- Creator
- Fortune, Timothy Thomas, 1856-1928
- Call number
- Sc MG 287
- Physical description
- 1 vol
- Preferred Citation
- [Item], T. Thomas Fortune scrapbook, Sc MG 287, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
- Access to materials
- Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply
The T. Thomas Fortune Scrapbook consists primarily of clippings of Fortune's articles from the "New York Age," 1890-1898, in which he discussed events and issues affecting African Americans nationwide as well as overseas. There are also articles from other newspapers such as the "Evening Telegram, the "New York Sun," the "Texas Morning News, the "Galveston Daily" and the "Brooklyn Daily Eagle," some of which he authored, and articles written about him by fellow journalists, 1889-1904.
Biographical/historical information
T. Thomas Fortune was the foremost African-American journalist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He served as an editor, publisher, writer, orator and civil rights leader, using his position at a series of black newspapers in New York City as the leading spokesman and defender of the rights of African Americans in both the South and the North.
Fortune's journalism career began in Florida, he moved to New York in 1881, and founded the "New York Freeman" in 1884 (renamed the "New York Age" in 1887). His book, "Black and White: Land, Labor and Politics in the South" was published in 1884. Fortune was known for his editorials that condemned discrimination, lynching, mob violence, and disenfranchisement, and for his uncompromising demand for full equality for all African Americans. He was also one of the few African Americans to be a frequent contributor to major white newspapers, writing for the "New York Sun and the "Boston Transcript.".
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift, Elizabeth Bowser, March 1990
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Access restrictions
Researchers must use preservation copy.