A third digital newspaper archive to highlight this month is the Library of Virginia’s Virginia Chronicle. This website contains over 480,000 issues and allows the user to search for newspaper title, location, date, keywords and curated categories. Along with a variety of Richmond, VA papers to choose from, Virginia Chronicle has an extensive collection of the Richmond Planet. The online archive contains 2083 issues of this historical African American newspaper, dating from November 16th, 1889, to December 27th, 1930.
Header for the Richmond Planet, from the September 10, 1921 issue.
Founded by thirteen former slaves, the Richmond Planet was first published in 1882, and initially edited by Yale Law School’s first African American Graduate, Edwin Archer Randolph. Two years later, twenty-one-year-old John Mitchell Jr. took over as editor and subsequently dedicated his life to activism via the newspaper, as well as politics and banking. The Richmond Planet was a powerful and potent voice for civil rights and racial equality, calling attention to acts of racial injustice and violence, as well as mobilizing Black readers to advocate for their futures and to protect themselves. The paper gained a wide reach throughout the American South. Mitchell, nicknamed the “Fighting Editor”, became known for his unwavering dedication to justice and outspoken editorials, undeterred by threats to his personal safety and livelihood. He remained as editor of the Planet until his death in 1929, and the newspaper continued until merging with the Afro-American in 1938. [Paragraph summarized from information on Virginia Chronicle’s Richmond Planet Information page, and Encyclopedia Virginia’s entry on John Mitchell Jr.]. Here are some clippings of the Richmond Planet acquired through the Virginia Chronicle website:
Richmond Planet, February 17, 1894, clipping from the “Editorial Opinion” section.
Richmond Planet, April 23, 1904, call to boycott local street cars due to the Virginia Passenger and Power Company’s new segregation policies.
Richmond Planet, September 10, 1921, announcement of John Mitchell Jr. 's nomination for Virginia governor on an alternative All-Black Republican ticket.
For more information on the Richmond Planet and John Mitchell, Jr.:
- Virginia Chronicle’s information page on the Richmond Planet
- Encyclopedia Virginia’s entry on John Mitchell Jr.
- “Birth of a Planet- Richmond on Paper” Documentary
- “The Jackson Ward Historic District (1978)” book via VCU Libraries’ Digital Collections
- Images of the Richmond Planet publishing house on the LOC’s Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
- Gabrielle Dietrich, VCU undergraduate majoring in International Studies and French with a minor in History. She graduates in the Spring of 2024
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