New Journal and Guide
 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (July 2013) |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Brenda H. Andrews |
| Publisher | Brenda H. Andrews |
| Founded | 1900 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Norfolk, Virginia, USA |
| ISSN | 2641-1350 |
| OCLC number | 26628042 |
| Website | www |
The New Journal and Guide is a regional weekly newspaper based in Norfolk, Virginia, and serving the Hampton Roads area. The weekly focuses on local and national African-American news, sports, and issues and has been in circulation since 1900.
History
[edit]Begun in Norfolk in 1900 by the Supreme Lodge Knights of Gideon, a Black fraternal order, it was originally called the Gideon Safe Guide and served as a newsletter for the order.[1] The name later was changed to the Lodge Norfolk and Guide.[2] By 1910, it was a weekly newspaper with four pages, and had 500 subscribers.[3] The paper's publishing plant was held under a mortgage at the time, but when the bank holding the mortgage collapsed in 1910, the newspaper had to fold.[2] P. B. Young Sr., an associate editor at the paper, borrowed $3,000 to buy it and renamed it to the Norfolk Journal and Guide.[3]
The Norfolk Journal and Guide was considered to be a moderate or conservative newspaper, primarily because it had to be more cautious in its speech against racial injustices compared to black newspapers published in the North. It often did not call for activism as clearly as other black newspapers did. This difference made it easier for the Journal and Guide to obtain advertisements from white-owned businesses, including large ones like Ford, Goodrich, and Pillsbury. This also did not stop the Journal and Guide from staging many crusades for various causes throughout its history[3]
During the 1910s and 1920s, the Journal and Guide critiqued the Great Migration of black families leaving the South. Young wrote that the movement was unnecessary because there were enough labor opportunities in the South for black workers, and the migration would decrease the size of the black workforce in the South. Denouncement of lynching and black voter mobilization efforts were other key topics for the Journal and Guide in the 1920s. The paper covered the trial of the Scottsboro Boys and led fundraising for their defense. During the 1930s, the paper also wrote against the unfairly high rate of poverty and unemployment for African-Americans.[3]
By the time World War II began, the Journal and Guide was the largest Black employer in the South. Circulation soared to over 100,000 and the paper was the only one south of the Mason–Dixon line to carry a national edition.[4] The paper pushed for the integration of the military and its industries during the war.[3] It won four consecutive Wendell Willkie awards for outstanding journalism.[citation needed] Along with the Chicago Defender, the Baltimore Afro-American and the Pittsburgh Courier, the Journal and Guide took the lead in informing the Black community on events as they related to such issues as housing and job discrimination among Black soldiers. At that time, the Guide ranked fourth in circulation among Black newspapers in the United States.
From 1910 to 1991, it was called both the Norfolk Journal and Guide and the Journal and Guide. Since 1991, it has been called the New Journal and Guide.[1]
Notable contributors
[edit]- P. B. Young, Sr. (the founding publisher who served more than 50 years and for whom a Norfolk public housing community is named),
- Thomas Young
- P. B. Young, Jr.,
- Bernard Young
- Southall Bass
- John Q. Jordan
- John Hinton
- Dr. Gordon B. Hancock
- Dr. Milton A. Reid
- James N. Rhea
- Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett.
External links
[edit]- Official website
- Library of Congress: currently LCCN sn95-79582
- Also several entries under the LoC's Chronicling America project: search under 'N'
  | This article about a Virginia newspaper is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- ^ a b "Anniversary: The New Journal and Guide, 115". The Virginian-Pilot. December 8, 2015. Retrieved May 29, 2025.
- ^ a b Suggs, Henry Lewis (1979). "P. B. Young of The Norfolk Journal and Guide: A Booker T. Washington Militant, 1904-1928". The Journal of Negro History. 64 (4): 365–376. doi:10.2307/2716944. ISSN 0022-2992.
- ^ a b c d e "The Norfolk Journal and Guide". www.pbs.org. Retrieved May 29, 2025.
- ^ "The St. Luke Herald - The Trumpet of Progress". National Park Service. January 4, 2017. Retrieved May 29, 2025.