The ''Iowa Bystander'' was an

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

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targeted toward an

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audience. It was founded in Des Moines on June 15, 1894, by I.E. Williamson, Billy Colson, and Jack Logan, and it is considered to be the oldest

Black newspaper African-American newspapers (also known as the Black press or Black newspapers) are newspaper, news publications in the United States serving African-American communities. Samuel Cornish and John Brown Russwurm started the first African-Americ ...

west of the Mississippi. The paper was first called ''Iowa State Bystander''; the term "bystander" given by its editor, Charles Ruff, after a syndicated column "The Bystander's Notes" written by Albion W. Tourgée, a civil rights advocate who wrote for ''The Daily Inter Ocean''. The name was changed to ''Bystander'' in 1916 by owner John L. Thompson, who published the paper from 1896-1922. Thompson traveled around the state seeking new subscribers, raising the circulation to 2,000 copies, and changed the paper to a 6-column 8-page layout. In 1922, Thompson sold the newspaper to Lawrence Jones who, within 2 years, sold the paper to

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veteran and founder of the

National Bar Association The National Bar Association (NBA) was founded in 1925 and is the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of approximately 65,000 lawyers, judges, law profess ...

, James B. Morris for $1,700. Morris changed the name of the paper to ''Iowa Bystander''. Morris and the paper developed close ties with the NAACP and fought the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in Iowa. The Iowa Bystander was one of 20 papers represented at the first meeting of the

National Newspaper Publishers Association The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), formerly the National Negro Publishers Association, is an association of African American newspaper publishers from across the United States. History The NNPA was founded in 1940 when John H ...

, formed in 1940 by John H. Sengstacke, to support newspapers serving Black communities. Also that year, it was identified by ''

Editor and Publisher ''Editor & Publisher'' (''E&P'') is an American monthly trade news magazine covering the newspaper industry. Published since 1901, ''Editor & Publisher'' is the self-described "bible of the newspaper industry." Originally based in New York City, ...

'' as one of Iowa's four "leading Negro publications," along with the '' Tri City Observer'' (Davenport), the '' Iowa Observer'' (Des Moines), and the '' Sioux City Enterprise''.

Notable contributors and editors

* Eleanora E. Tate was news editor of the ''Iowa Bystander'' from 1966-1968 * Jonathan Narcisse, who ran for governor of Iowa in 2010 and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, was owner from 1990 until his death in 2018. He had transitioned the paper into a digital-only format. * James B. Morris, founder of the

, owned and ran the ''Iowa Bystander'' from 1922-1972 * Robert V. Morris, grandson of James B. Morris and author of ''Black Faces of War: A Legacy of Honor from the American Revolution to Today'', ran the paper from 1979-1983 while he was still a college student *Marie Ross, was news editor for the paper, and won two first-place awards from the

National Federation of Press Women The National Federation of Press Women (NFPW) is a United States-based organization of professional women and men pursuing careers in the field of communications, including electronic, broadcast and print journalism, public relations, marketing, adv ...

for her "Personal Touch" column.

References

External links

* * https://archive.org/details/sim_editor-publisher_1971-05-15_104_20/page/34/mode/2up {{African American press Defunct newspapers published in Iowa Defunct African-American newspapers