The New York Amsterdam News

The New York Amsterdam News was founded in Manhattan in 1909 by James H. Anderson. From Anderson’s humble beginnings and his $10 investment, the newspaper grew to be one of the most influential Black-owned newspapers in the United States.

Anderson’s original intent was to create a weekly community paper highlighting local news, including weddings, social news and information about the neighborhood. Its location in the heart of a Black community in Manhattan soon led Anderson to cover politics as well as the burgeoning jazz scene and the Harlem Renaissance.

Major figures like W.E.B. Du Bois, Adam Clayton Powell Jr, and William Pickens were given voice in its pages. Both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote columns for the newspaper, leading to important coverage of topics like desegregation of the military and the civil rights movement. 

Today, The New York Amsterdam News remains a strong and active part of New York, both in print and online.

James Anderson, Founder

Though little has been written about James Anderson, researchers at Schomberg Public Library discovered his story, and their research is well-explained in “Legends of San Juan Hill,” published online by Lincoln Center. In digging through their archives, the librarians uncovered a notebook that belonged to Anderson. He was born in 1867 to a family named Goode in Columbia, South Carolina. His home life was miserable, and when he was 12, he escaped to a relative’s home. His uncle, James Henry Anderson, adopted him, giving the boy his full name.

During his teen years, Anderston moved to several locations, including Wilmington, North Carolina, Jacksonville, Florida, and Newport News, Virginia. At the age of 23 (1883), he was living in Brooklyn working at various jobs including as a bellhop, a baker, and a sexton. At one point, he owned a sign shop.

San Juan Hill

By the early 1900s, Anderson moved to the San Juan Hill section of New York City. (This neighborhood was in the west 60s, later bulldozed to create Lincoln Center in the 1960s.)  During Anderson’s time, it was a lively community with working class Black people—Pullman porters, maids, and working people of all types. There were a few Irish in the neighborhood, but it was primarily a Black and Caribbean community. 

Anderson was very much involved in the area. He was a member of the Masons and the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows. He was also part of the Emancipation Commission of New York. These organizations gave him strong social connections and helped him understand the community, giving him a vision for what he wanted to do with a newspaper.

Anderson believed a local paper for Black residents would provide the essential “glue” to hold the community together. Emancipation was only several decades old. Anderson knew the paper had to hold the line for civil rights, but his focus remained on the people themselves—highlighting social news, community milestones, and the joyful moments of everyday life in the neighborhood.

He also eventually focused on music and the arts. The area was famous for its vibrant street life, dance halls, and jazz/ragtime clubs. The Black-owned Marshall Hotel was several blocks south of his apartment, and it became a thriving area for artists and jazz musicians.

First Issue of Amsterdam News

Anderson’s apartment looked out over Amsterdam Avenue, the commercial spine of the upper West Side. When he created his first issue, he chose “Amsterdam” as part of the newspaper’s title, knowing that his potential advertisers were in and around that area.

All research sources that tell about the inception of the Amsterdam News report that Anderson worked on a dressmaker’s table using a lead pencil to write up six pages of local news. His financial investment was said to $10, which may have gone toward printing costs. Once he had copies of the newspaper in hand, he sent young kids out to sell it for a penny per newspaper.

During these first few months, Anderson did everything himself– reporting, editing, selling advertising, distributing and promoting it. His on-the-ground viewpoint revealed what needed to be done.

Popularizing the Newspaper

Anderson was a natural at promotion. He had innovative ideas for getting the newspaper into the hands of readers.

In that era, most newspapers were sold at newsstands, so Anderson regularly traveled the route, dropping off new issues of the newspaper at the local newsstands. The next challenge was to make the newsstand operators see the value of the newspaper so they would provide prominent placement for the Amsterdam News.

Using a reverse newsboy system, he organized the young people in the neighborhood and paid them each a nickel in advance. Their job was to visit a newsstand and purchase four papers for a penny each, while declaring, “I need to buy that outstanding newspaper, the Amsterdam News!”  

