFE OF THE
FIGHTING EDITOR
THE PERSONAL AND PUBLIC LIFE OF THE
FIGHTING EDITOR
John Mitchell Jr.'s personal and public lives were tightly intertwined. He embodied the qualities he believed would lead to better lives for the Black community of the South. Mitchell saw himself as a “southern gentleman,” and advised his fellow men to respect themselves, to hold their heads high, to “be men,” and to defend themselves physically (Race Man, 62). Always a proponent of self-reliance, Mitchell encouraged Black entrepreneurship and land ownership. He understood that economic success was imperative to the success of the race. Mitchell believed that he could gain respect from whites by respecting himself, and by exemplifying the ideals of middle class life.
FAMILY
Though he never married, Mitchell was a family man. He expressed great respect for his mother, who taught him to read. He inscribed her gravestone with “A Son's Tribute,” which read: “She hated deceit and despised hypocrisy. Her Christian training and upright conduct made me all that I am and all that I hope to be.” (Race Man, 8) After the death of Mitchell's brother in 1900, he assumed responsibility for his 8 year old niece, Rebecca, and Roscoe, his twelve year old nephew. When Mitchell purchased his home in 1904, his mother, Rebecca, and Roscoe moved there with him.
STANLEY STEAMER
As editor, Mitchell wrote extensive travelogues of his trips in his Stanley Steamer, an early 20th-century steam-powered automobile. The Richmond Times-Dispatch explores these travelogues, and how they show a lighter side of Mitchell in “Editor's travelogues highlight story of the Stanley Steamer.”
COMMUNITY ACTIVISM AND POLITICAL CAREER
John Mitchell Jr. led an active public life. As editor of the Richmond Planet, he presented a loud voice on a variety of causes and concerns, but there was more to his public activities than his newspaper work. While the details of his private life were not revealed in the paper, his civic career was well documented. Mitchell was a community activist and politician, a leader of the Knights of Pythias, president of the National Afro-American Press Association, and founder and president of a commercial bank.
Mitchell used his stature as a "crusading newspaper editor" to propel himself into a political career. In the spring of 1892, at the age of 28, he was elected to Richmond's board of aldermen from Jackson Ward, and he was reelected in 1894. In perhaps his most grandiose move, Mitchell ran for governor in 1921. As a part of a so-called "Lily Black" Republican ticket (an all African American Republican party offshoot), he ran an unsuccessful and controversial campaign for the highest office in the commonwealth. Other Black newspapers in Virginia (including the Journal and Guide of Norfolk) opposed his campaign because they felt it would split the Black vote. Mitchell lost the race, and some claimed that it came to haunt him the next year.
As a member of the Knights of Pythias, Mitchell rose to the title of Grand Worthy Counsellor, and was the state's leader of this semi-secret society into the 1920s.
The National Afro-American Press Association elected Mitchell to consecutive presidential terms in the early 1890s. There he led fellow newspaper editors in an organized outcry against "Southern outrages" and lynchings, and in their endorsement of the work of Ida B. Wells. He foresaw the decline of weekly newspapers and advocated the founding of daily newspapers owned by African Americans, but written with a larger community in mind:
[A daily run] as any other such journal is run pandering to no class, yielding obedience to no clique, but declaring for human rights and the enunciation of these principles, which will make the world our field, and man-kind our brothers. (Sept. 15, 1894)
Not everything Mitchell touched turned to gold, however. In his later years his editorials became less strident, his failed bid for the governorship weighed upon him, and by the mid-1920s he found himself in the midst of a crisis that would leave him in ruin.
BUSINESS VENTURES
John Mitchell Jr. was a true entrepreneur. Among his ventures was Woodland Cemetery, an African American cemetery in the style of Richmond's renowned Hollywood Cemetery. In 1919, Mitchell purchased the Strand Theater, a white movie theater at Jefferson and Adams Streets.
