May 5, 1905 The Chicago Defender was founded by Robert Sengstacke Abbott with a press run of 300 copies. The Defenders editorial position was considered militant, attacking racial inequities directly. Sensational headlines and graphic pictures depicted the horrors of lynchings, rapes, assaults, and other atrocities inflicted on the black community. By 1919, more than two-thirds of the Defender’s readership was outside Chicago and it was the first black newspaper with a circulation over 100,000. In 1956, the paper became the Chicago Daily Defender, the nation’s second black daily newspaper. In 2003, ownership of the paper was transferred to Real Times, Inc. and it was converted back to a weekly.