They then were to hand out the four copies to people on the street who might be likely readers. The final penny from each newsboy’s nickel was his to keep.  

Anderson also prevailed upon some of his prominent friends. He knew both bandleader James Reese Europe as well as historian and writer Arturo Schomberg, and he asked them to carry the newspaper with them so people would wonder what it was.

Public transit also figured prominently in his promotion. Anderson would board a trolley and hold the newspaper up while reading it so people could see the name. When he got off, he folded the newspaper and left it behind knowing that others would pick it up and read it.

Editorial Features

In addition to the local news, Anderson experimented with other ideas. He realized that short fiction might be a plus for readers who didn’t necessarily have time to read a long book. One of the first short stories he ran was a reprint of “The Siege of Berlin,” about the Franco-Prussian War of by French novelist Alphonse Daudet.  

He was a close friend of Reverend Richard M. Bolden, the pastor of the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AME Zion) Church (one of America’s oldest and most significant Black churches). Anderson decided that publishing a weekly sermon by Bolden was a good fit for the Amsterdam News. The pastor was delighted with the exposure, and soon he allowed the sale of the newspaper at the church on Sundays.  

This connection greatly expanded the range of the Amsterdam News. The church itself was the first AME Zion Church in the country (founded in 1796). It began in Greenwich Village and moved to the Upper West Side in 1904. As more people migrated from the South and settled in upper Manhattan, the church eventually relocated to West 136^th Street. The movement to different neighborhoods expanded the congregant base, which also widened the newspaper’s readership.  

Music All Around San Juan Hill

San Juan Hill was a working-class neighborhood, and there was a huge music scene that was a vital part of the community. Just steps from James Anderson’s apartment stood a music hall at 22 West 63rd Street. In 1921, a team of visionaries—composer Eubie Blake, lyricist Noble Sissle, and comedy writers Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles—were looking for a venue to stage an all-Black musical. The hall’s proximity to Midtown made it the ideal spot to launch Shuffle Along. The production made history with its all-Black cast and creative team. It also introduced enduring standards to the Great American Songbook, including “Love Will Find a Way” and “I’m Just Wild About Harry.”

Just a few blocks south of Anderson’s apartment stood the Marshall Hotel, a Black-owned social and intellectual hub of the area. Located at 127 West 53rd Street and managed by James “Jimmie” Marshall, it functioned as a boutique hotel, restaurant, salon, and meeting house. In its dining rooms, artists experimented with syncopated rhythms and early ragtime, creating the blueprint for jazz.

It became a gathering place for Black artists, writers, and intellectuals. Luminaries like W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Aida Overton Walker mingled there but it was not exclusive–white producers like Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. stopped by.

James Reese Europe

The hotel was also a home base for band conductor James Reese Europe. In addition to his work as a bandleader, he saw the need for a booking agency to help Black musicians secure steady work and get fair wages. Europe came up with the concept of the Clef Club, and the offices were established right there at the Marshall.

While it took until World War I before jazz, ragtime, and rhythm and blues came to prominence outside the Black community, the music itself was being written right there and performed with one major newspaper to cover it: The New York Amsterdam News.

Newspaper Office Relocates

Just a year or so after establishing the newspaper, Anderson moved it out of his apartment. He saw that many Blacks from the South were moving to Harlem so he took offices at 17 West 135^th Street. In the meantime, he continued to live on West 65^th Street where he observed all that was happening in San Juan Hill.

The music and culture of the area continued to grow, but there were new issues—overcrowding and the dangers of the New York Central Railroad. The rail lines were being built along the West Side, and many trains ran at grade level making the neighborhood dangerous for delivery carts and pedestrians.

During these years, Anderson had steady help from his friend and photographer Edward A. Warren. When Anderson expressed interest in taking a partner, Warren took him up on the idea. Shortly after the two linked up, they decided they needed a different office from the one on West 135^th Street, and they moved around the corner at 2293 Seventh Avenue (now Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.)

