Cornish, Samuel Eli
c. 1795-1858 · Contribution: 1827-1841
Newspaper editor; Presbyterian minister; abolitionist
Co-founded Freedom's Journal in 1827, the first African American-owned and -operated newspaper in the United States, and went on to found or co-found three more Black newspapers over the following decade
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Quick facts
- Born
- c. 1795, Sussex County, Delaware
- Active since
- 1827
- Category
- Press & Photography
- Best known for
- Co-founding Freedom's Journal, the first Black-owned newspaper in the United States
Impact on the world
Cornish helped launch the American Black press itself, establishing the principle that African Americans would 'plead our own cause' in print rather than have others speak for them.
Sources
- Library of Congress
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Related visionaries
Russwurm, John Brown
1799-1851
Co-founded Freedom's Journal in 1827, the first African American-owned and -operated newspaper in the United States, and became just the third Black person to graduate from an American college
Cary, Mary Ann Shadd
1823-1893
Founded The Provincial Freeman in 1853, becoming the first Black woman to edit and publish a newspaper in North America, using the Canadian weekly to promote Black emigration, integration, and self-reliance during the era of the Fugitive Slave Act
Fortune, Timothy Thomas
1856-1928
Built the New York Age into the most influential Black newspaper of the late 19th century and founded the National Afro-American League in 1890, a direct forerunner to the NAACP, earning him the title “Dean of Negro Journalism”
Wells-Barnett, Ida Bell
1862-1931
Pioneered investigative anti-lynching journalism, documenting and statistically analyzing hundreds of lynchings in the 1890s after co-owning and writing for the Memphis Free Speech, work that earned her a posthumous 2020 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation