New National Era (copy)
*This date in 1868 celebrates the publication of the New National Era newspaper. Originally called the New Era and Citizen, it was a national newspaper for the Black community. It was published in Washington, D.C., during Reconstruction, the decade after the American Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation.
Frederick Douglass took over the New Era in 1870 and renamed it the New National Era. The New York Heritage Digital Collections had issues with the paper from 1870 until 1874, and the Library of Congress also had issues with its collection. The paper's editors were Douglass, his son Lewis H. Douglass, Richard T. Greener, and John A. Cook. It covered Reconstruction, Republican politics, and Black Washington, D.C.
It was described as a "well-conducted" newspaper aimed at addressing the issues of the Black community in D.C. Thomas W. Cardozo contributed accounts of his experiences in government in Reconstruction-era Mississippi.
