| Founder(s) | Ibram X. Kendi and Bina Venkataraman |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Howard University |
| Editor-in-chief | Deborah D. Douglas |
| Founded | April 2022 |
| Headquarters | Boston, MA |
| Website | theemancipator |
The Emancipator is an online newspaper on topics of racial justice, co-founded by Ibram X. Kendi of Boston University and Bina Venkataraman of The Boston Globe .
Ibram X. Kendi and Bina Venkataraman, then with Boston University and The Boston Globe , respectively, met during the 2020 American protests for racial justice and shared a mutual interest in Boston's 19th-century abolitionist newspapers. They discussed William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator and what a contemporary iteration would be like, modeled on Garrison's urgency and anti-gradualist approach to abolition. [1]
In 2021, they began to assemble an online newspaper on the model of CBS's The 19th . They received a budget from their institutions and sought new individual and foundation donors. The name "The Liberator" had already been trademarked by a Christian nonprofit, so Kendi and Venkataraman chose "The Emancipator" based on another 19th-century abolitionist newspaper. [1]
The Emancipator was launched in April 2022, with journalists Deborah D. Douglas and Amber Payne as co-editors-in-chief. [2] [3]
The Globe's involvement ended in March 2023. [4] Venkataraman left the Globe at the end of 2022, [5] and Kendi's departure from Boston University was announced in January 2025. [4] The outlet relocated to Howard University in June 2025. At that time Amber Payne also announced she will step down as publisher. [6]