The partners had only a few years to work together. In 1921, Warren died unexpectedly. His widow, Sadie, stepped in to protect the couple’s investment. She then married a fellow named William H. Davis. Anderson had invested time and money over the previous ten years. When Sadie and William Davis offered to buy him out, he was ready.

E.A. Warren-Davis Publishing Company

The couple published under the name E.A. Warren-Davis Publishing Company and got off to a good start. By 1930, just before the business downturn, the staff of the Amsterdam News had reason to celebrate. In a sure sign of commercial success, it became the second Black newspaper admitted to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. This added legitimacy to their circulation number and established better advertising rates.

Unfortunately, the euphoria did not last long. The Depression was bringing down businesses everywhere. The newspaper debt built up, and Warren-Davis Publishing could no longer pay their staff. By 1936, the staff was on strike, and the Davises filed for bankruptcy.

New Owners

Despite the deepening Depression, two successful Black medical professionals saw possibilities in buying the newspaper out of bankruptcy.  

Dr. C.B. (Clilan Bethany) Powell (1894-1977) attended medical school and interned at Bellevue before working for 8 years at Harlem Hospital. He was one of the first African Americans to specialize in X-rays, and he ran a successful radiology practice in Harlem for 25 years.

He and friend Dr. Philip M. H. Savory (1889-1965) believed in supporting the Black community by establishing businesses that often discriminated against African Americans. By the mid-1930s, they owned a life insurance company, four funeral homes, and a real estate company.

To them, the New York Amsterdam News offered the opportunity to serve the community but also boost their own businesses. The offer they made was $5000 for the newspaper, while also guaranteeing coverage of about three-quarters of the newspaper’s debts.

The next issue was creating a workable climate for the employees who went out on strike when the former owners could no longer pay them. Powell and Savory knew the value of a good staff, so they agreed to full unionization of all departments of the newspaper. Newspapers at that time were not fully unionized, so this was a national first.

Dr. Powell took the role of publisher and stayed in the position until 1971, expanding the operation. At the time, they did not foresee that the newspaper they acquired would soon take its rightful place on the national stage.

Newspaper Expands

C.B. Powell was well-suited to his new job. He was active in politics and knowledgeable about world affairs.  He kept the focus on local news but added staff members to cover national issues. Black families were deeply affected by redlining in neighborhoods, police brutality, and segregation in the military during World War II. Powell had the staff cover it all.

By 1940, the newspaper hit peak influence with circulation exceeding 100,000, establishing itself as a premier Black press outlet, second only to the Chicago Defender (established in 1905).

Nation of Islam in Harlem

Although early 1950s Harlem was celebrated as the cultural and political capital of Black America, systemic inequality persisted. As impatience with the slow pace of progress grew, many Black residents felt mainstream groups like the NAACP and Urban League were letting them down. This disillusionment created fertile ground for the Nation of Islam, a religious movement that was gaining steam in Harlem, under a young leader who called himself Malcolm X. Powell had his eye on him. 

Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, Malcolm Little experienced a tragic childhood marred by racist violence, and family loss that was followed by foster care. By his late teens, Malcolm lived in Boston and Harlem, and earned his living by stealing and street hustling. When he was picked up by the police in 1946, he received a ten-year prison sentence.

During incarceration, he was influenced by some of the other prisoners and thought a lot about what his siblings told him about the teachings of Elijah Muhammad who started the Nation of Islam. During this time, he became a follower and adopted the surname “X.”

When he was paroled in 1952, he devoted himself to spreading believe in the Nation of Islam. He established temples in Detroit, Boston, and Philadelphia. In 1954, leader Elijah Muhammad sent him to Harlem to lead Temple No. 7.

Malcolm X was perfect for it. As a young man who had matured under adverse circumstances, he understood the street-level discontent of the African Americans in the area, and he could speak convincingly to their concerns. Within a few years, he built a powerful local base centered on self-defense, economic independence, and Black nationalism. 

Throughout this time, C.B. Powell listened and watched looking for the best way to cover the ongoing stories. Then an unfortunate one presented itself. The Johnson Hinton affair brought it all to a head.

