*The first issue of the Richmond Planet, a Black newspaper in Richmond, Virginia, was celebrated on this date in 1882.
Thirteen former Richmond slaves founded the paper. It was edited first by Edwin Archer Randolph and then by John Mitchell, Jr. from 1884 until he died in 1929. He was the paper's junior editor in 1912. The same year, the paper covered the opening of Lincoln Memorial Hall on the Temperance, Industrial, and Collegiate Institute campus in Claremont, Virginia. Mitchell was also president of the National Afro-American Press Association and the founder and president of Mechanics Savings Bank.
By 1904, The Planet had reached a weekly circulation of 4,200. The paper continued publication until 1938 when it merged with the Richmond Afro-American. The paper responded to the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The work of photographer James C. Farley was published in The Planet. Farley served on the board of Mitchell Jr.'s Mechanics Savings Bank.