Of all his endeavors, Mitchell's Mechanics Savings Bank was the most ambitious. As founder and president of the institution, he strove to make it the place where Richmond's African Americans saved their money and did their banking. In the summer of 1922, though, the bank was in crisis. Amid controversy, Mitchell was accused of misusing tens of thousands of dollars of the bank's funds. In a fight that went to the State Supreme Court, Mitchell countered the charges and accused the state's establishment of retaliating against him for his run at the governorship the previous year. The bank was closed in 1922.
Mitchell's legal battle dragged on for over a year. Responding to his public pleas for solidarity, the community increased the savings entrusted to Mechanics Savings Bank and contributed to a John Mitchell Jr. Defense Fund. While his conviction was ultimately set aside and he was cleared of all charges, the Mechanics Savings Bank went into receivership in 1923. The bank was rechartered by the state in July 1924. Mitchell's dream of operating a bank for African American clientele was over.
Mitchell would not recover from this blow. His savings and assets were all but stripped away. While he retained the newspaper and his role as editor, the voice and power of the "Strong Arm" was clearly weakened. He remained editor of the Richmond Planet until 1929, when he collapsed, fittingly, in the office of his beloved paper. He died in his home on December 3, 1929
THE DEATH OF JOHN MITCHELL JR. AND THE ONGOING LIFE OF
THE RICHMOND PLANET
THE DEATH OF JOHN MITCHELL JR. AND THE ONGOING LIFE OF
THE RICHMOND PLANET
THE DEATH OF JOHN MITCHELL JR AND THE ONGOING LIFE OF THE
RICHMOND PLANET
“He battled for what he conceived to be the rights of his race and was broad enough to battle for the human rights of all the people.” [Richmond Planet, 12/7/1929]
John Mitchell Jr.'s sudden death marked the end of an era for the Richmond Planet. No longer would Richmonders read of Mitchell's crusading ways, political life, or doomed business ventures. Throughout the rest of December 1929 and into January 1930, the Planet carried letters of condolence, obituaries, and eulogies in place of the usual editorial column. The outpouring clearly revealed the community's affection for the “Fighting Editor.”
The demise of Mitchell, the self-proclaimed, “stormy petrel,” by no means meant the end of the Planet. He was quickly succeeded by his nephew, Roscoe C. Mitchell, as editor. Following a general reorganization of the paper, M. A. Norrell became editor in 1931. Under his leadership, the Planet continued to be at the forefront of issues concerning Richmond's African American community.
In May 1938, the Planet was bought by the Afro-American of Baltimore, Maryland, one of the most prominent African American newspapers in the country. On May 28, 1938, the editors of the Planet paid a final homage to the founders of their paper, to its illustrious history, and to John Mitchell Jr. as they published their farewell edition.
On June 4, 1938, the first edition of the Afro-American and Richmond Planet was distributed in Richmond. While the paper carried the name of the Planet and reported on Richmond and other Virginia news, it was very obviously part of the Afro-American line of newspapers. Over the decades the paper would undergo several incarnations:
Afro-American and Richmond Planet, 1938–1939
Richmond Afro-American and Richmond Planet, 1939
Richmond Afro-American, 1939–1941
Richmond Afro-American, the Richmond Planet, 1941–1996
The Afro-American and Richmond Planet continued to report on the evolving struggle for equality and justice. The paper covered the news of people and events from Marian Anderson to Joe Louis, from frontline World War II reporting to the first boycotts and sit-ins, from Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X to the Black Panthers, and from Jesse Jackson to Louis Farrakhan.
The Richmond Afro-American, the Richmond Planet ceased publication in 1996. The paper had been plagued with poor subscription lists for several years, despite an attempt at free distribution in an effort to win readership and raise advertising revenue. On February 13, 1996 (during Black History Month, ironically), “the longest running weekly Black newspaper in America” ceased publication and the legacy of John Mitchell Jr.'s Richmond Planet came to an end.
The Afro-American continues to be published in other cities. Aside from its long-running Baltimore edition (founded in 1892), the Afro-American continues to publish a Washington, D.C., edition as well.