Johnson Hinton Crisis

On April 14, 1957, at the corner of 125th Street and Seventh Avenue, New York Police Department officers brutally beat a Black man named Reese Poe. Watching the assault unfold, Johnson Hinton, a local working-class resident, stepped forward to confront them: “You’re not in Alabama—this is New York!”

Caught off guard, the police turned on Hinton with fury. They grabbed him, pounding him with their nightsticks and fracturing his skull. The police then hauled him off to the 28^th Precinct for booking, never offering him medical assistance.  

Malcolm X heard what happened to one of his congregants and called up the “Fruit of Islam,” a paramilitary group he had formed. He and the group marched to the precinct.  Soon a crowd of more than 2000 residents surrounded the police station.

Accompanied by Amsterdam News editor James Hicks, Malcolm X entered the precinct and refused to leave until officials agreed to send Hinton to the hospital for emergency treatment. Seeing the disciplined crowd outside, the police must have calculated what the gathering could do if angered, so they relented and called an ambulance.

At Harlem Hospital, doctors discovered bleeding in Hinton’s brain. He never fully recovered. Hinton later sued New York City for police brutality and was awarded $70,000. At the time, this was the largest police misconduct settlement in the city’s history.

Throughout this incident, Dr. C.B. Powell gave the story the coverage it deserved. Later he offered Malcolm X a regular weekly column, “God’s Angry Men,” which ran for almost a year.

More Civil Rights Coverage

As the civil rights movement gained national prominence in the early 1960s, the newspaper expanded to feature new voices. Following dispatches from the South, Powell grew increasingly alarmed. The summer of 1961 brought escalating turmoil: Freedom Riders were savagely beaten and jailed for challenging segregated bus transit, while a fierce desegregation battle was brewing in Albany, Georgia.

Determined to give these struggles visibility, Powell reached out directly to Southern activists so he could bring their first-hand accounts to Northern readers. This brought him to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Starting in 1962, Dr. Powell provided a steady platform for Martin Luther King Jr. to write a biweekly column for the paper, His “People in Action.” King’s articles alternated with NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins.  King used the column to give Northern readers direct accounts of the Southern struggle, writing about his strategy of nonviolence, critiquing federal policy, and spotlighting unsung grassroots activists across the South. Powell knew that King’s first-person commentary was important to have in his paper.   

Powell also offered financial support for King’s work. King’s gratitude was expressed in a letter after the Birmingham campaign: “With your help, we can continue work in Birmingham and consolidate the gains we have won through an extensive voter registration campaign. …We are now getting more than 200 people per day to go to the Court House to seek to become registered voters. Your financial support will also enable us to begin paying the debts we incurred there—extensive bond money, legal fees, the cost of housing, and supporting our field secretaries who organized the community and conducted nonviolent direct-action workshops.”

Powell Era Comes to a Close

On May 1, 1971, Dr. C. B. Powell announced his retirement and the sale of the newspaper. (His long-time partner Philip Savory passed away in 1965, so he was sole owner.) He had steered the publication for 36 years, from the era leading up to World War II through the challenges of the 1960s. It was time to let someone else step in.

Powell was pleased to be selling the newspaper to a newly formed syndicate of African American leaders who shared some of the values Powell and Savory had. The syndicate included former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton, civil rights attorney Clarence B. Jones, politician H. Carl McCall, and Wilbert A. Tatum, a business executive who eventually took the helm of the newspaper.

Tatum Era

By 1982, AmNews Corporation chairman Wilbert A. Tatum (1933–2009) had taken over as editor-in-chief. Because his day-to-day commitment far eclipsed that of his co-investors, he moved to buy out their shares, securing sole ownership by 1996.

Tatum’s plan for the newspaper involved a return to a focus on New York City.  He sent reporters out to cover politics, housing equity, police brutality and municipal reform.

View of the City

Tatum had worked in city government under John Lindsay and Abe Beam, and he had no tolerance for Mayors Ed Koch or Rudy Giuliani.  

