Chicago Defender

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Newspaper Archives

1905-1975

For back issues of the newspaper from 1905-1975 please visit The Chicago Defender Newpaper at ProQuest’s Historic Newspapers: Black Newspapers, an online, searchable database of full-page and image articles of the Chicago Defender in pdf format. ProQuest is a subscriber service available for a fee to non-subscribers. The Chicago Defender Newspapers are available via Proquest or microfilm at many local libraries and academic institutions.

1975-Present

To access back issues from 1989-present. Please visit Proquest and search under the “Real Times Media” Section under “Chicago Defender”

 Chicago Defender Newspaper Photograph Collection

The Chicago Defender photograph collection includes thousands of photographs published in the newspaper of African American life in the twentieth and twenty first century. Most photographs date from the 1940s to the present. Highlights include extensive documentation of desegregation and the Civil Rights movement, including 200 photographs related to the murder of Emmett Till. The collection also includes photographs chronicling the history of black Chicago Politics, Religion, and Arts and Entertainment.

For a finding aid describing the Chicago Defender’s photo archives, please visit Mapping the Stacks at the University of Chicago:  http://mts.lib.uchicago.edu/collections/findingaids/index.php?eadid=MTS.defender-organizations

About Us

On May 5, 1905, Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded the Chicago Defender in a small kitchen in his landlord’s apartment, with an initial investment of 25 cents and a press run of 300 copies. The Chicago Defender’s first issues were in the form of

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