 | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner(s) | Real Times Inc. |
| Founder(s) | William Alexander Scott II |
| Founded | August 5, 1928, as Atlanta World |
| Headquarters | 100 Hartsfield Parkway Atlanta, Georgia 30344, United States |
| ISSN | 1528-6142 |
| Website | atlantadailyworld.com |
The Atlanta Daily World is the oldest black newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia, founded in 1928. [1] Currently owned by Real Times Inc., it publishes daily online. It was "one of the earliest and most influential black newspapers." [2]
It was founded as the weekly Atlanta World on August 5, 1928, by William Alexander Scott II who was only 26 at the time. [3] Scott was a Morehouse graduate who later worked as the only black clerk on the Jacksonville to Washington, D.C., rail line, then in 1927 published a Jacksonville business directory to help blacks find each other. A year later he published a similar directory for Atlanta. [4]
At the time, there was very little coverage of black educational institutions, businesses, prominent persons, churches, or other news of significance; the exceptions being crime news and death listings. This was despite the fact that Atlanta contained at the time the most prominent black educational institutions and persons of influence in the country. Whites lived to a large extent sealed off from black Atlanta and only interacted with blacks in service positions, virtually unaware of the black institutions and achievements taking place only a mile or two from their homes.
The paper became a semi-weekly in May 1930, and a daily in 1931. [5] In 1931, Scott also began publishing the Chattanooga Tribune and Memphis World , and by doing so, founded the first chain of black newspapers, a chain that would eventually grow, at its peak, to fifty publications. [3]
In 1932 Scott's Atlanta World became a daily and added "Daily" to its title, becoming the first black daily in the U.S. in the 20th century [4] and the first successful one in all U.S. history. [3] At the time of its founding, the only other black paper in the area was the Atlanta Independent , which ceased publication in 1933. This left the Daily World as the only black paper in town. Its offices were on Auburn Avenue ("Sweet Auburn") celebrated as the home of the black business, social, and religious community and famously called by John Wesley Dobbs the "richest Negro street in the world".
On February 4, 1934, Scott was shot and killed; no one was ever convicted of the crime. His brother, Cornelius Adolphus (C.A.) Scott, took over as head of the paper, which subsequently adopted a more conservative, Republican position, reflecting Cornelius' own political views [3] and his resentment over the Democrats' historical support of segregation and bias against African-Americans. [6]
During the Civil Rights Movement, the Daily World was criticized for not supporting sit-ins staged at several white-owned restaurants in downtown Atlanta. [3] Advertisers threatened to pull their business if the demonstrations did not stop. [4] C.A. Scott thought the demonstrations were dangerous, would work against the participants when they later would be looking for jobs, [4] and reasoned that blacks would more effectively improve their situation by working towards ending segregation in education, obtaining political and voting influence, and improving their economic situations. [3]
Editorial content during this period was mainly neutral in tone, as opposed to actively promoting Negro rights or attacking racism, and as such white businesses did not feel threatened by its content, allowing the Daily World to secure advertising support from companies such as Coca-Cola, Sears, Roebuck and Rich's, the largest department store in the city. [3]
The paper did urge blacks to shop at black-owned businesses (the "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" campaign). In the 1940s it sponsored voter registration efforts. The paper also covered the Atlanta black community's social, church, and sports news. [3]
The Daily World covered, on a national basis, topics including:
Cornelius Scott retired in 1997 and his great niece, Alexis Scott Reeves, took over as publisher. [3] Reeves has previously been a journalist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , Atlanta's leading daily, and later vice-president of community affairs there. [4]
During the 1980s and 1990s, the newspaper's circulation declined from its peak over 20,000 in the 1960s to a steady 10,000. By 2000, although it retained the word "Daily" in its name, it had cut back its publication schedule to only two editions per week, on Sundays and Thursdays. [6]
In 2012, the Atlanta Daily World joined Real Times Inc., a publisher of five other African-American weeklies, including the Chicago Defender and New Pittsburgh Courier . Alexis Scott said the sale would give the World more multimedia resources, calling it "truly a new beginning for the paper." [7]
In 2008, the Downtown Atlanta tornado damaged the World's offices at 145 Auburn Avenue. The paper's operations subsequently moved to another location. [8] In 2012, Scott announced plans to sell the building where this important part of Atlanta's black history took place; the buyer had plans to demolish the building. This caused outcry in the local Old Fourth Ward neighborhood at the loss of yet another historic building on Auburn Avenue. [8] The Historic District Development Corporation, whose mission is historic preservation in the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District launched an online petition to save the building. Owner and publisher Alexis Scott responded in a joint statement with developer Integral Group claiming that demolition of the building but saving the façade was the only feasible option to preserve any portion of the historic structure and thus preserve the history in some physical form. [9]
On January 8, 2014, the offices were sold to commercial real estate developer and Sidewalk Radio host Gene Kansas who stated that he planned to restore the building for retail and residential use, and that it would be designed by Gamble and Gamble architects, the same firm redesigning the Clermont Motor Inn on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Poncey-Highland into a boutique hotel. [10] The refurbished building features two retail spaces with two apartments above, and reopened on March 12, 2015. [11]
Andrew Jackson Young Jr. is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and a close confidant to Martin Luther King Jr. Young later became active in politics, serving as a U.S. Congressman from Georgia, United States Ambassador to the United Nations in the Carter Administration, and 55th Mayor of Atlanta. He was the first African American elected to Congress from Georgia since Reconstruction, as well as one of the first two African Americans elected to Congress from the former Confederacy since Reconstruction, alongside Barbara Jordan of Texas. Since leaving office, Young has founded or served in many organizations working on issues of public policy and political lobbying.
The history of Atlanta dates back to 1836, when Georgia decided to build a railroad to the U.S. Midwest and a location was chosen to be the line's terminus. The stake marking the founding of "Terminus" was driven into the ground in 1837. In 1839, homes and a store were built there and the settlement grew. Between 1845 and 1854, rail lines arrived from four different directions, and the rapidly growing town quickly became the rail hub for the entire Southern United States. During the American Civil War, Atlanta, as a distribution hub, became the target of a major Union campaign, and in 1864, Union William Sherman's troops set on fire and destroyed the city's assets and buildings, save churches and hospitals. After the war, the population grew rapidly, as did manufacturing, while the city retained its role as a rail hub. Coca-Cola was launched here in 1886 and grew into an Atlanta-based world empire. Electric streetcars arrived in 1889, and the city added new "streetcar suburbs".
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) is an American daily newspaper based in metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution. The two staffs were combined in 1982. Separate publication of the morning Constitution and the afternoon Journal ended in 2001 in favor of a single morning paper under the Journal-Constitution name.
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The Sweet Auburn Historic District is a historic African-American neighborhood along and surrounding Auburn Avenue, east of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The name Sweet Auburn was coined by John Wesley Dobbs, referring to the "richest Negro street in the world," one of the largest concentrations of African-American businesses in the United States.
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John Wesley Dobbs was an African-American civic and political leader in Atlanta, Georgia. He was often referred to as the unofficial "mayor" of Auburn Avenue, the spine of the black community in the city.
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By 1930 the World had become a semi-weekly. The next year it became a daily.
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