We Are Seeking to Throw Off a Tremendous Load

| roudane
"Timely Warning to Union Men. The New Orleans Convention or Massacre: Which is the More Illegal." Harper's Weekly, September 8, 1866. Image collection of Mark C. Roudané
“Timely Warning to Union Men. The New Orleans Convention or Massacre: Which is the More Illegal.” Harper’s Weekly, September 8, 1866. Image collection of Mark C. Roudané

#‎TDIH. America’s first Black daily, February 4, 1869: “We are not in the condition of professional reformers who from a comfortable distance look off upon the evils of society and descant in splendid rhetoric upon equality and fraternity and the rights of colored men. We plead for equality not as philosophers (who) in their closet write beautiful essays about abstract principles. WE ARE SEEKING TO THROW OFF A TREMENDOUS LOAD WHICH HAS BEEN OUR INHERITANCE FOR CENTURIES. With us it is a reality and no abstraction.”

Black, proud, and free, the Tribune crusaders risked their lives to publish a journal like no other. For the first time, New Orleanians of African descent openly spoke against their oppressors. They faced some of the nation’s worst violence, yet remained steadfast in the fight.

Advertisement