The Chicago Defender announces President Harry S. Truman's order in 1948 desegregating the United States Armed Forces.

The Chicago Defender was the United States’ most influential black weekly newspaper by the beginning of World War I. The Defender was founded on May 5, 1905 by Robert S. Abbott with an investment of 25 cents and a press run of 300 copies. The first issues, which were created on the kitchen table of his landlord’s apartment, were four-page, six-column handbills and filled with news gathered by Abbott, as well as clippings from other, more established newspapers. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (559x750, 150 KB)This is an image of the front page of the Chicago Defender newspaper for July 31, 1948, with the lead story announcing that President Harry S. Truman had issued Executive Order 9981 ending racial segregation in the United... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (559x750, 150 KB)This is an image of the front page of the Chicago Defender newspaper for July 31, 1948, with the lead story announcing that President Harry S. Truman had issued Executive Order 9981 ending racial segregation in the United... Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884 – December 26, 1972) was the thirty-fourth Vice President (1945) and the thirty-third President of the United States (1945–53), succeeding to the office upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and poison gas. ... May 5 is the 125th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (126th in leap years). ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Robert Sengstacke Abbott (1870 - 1940) was born in 1870 in Frederica, St. ...

By 1910, Abbott was in a position to hire a full time employee and the Defender began to attain a national reputation. Using the yellow journalism techniques from other papers, the Defender began to attack racial injustice. The paper’s circulation was helped by Pullman porters and entertainers who distributed the newspaper south of the Mason-Dixon line. By 1917, more than two-thirds of the paper’s readership was outside of Chicago. It was the first black paper with a circulation over 100,000 and it is believed that as many as half a million people read the newspaper each week. 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Pullman is the name of some places in the United States of America: Pullman, Michigan Pullman, Washington Pullman, Chicago Pullman, West Virginia Pullman, Illinois, now within the city limits of Chicago, was a company town of the Pullman Company, where a famous strike took place in 1894. ... The symbolic Mason-Dixon Line Literally, the Mason-Dixon Line (or Mason and Dixons Line) demarcated state boundaries between the Province of Pennsylvania, the Province of Maryland, Delaware Colony and parts of Colony and Old Dominion of Virginia in colonial North America and, thus, between their successor states in... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... ...

In the late teens, the Defender campaigned for blacks to migrate from the South to the North and was highly successful, tripling Chicago’s black population in just three years from 1916-1918. The Defender also attracted the writing talents of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks. 1916 (MCMXVI) is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Langston Hughes, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1936 Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright, and newspaper columnist. ... Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Brooks (June 7, 1917 - December 3, 2000) was an award-winning African American woman poet. ...

John H. Sengstacke took over the paper in 1940. On February 6, 1956, the Defender became a daily paper and changed its name to the Chicago Daily Defender. When Sengstacke died in 1997, the Defender fell on hard times due to estate taxes. The paper has been close to being sold several times, but in each case, Sengstacke’s family has prevented the sale. From May, 1997 to Jan, 2004 the newspaper experienced a steady decline in market share and advertisers. Control of the Chicago Defender and the Sengstacke Newspaper chain was solidified in January 2003 after being acquired by Realtimes. Realtimes is led by group of Detroit businessmen and Mr. Thomas S. Picou, nephew of John Sengstacke. 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... February 6 is the 37th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

After a rocky start in 2003, Realtimes hired turnaround specialist Dr. Clarence Nixon, Jr of CNC Group, LLC in 2004. Nixon was challenged to establish a new model of journalism, while seeking to obtain long term profitability for five newspapers in four major U.S. Markets. Dr. Nixon's initial focus was to improve newspaper quality, content, sales, and business operations within the Chicago Defender Newspaper. His efforts yielded improvements in business operations including newspaper quality, content, sales revenue, and circulation while establishing a new multi-media based business model. The company realized a 25% reduction in costs while revenue was increased by 20% in 2004.

External links

• Chicago Defender
• "Chicago Defender celebrates 100 years in business" - Karen E. Pride, Chicago Defender, May 5, 2005