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Chronicling America
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Newspaper The Bulletin (Louisville, Ky.) 18??-18??

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About The Bulletin (Louisville, Ky.) 18??-18??

The Bulletin began publication in 1879 in Louisville, Kentucky, and was issued by brothers John Quincy “J.Q.” Adams and Cyrus Field Adams from their office at No. 256 W. Jefferson Street every Saturday. The N.W. Ayer and Son’s American Newspaper Annual listed the circulation as 1,500 in 1882 and 4,200 in 1885. The newspaper was published with the masthead statement, “Devoted to the Interests of the Colored People.” It provided a voice for Louisville’s educated and politically involved residents in the middle-class African American community. The Bulletin featured local and national news, along with advertisements for Black-owned businesses and schools in other states, highlighting the newspaper’s commitment to creating a platform for widespread education. It featured personal news of the Black community in Louisville, including obituaries, marriages, moves, travels, etc.

The owners of the newspaper and its chief editor were all born free in Louisville, Kentucky. The Adams brothers were influential in both the local African American community and local and national Republican politics. John Quincy organized the first National Colored Press Convention in Louisville in 1880 and later became the president of the organization, which was later renamed as the American Press Association. The chief editor of the Bulletin, Horace Morris, first worked at the Colored Citizen in 1866. In the 1870s, he became the editor for the Kentuckian and then started as the editor for the Bulletin in 1879.

The Adams brothers used their newspaper as a platform to boost the Republican Party and to speak out against racism and prejudice. The sole surviving issue, dated September 24, 1881, included an article about Belle Smoot, a fair-skinned Black woman who was refused admission to the first-class car of the Kentucky Central Railroad by the conductor. The same issue discussed the death of President James Garfield: “The death of our beloved President, James Abram Garfield, while it has not been entirely unexpected, is a sad blow to this great nation.”

In 1886, John Quincy was recruited to take over the Western Appeal in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Bulletin was sold. The Western Appeal became a prominent Black newspaper under John Quincy’s tenure. Cyrus Field moved to Chicago to manage the Appeal’s office there, one of several offices nationwide, and was later appointed to the U.S. Treasury as the Assistant Register, a position he held for over a decade.

Note: A portion of the issues digitized for this newspaper were microfilmed as part of the Miscellaneous Negro newspapers microfilm collection, a 12 reel collection containing issues of African American newspapers published in the U.S. throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Creation of the microfilm project was sponsored by the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies in 1947. For more information on the microfilm collection, see: Negro Newspapers on Microfilm, a Selected List (Library of Congress), published in 1953. While this collection contains selections from more than 150 U.S. newspapers titles, for further coverage, view a complete list of all digitized African American titles available in the Chronicling America collection.

Provided By: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Bulletin (Louisville, Ky.) 18??-18??

Dates of Publication

  • 18??-18??

Created / Published

  • Louisville, Ky. : Adams Bros.

Headings

  • -  African Americans--Kentucky--Newspapers
  • -  African American newspapers--Kentucky
  • -  Louisville (Ky.)--Newspapers
  • -  Jefferson County (Ky.)--Newspapers
  • -  African American newspapers
  • -  African Americans
  • -  Kentucky
  • -  Kentucky--Jefferson County
  • -  Kentucky--Louisville
  • -  Public Health
  • -  United States--Kentucky--Jefferson--Louisville

Genre

  • Newspapers
  • Periodicals

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Microfilmed by the Library of Congress for the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 5, no. 17 (Sept. 24, 1881).

Medium

  • volumes

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83016361

OCLC Number

  • 9745888

ISSN Number

  • 2835-0685

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

The Bulletin Louisville, Ky. 18??-18??. (Louisville, KY), 18??. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83016361/.

APA citation style:

(18??) The Bulletin Louisville, Ky. 18??-18??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83016361/.

MLA citation style:

The Bulletin Louisville, Ky. 18??-18??. (Louisville, KY) 18??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn83016361/.