Chicago Bee on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''The Chicago Bee'' or ''Chicago Sunday Bee'' was a 
The ''Bee'' sponsored the original "Mayor of Bronzeville" contest which led to the use of the term "Bronzeville" for the neighborhood. The concept was originally suggested by theater editor James Gentry, who coined the term and had been sponsoring a beauty contest in the neighborhood since 1916. When Gentry left the paper in 1932, he took his concept with him to the ''
Scans of the Chicago Bee
{{African American press 1925 establishments in Illinois 1947 disestablishments in Illinois African-American history in Chicago Defunct African-American newspapers Defunct newspapers published in Chicago Publications established in 1925 Publications disestablished in 1947
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
-based weekly newspaper
A weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electronic publishing, digital formats. Similarly, a biweekly new ...
founded by Anthony Overton
Anthony Overton Jr. (March 21, 1865 – July 2, 1946), was an American banker and manufacturer. He was the first African American to lead a major business conglomerate.Harvard Business School. American Business Leaders of the Twentieth CenturyAnth ...
, an African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, in 1925. Its readership was primarily African American and the paper was committed to covering "wholesome and authentic news", and adopted a middle-class, conservative tone. Politically, it was aligned with the Republican Party. Overton established '' Half-Century Magazine'' in 1916 and it was published until 1925.
After sharing quarters with the Hygienic Company in the 1920s, the ''Bee'' moved into the new Chicago Bee Building, an Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
structure built between 1929 and 1931. However, after Overton's bank failed in the 1930s, the two businesses shared quarters once again, as the Hygienic Company moved into the ''Bee'' building.
Chandler Owen became editor of the ''Bee'' after moving to Chicago. The ''Bee'' initially supported the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Founded in 1925, The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was the first labor organization led by African Americans to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The BSCP gathered a membership of 18,000 passenger railwa ...
, which Owen supported, but later joined other publications including the ''Chicago Defender
''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...
'' in opposing the union.
Subsequent editors of the paper included Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for ...
and Olive Diggs. The ''Bee''s editorial staff was mostly female, and the newspaper covered the black women's club movement extensively. It distinguished itself from other newspapers in the Chicago black press in its promotion of black history and literature.
The ''Bee'' sponsored the original "Mayor of Bronzeville" contest which led to the use of the term "Bronzeville" for the neighborhood. The concept was originally suggested by theater editor James Gentry, who coined the term and had been sponsoring a beauty contest in the neighborhood since 1916. When Gentry left the paper in 1932, he took his concept with him to the ''Chicago Defender
''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...
'', which continued the contests.
The paper's founder and owner Anthony Overton
Anthony Overton Jr. (March 21, 1865 – July 2, 1946), was an American banker and manufacturer. He was the first African American to lead a major business conglomerate.Harvard Business School. American Business Leaders of the Twentieth CenturyAnth ...
was a wealthy industrialist, owning such concerns as the Overton Hygienic Company, a cosmetics firm. He had also made a previous venture in publishing, in the form of the ''Half Century Magazine''. After Overton's death in 1946, the ''Bee'' was briefly continued by his sons in a tabloid format, but was unsuccessful. It ceased publication in 1947.
Very little of the ''Bee'' survives today, apart from the building it occupied. One historian was unable to find a single intact issue from the years 1925 to 1935.
References
Works cited
* * * * * * * * * * *External links
Scans of the Chicago Bee
{{African American press 1925 establishments in Illinois 1947 disestablishments in Illinois African-American history in Chicago Defunct African-American newspapers Defunct newspapers published in Chicago Publications established in 1925 Publications disestablished in 1947