Michigan Chronicle - Early History

Early History

The Chronicle's first editor was Louis E. Martin, whom Sengstacke sent to Detroit on June 6, giving him a $5.00 raise above his $15-per-week salary at the Chicago Defender, $10 in cash and a one-way bus ticket. The Chronicle's first issue had a circulation of 5,000 copies. In 1944, long-time publisher Longworth Quinn joined Martin at the Chronicle. Quinn became a leader in Detroit's African-American business and church groups, and those groups supported the Chronicle.

The Chronicle garnered national attention in its early years for its "radical" approach to politics -- advocacy of organized labor and the Democratic Party. Albert Dunmore, who edited the Detroit edition of the Pittsburgh Courier in the 1940s, remarked in 2010 that most African-American newspapers of the time took the opposite stance, because of "the anti-Black attitude prevalent in the organized labor ranks and the heavily southern influence in the Democratic Party".

James Ingram of the Michigan Chronicle was one of several negotiators involved in the Attica Prison Riots in September 1971.

In 2001, Detroit City Council member Kay Everett credited the Michigan Chronicle with having played a key role in local civil rights struggles of the 20th century, such as supporting the election of Mayor Coleman A. Young and, especially, reporting on violence against African-Americans:

"It was a lone voice in the wilderness when police brutality against African Americans was commonplace", Everett wrote. "Its coverage of STRESS, the Detroit Police Department's controversial undercover unit, should have won the paper a Pulitzer Prize. During STRESS's four-year run, White STRESS officers shot and killed 23 young Black men. Most shot in the back. The Michigan Chronicle was the only newspaper in the city that told the truth about the killings."

Originally located at 1727 St. Antoine Street, the Michigan Chronicle is now located at 479 Ledyard Street.