We Now Belong to Ourselves - J.L. Edmonds, The Black Press, and Black Citizenship in America

Weaving together poetry, personal narrative, and never-before-seen documents from the Jefferson Lewis Edmonds'' family archive, Arianne Edmonds provides a wide-ranging look at how the Black Press of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries defined Black citizenship after Reconstruction, fostered networks of resistance, and set in motion critical social justice narratives that are still relevant today.At the turn of the twentieth century, the Black press provided a blueprint to help Black Americans transition from slavery and find opportunities to advance and define African American citizenship. Among the vanguard of the Black press was Jefferson Lewis Edmonds, founder and editor of The Liberator newspaper. His Los Angeles-based newspaper championed for women''s rights, land and business ownership, education, and civic engagement, while condemning lynchings and other violent acts against African Americans. It encouraged readers to move westward and build new communities, and it