*May 19, 1900, celebrates the first publication of the Colored American Magazine (CAM), one of the first monthly magazines created for the national Black consumer.
Published and circulated in Boston, Mass., and New York City until 1909, the Colored American Magazine did for nine years in the 1900s what Ebony Magazine is doing today. The magazine included printed works about the "colored" Americans in the United States. Partial articles also featured people of color living on other continents. Some of the topics covered included articles about Negroes succeeding in business, the arts, education, medicine, politics, etc.
The magazine played a significant role in recording current news as well as retrospective historical events of the Negro. The Col ed American Magazine often referenced itself as "the only high-class illustrated monthly in the world devoted exclusively to the interests of the Negro Race." Their editors catered to the educated middle and upper-class African Americans of the early 20th century. The CAM articles, essays, poems, and countless photographs depict a specific appearance of dignity belonging to a people proud to have "made it” out of slavery.
The nine CAM volumes in years provide revealing facts for both white and Black readers interested in black history and literature.
James David Corrothers,
Title: [Me 'n' Dunbar, in]
The Colored American Magazine:
Vol. III. July, 1901. No. 3
