*The Chicago Bee was first published on this date in 1925. Chicago Sunday Bee was a Chicago-based weekly newspaper.
The paper's founder and owner, Anthony Overton, a wealthy industrialist, owned several concerns, including the Overton Hygienic Company, a successful cosmetics firm. He had also made a previous venture in publishing in the form of the Half-Century Magazine. The Chicago Bee was primarily African American readers. The paper focused on "wholesome and authentic news" and adopted a middle-class, conservative tone.
Politically, it was aligned with the Republican Party. After sharing quarters with the Hygienic Company in the 1920s, the Bee moved into the new Chicago Bee Building. However, after Overton's bank failed in the 1930s, the two businesses shared quarters again as the Hygienic Company moved into the Bee building. Chandler Owen became editor of the Bee after moving to Chicago. The Bee initially supported the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which Owen supported, but later joined other publications, including the Chicago Defender, in opposing the union.
Subsequent editors of the paper included Ida B. Wells and Olive Diggs. The Bee's editorial staff was mostly women, and the newspaper extensively covered the Black women's club movement. It distinguished itself in its promotion of Black history and literature. The Bee sponsored the original "Mayor of Bronzeville" contest, which led to using the term "Bronzeville" for the neighborhood. The concept was originally suggested by theater editor James Gentry, who coined the term and had been sponsoring a beauty contest in the neighborhood since 1916. When Gentry left the paper in 1932, he took his concept to the Chicago Defender, which continued the contests.
After Overton died in 1946, his sons briefly continued the Bee in tabloid format but were unsuccessful. It folded in 1947. Very little of the Bee survives today, apart from the building it occupied. One historian could not find a single intact issue from 1925 to 1935.
