''The Colored Citizen'' was an African American newspaper published in

Helena, Montana Helena (; ) is the capital city of Montana, United States, and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. Helena was founded as a gold camp during the Montana gold rush, and established on October 30, 1864. Due to the gold rush, Helena would ...

, for two months in 1894. It was published by J. P. Ball, Jr., using finances from white politicians to promote Helena's bid to become state capital over Anaconda in the

1894 Montana capital referendum In the 1890s, the state of Montana held a referendum to select its capital city. The first round was held in 1892 between several cities, and since none won outright, a second round was held in 1894. After an expensive and negative campaign, Hel ...

History

''The Colored Citizen'' was a paper for the black community of

—a community of some 279 people—founded in 1894 by J. P. Ball, Jr., the son of

James Presley Ball James Presley Ball, Sr. (1825 – May 4, 1904) was a prominent African-American photographer, abolitionist, and businessman. Biography Ball was born in Frederick County, Virginia, to William and Susan Ball in 1825. He learned daguerreotype ...

. Ball's father was perhaps the only black photographer in the Pacific Northwest, and the paper was the second paper for a black audience in the region. The paper pushed for Helena to be the state capital over Anaconda in that year's referendum; Ball said Helena had " No Color Line", a position Ball substantiated with his father's candidacy for city coroner by the

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

. While the paper was funded by white politicians to promote Helena's bid to become capital—a common tactic by Republicans in the American West to create support for their policies—it served the local black community through revealing instances of racism in Helena. The paper believed that black settlers in Montana "can boast of being pioneers" and were authentically American, but that immigrants were not. According to Ball, one of the problems with Anaconda was that a local mining company did "NOT employ a solitary Colored man", but rather " Dagoes and Foreigners". The paper was anti-populist for economic reasons. The paper was published with four pages each, spanning 17 by 22 inches, from the headquarters of Ball's father's photography company. It ran from September to November 1894, a period of just two months.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Colored Citizen, The 1894 establishments in Montana African-American history of Montana Defunct African-American newspapers Newspapers published in Montana