Ida B. Wells-Barnett is on the Google homepage today, with her important work as an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, early civil rights leader, anti-lynching actibist, and more, with a quick review easily available on Wikipedia. It’s great to see her on the homepage of Google for her work. It’s also a great reminder of the importance of newspapers and journalism as the fourth estate, “a societal or political force or institution whose influence is not consistently or officially recognized” (Wikipedia). As libraries continue to digitize historic newspapers, and to digitally curate and preserve current newspapers and other news media, the critical responsibility and role of the news for social and political power are ever present. The history of newspapers in particular is deeply connected with the history of democracy and civil rights, as are told again and again in the pages and newspaper bios from within Chronicling America.
2015-07-16