The Black press in Mississippi, 1865-1985 : a directory /

This pioneering work by Julius Thompson (SUNY at Albany) seeks to identify all publications issued by Mississippi's black press between 1865 and 1985. Thompson defines "press"in its broadest sense and includes among his 409 entries newspapers, newsletters, educational publications, magazines, and publications of political, religious, and fraternal organizations. These are organized alphabetically by county. Information provided (when known) includes title, dates, frequency, circulation, publishers and editors, source of information, and holdings. There are indexes by title, editor and publisher, organization/institution, and city. The bibliography, although helpful, omits the union list Newspapers in Micro-form: United States, 1948-1983, compiled at the Library of Congress (1984). It would have yielded additional holdings of titles such as the Baptist Record and the Messenger. Thompson identifies the Colored Convention Circular, published in Natchez in May of 1865, as the oldest known black publication. No copies have survived. The oldest continuously published newspaper is the Jackson Advocate, a weekly, issued since 1938. It is to be hoped that this new directory will stimulate additional research on black intellectual life in Mississippi and possibly the microfilming of this remaining fragmentary record. -B. E. Coutts, Western Kentucky University