While the demise of the Richmond Planet marked the end of an era for African American newspaper publishing, the city of Richmond does not lack an African American newspaper. The weekly Richmond Free Press, founded in 1992, is busy building a legacy of its own and its first 26 years are searchable on Virginia Chronicle.
BIRTH OF A PLANET -
RICHMOND ON PAPER
BY BPM DOCUMENTARIES
BIRTH OF A PLANET: RICHMOND ON PAPER is proprietary material of Tilt Creative + Production, Library of Virginia & Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia (BHMVA). If seeking to reproduce or alter these materials in any way, approvals must be obtained from these parties in order to proceed.
Citation: Tilt Creative + Production, LLC, Birth of a Planet documentary and records, 2023. Accession 54123. Business records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
TO PRESERVE OUR COMMON HERITAGE:
AN APPEAL FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
TO PRESERVE OUR COMMON HERITAGE:
AN APPEAL FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
TO PRESERVE OUR COMMON HERITAGE
AN APPEAL FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS
The Richmond Planet was not the only newspaper published by and for the African American communities of Virginia. Scores of titles have been published since that time and many are still in publication. Some titles, like the New Journal and Guide of Norfolk and the Richmond Planet, are preserved in libraries and digitized. Holdings of others are quite incomplete, in some cases consisting of only a single issue.
The Virginia Newspaper Program continues to encourage the discovery (or rediscovery) and preservation of any American newspaper title held within the commonwealth of Virginia and endeavors to preserve this specifically African American component of our common heritage. A guide to the African American newspapers held at the Library of Virginia can be found here.
Listed below are some of the known African American newspapers published in Virginia, though many others are waiting to be discovered in local historical societies, attics, trunks, or store rooms.
Alexandria:
- Clipper (1892-1894)
- Leader and Clipper (1894-1898)
- Home News (1902-1907)
- Industrial Advocate (19??-1910)
- Post and National Echo (1884-1885)
- Virginia Post (1880-1882)
Catlett:
Charles City:
Charlottesville:
- Messenger (1909-1928)
- The Reflector (1933-19??)
- The Charlottesville Tribune (1950-1954)
- The Charlottesville-Albemarle Tribune (1954-1992)
Dunnsville:
Hampton:
Locust Hill:
Lynchburg:
- Counselor and Herald (1891-1895)
- Interpreter (1903-1906)
- Laboring Man (1886-1888)
- Southern Forge (1895-1896)
Newport News:
Norfolk:
- Advance (1893-1894)
- American Ethiopian (to 1907)
- Journal and Guide (1899-present)
- Gideon's Safe Guide (1899-)
- Lodge Journal and Guide (1900-1910)
- News and Advertiser (1900-1908)
- Rambler (1894-1898)
- The Right Way (1885)
- Speaker (1889-1893)
- Spectator (1887-1891)
- Standard (1889-1891)
Petersburg:
- The Afro American Churchman (1886-1890)
- The American Sentinel (1880-1881)
- The Petersburg Herald (1888-1889)
- Lancet-Recorder (1882-1894)
- The National Pilot (1886-1900)
- Review (1922-1925)
Richmond:
- Industrial Day (1888-1890)
- The Reformer (1895-1931)
- Reporter (1890-1893)
- Richmond Free Press (1992-2018)
- Richmond Planet (1883-1945)
- The Southern News (1892-1894)
- Virginia Star (1877-1888)
- Voice (1918-1926)
Roanoke:
- Press (1891-1897)
- Roanoke Tribune (1943-present)
South Boston:
- Boston Banner (1893-1898)
- Halifax Enterprise (1886-1887)
Staunton:
- Reporter (1905-1918)
- Reporter (1921-1923)
- Tribune (1891-1896)
- Tribune (19??-1933)
- Valley Index (1897-1905)
- Virginia Critic (1884-1888)
Stormont:
Williamsburg:
- Peninsula Churchman (1900- )
- Kelley Ewing, Senior Cataloger
- Virginia Newspaper Program
- Library of Virginia
- 800 East Broad St.
- Richmond VA 23219
- Telephone: 804.692.3614
- email: kelley.ewing@lva.virginia.gov