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Secondary sourceBook1891

The Afro-American Press and Its Editors

Irvine Garland Penn · 1891

An 1891 survey of Black journalism by I. Garland Penn that profiled Wells, writing under her pen name 'Iola', as a leading journalist.

This 1891 survey of Black journalism profiled Wells, under her pen name Iola, as a leading journalist before her national fame.

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Front cover of the book The Afro-American Press and Its Editors. Large ornate black and red display lettering reads Afro-American Press, with And Its Editors below. Red decorative drawings include an open book, a newspaper labeled The Press, and an inkwell with a rising flourish.
Irvine Garland Penn, The Afro-American Press and Its Editors, 1891.

About this source

What it is

This is a book written by Irvine Garland Penn and published in 1891, covering African-American newspapers and magazines from 1827 to 1891, including a chapter on Black female journalists. It includes contributions from many prominent Black leaders of the time.

Why it matters

The book profiled Wells, known by her pen name 'Iola', before she became nationally famous for her anti-lynching campaigns. It documents how the Black press was seen as essential to proving Black Americans' fitness for full citizenship, and it remains an important early source for historians studying African-American journalism.

Look closer

  • Why might Penn have wanted to document Black journalists so thoroughly in 1891?
  • What does it mean that Wells was already recognized as a journalist before her later fame?
  • Who else contributed to this book, and what does that tell you about the networks of Black intellectuals at the time?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Ida B. Wells on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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