The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America

The Defender: How the Legendary Black Newspaper Changed America

<div><DIV><B>€œAn extraordinary history€¦Deeply researched, elegantly written€¦a towering achievement that will not be soon forgotten.€</B> €"<B>Brent Staples, <I>New York Times Book Review</I></B><BR /><BR /><B>NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY <BR /><I>The New York Times Book Review € The Washington Post € Amazon</I></B><BR /><BR />Giving voice to the voiceless, the <I>Chicago Defender</I> condemned Jim Crow, catalyzed the Great Migration, and focused the electoral power of black America. Robert S. Abbott founded <I>The Defender</I> in 1905, smuggled hundreds of thousands of copies into the most isolated communities in the segregated South, and was dubbed a "Modern Moses," becoming one of the first black millionaires in the process. His successor wielded the newspaper€s clout to elect mayors and presidents, including Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy, who would have lost in 1960 if not for <I>The</I><I>Defender</I>€s support. Along the way, its pages were filled with columns by legends like Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, and Martin Luther King.<BR /><BR /> Drawing on dozens of interviews and extensive archival research, Ethan Michaeli constructs a revelatory narrative of race in America and brings to life the reporters who braved lynch mobs and policemen€s clubs to do their jobs, from the age of Teddy Roosevelt to the age of Barack Obama. </DIV></DIV>