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Chronicling America
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Newspaper The Community Citizen (New Albany, Miss.) 19??-19??

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About The Community Citizen (New Albany, Miss.) 19??-19??

The masthead of the Community Citizen, a conservative African American newspaper published in New Albany, Mississippi, explained, "This is a Negro Paper Dedicated to the Maintenance of Peace, Good Will, Order, and Domestic Tranquility in Our State." Founded around 1948 by the Reverend J. W. Jones, the four-page Citizen was issued on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. Though the newspaper was only a part-time endeavor for Jones, it lasted for at least 16 years; the last known issue was published in May, 1964.

The Community Citizen focused on local news of interest to its readership such as church schedules, deaths, births, marriages, and who visited whom in New Albany, Antioch, Iuka, and other northeast Mississippi towns. The newspaper was noted for its editorials, some by Jones and others reprinted from like-minded journals that supported the Jim Crow status quo and denounced integration. Letters to the editor corroborating Jones's position on racial issues were frequent. The most telling piece was the February 23, 1956 article entitled, "The Community Citizen and Its Editor Were Interviewed." The conversation was conducted by a young Jewish law student from New York, Charles Lipidary, whose mission was to "…interview the leading Negroes of Mississippi, to get their views of Segregation, Integration, and the Race Relation that exists in our State." In the interview Jones averred, "…that the NAACP is being sponsored as a means to help the Communists to overthrow our system of government, and that they hoped to use the Negro as a tool." When asked how African Americans were treated in the state he replied that, "…90% of the trouble that Negroes have with white people in Mississippi is produced by the Negro himself, or is agitated by outside meddlers…" In a separate article in the same issue, Jones acknowledged his support of the white supremacist Citizens' Council saying, "We cannot see why anyone can disagree with the policy of the Citizens Council. We join hands with the Citizens Council that we do not have integrated schools." Jones, along with other conservative black newspaper editors in the state such as Percy Greene of the Jackson Advocate and Harrison Henry Humes of the Delta Leader, received financial support from the state-run anti-integration Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission.

Provided By: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

About this Newspaper

Title

  • The Community Citizen (New Albany, Miss.) 19??-19??

Dates of Publication

  • 19??-19??

Created / Published

  • New Albany, Miss. : J.W. Jones

Headings

  • -  African Americans--Mississippi--Newspapers
  • -  African Americans
  • -  Mississippi
  • -  United States--Mississippi--Union--New Albany

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Semimonthly
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format from the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 7, no. 24 (Nov. 17, 1955).

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn88067103

OCLC Number

  • 17388230

ISSN Number

  • 2694-6394

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 Community Citizen New Albany, Miss. 19??-19??. (New Albany, MS), 19??. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn88067103/.

APA citation style:

(19??) The Community Citizen New Albany, Miss. 19??-19??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn88067103/.

MLA citation style:

The Community Citizen New Albany, Miss. 19??-19??. (New Albany, MS) 19??. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn88067103/.