New National Era (copy)
*The publication of the New National Era newspaper is celebrated on this date in 1868. 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 Emancipation Proclamation.
Frederick Douglass took over the New Era in 1870 and renamed it New National Era. The New York Heritage Digital Collections has issues of the paper from 1870 until 1874. The Library of Congress also has 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.