He particularly disliked Ed Koch and used the power of his newspaper to express his disdain. When Koch’s third term of office began, Tatum began a weekly column, “Why Koch Should Resign.” It ran on the front page of the newspaper from February 1986 until September 1989, and accused Koch of being ineffective, corrupt, and failing to address the concerns of minority residents.

The city was roiling with racial turmoil, and more municipal corruption was being uncovered, making the possibility of a fourth term a stretch for Koch. Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins knew the city well and was soft-spoken. The voters were ready for a change. Dinkins beat Koch 51-42 for the primaries and then went on to beat Rudy Giuliani.

With the resounding news of Koch’s defeat, Tatum put aside his pen. He wrote: “On September 12 at 11:50 p.m., Edward I. Koch conceded defeat in the primary. December 31 will be his last day of work. End of series.” 

Balanced Coverage

Another accomplishment of the Tatum years was the newspaper’s push for more balanced coverage. Tatum recognized that the mainstream press often failed to report fairly on minority communities—a failure starkly illustrated by the major media’s incendiary coverage of the Central Park Five case in 1989. After a young white woman was beaten and raped while jogging in Central Park, five Black and Latino teenagers were accused of the attack.

Within hours of the April 19 attack, police began detaining and questioning teenagers in connection with several assaults in the park.Over the next two days, detectives subjected five of the teenagers to lengthy and aggressive interrogations. Soon, they were charged with rape, assault, attempted murder, and other offenses.

Less than two weeks later (May 1, 1989), businessman Donald Trump paid $85,000 for ads in four city newspapers urging “Bring Back the Death Penalty…” The open letter argued that New York City had become overrun by “roving bands of wild criminals.” While the ad did not explicitly name the five teenagers, it urged the justice system to punish violent crime severely. Other newspapers picked up on this, and the public seemed in firm agreement that the teens were guilty. 

Under Tatum, the Amsterdam News took a very different stance. While mainstream tabloids labeled the teenagers “savages” and “wilding beasts,” the Amsterdam News refused to use sensationalized slurs.

Tatum repeatedly cautioned readers through his editorials that the young men were being subjected to a modern-day “legal lynching” to satisfy a public demand for vengeance.

Wrongfully Convicted

In 1990, two trials were held, and the teenagers were all found guilty and sentenced to prison. In 2002, it was revealed that they were all wrongfully convicted. A serial rapist confessed to the incident, and in 2002, DNA evidence proved he acted alone.

Now known as the “Exonerated Five,” the men won settlements from the city. One of them– Yusef Salaam–was elected to the New York City Council in 2023, representing District 9 in Harlem.

Wilbert Tatum Steps Down

A year after fully buying out the other investors (1997), Wilbert Tatum stepped down from his editorial position. His daughter, Elinor Ruth Tatum, stepped in as publisher and editor-in-chief.

She has successfully maintained the good reputation of the newspaper and brought it into the digital age. Today the newspaper publishes the print issue weekly and the digital is updated regularly. There are also weekly newsletters that are sent out to readers.

 In a 2023 interview with The Forward, publisher and editor-in-chief Elinor Tatum reflected on her identity:  “I am Black. I am female. I am Jewish. And I am proud of every one of those things…. that is who I am.” She has maintained her identity while still focusing on the needs of the newspaper.  Tatum also holds positions on several community boards affecting New York City as well as Harlem, and the strength of the paper continues.

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Former Headquarters of the New York Amsterdam News Landmarked

The former headquarters located at 2293 Seventh Avenue (now called Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard) was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.  

The newspaper took space in the four-story Greek Revival brownstone between West 134^th and 135^th Streets in 1916 when James Anderson was still at the helm. It remained in this location until 1938.  During this time, the publication grew significantly, expanding from local news into one of the nation’s most widely read and influential Black-owned publications. Over time, it actively shaped the national discussions on anti-lynching legislation, voter registration, and Black self-reliance.

The newspaper relocated to its current building at 2340 Frederick Douglass Boulevard in 1938, but it is the historic 2293 Seventh Avenue building that carries the official National Historic Landmark designation.

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