The Chicago Defender

Robert Sengstacke Abbott was born on November 28, 1868, in Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia. He studied the printing trade at Hampton Institute, graduating in 1896, and earned a law degree from Kent College of Law (now Chicago-Kent College of Law) in 1899; racial discrimination kept him out of Chicago’s printing business.⁠[1]

On May 5, 1905, Abbott founded the paper in a small kitchen in his landlord’s apartment with an initial investment of 25 cents and a press run of 300 copies; the first issues were four-page, six-column handbills of local news and clippings from other papers.⁠[2]

About five years after its founding the paper began to attract a national audience; by the start of World War I it was the most influential Black weekly in the nation, with more than two-thirds of its readers outside Chicago, and it called itself “The World’s Greatest Weekly.”⁠[2]

The paper attacked white supremacy and drew attention to anti-lynching efforts; its Southern circulation grew on the strength of editorials against white supremacy and lynching, and copies were smuggled into the South by Pullman porters.⁠[1][3]

The paper campaigned in support of the Great Migration, declaring May 15, 1917, the date of the “Great Northern Drive,” and published job listings and train schedules to help readers relocate. From 1916 to 1918 at least 110,000 people moved to Chicago, nearly tripling the city’s Black population. After the war the paper covered the Red Summer riots of 1919.⁠[2]

BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry records that the paper’s reporting contrasted opportunities in Northern cities with hardship in the rural South, helping persuade many Black Southerners to move North and West.⁠[3]

By 1920 the paper outsold every other Black newspaper, at roughly half a million copies a week; by 1929 it sold more than 250,000 copies a week in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry. From 1920 to 1960 it was based at 3435 South Indiana Avenue.⁠[1][2]

In 1923 the paper introduced the Bud Billiken Page, which it describes as the first newspaper section just for children, and in 1929 Abbott established the Bud Billiken Parade, which the paper describes as the largest event of its kind today. Its columnists included Walter White and Langston Hughes, and Gwendolyn Brooks’s early works appeared in its pages.⁠[2][3]

Abbott died in Chicago on February 29, 1940, and his nephew John H. Sengstacke took over the paper.⁠[1]

During World War II, when the government threatened to indict Black publishers for sedition, Sengstacke negotiated a compromise with the Justice Department that protected the First Amendment rights of the African American press.⁠[3]

After the murder of Emmett TillEmmett TillEmmett Till (1941–1955) was an African American teenager from Chicago who was murdered in August 1955 while visiting relatives in Mississippi. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes his murder as a catalyst of the emerging civil rights movement, and the National Park Service calls his murder and funeral a turning point in the understanding of racist violence.Open the full entry in 1955, Mamie Till-MobleyMamie Till-MobleyMamie Till-Mobley (1921–2003) was an American educator and civil rights activist and the mother of Emmett Till. After her son was murdered in Mississippi in 1955, she insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago and spent decades speaking across the country and campaigning for the case to be reopened.Open the full entry insisted on an open-casket funeral for her son. Photographers from the paper and from Jet magazine took the photographs of her standing over his casket, which were widely printed in African American newspapers.⁠[4]

The paper became a daily in 1956, appearing as the “Daily defender” from 1956 to 1960 and as the “Chicago daily defender” from 1960 to 1966, while the weekly also appeared in Eastern, City, National and Southern editions. In 1960 the paper moved to 2400 South Michigan Avenue, and in 1965 Sengstacke bought The Pittsburgh Courier.⁠[5][2]

Sengstacke died in May 1997 while serving as publisher; afterward the paper’s circulation fell below 20,000.⁠[2][3]

In 2003 Real Times, a company controlled by a Sengstacke relative, bought the paper, and in 2008 it returned to weekly publication.⁠[3]

The paper became the flagship of Real Times, which also held the Michigan Chronicle, the Front Page, the New Pittsburgh Courier and the Tri-State Defender. In 2009 it won the John B. Russwurm Award and the John H. Sengstacke General Excellence Award at the National Newspaper Publishers Association Merit Awards gala, and that year it moved to 4445 South Martin Luther King Drive.⁠[2]

In July 2019 the paper ended its print edition and became a digitally focused content platform.⁠[6][3]

The paper marked the 120th anniversary of its founding on May 5, 2025. As of November 2026 its publisher was Dyanna Knight Lewis, also a regional vice president of Real Times Media, who had helped guide the paper for nearly two decades. It describes itself as a multimedia news and information provider for the African American market, and its signature events include Men of Excellence and Women of Excellence.⁠[7][6]

The Chicago Defender: Official website: https://chicagodefender.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[6]