Fortune, Timothy Thomas, 1856-1928

T. Thomas Fortune was the foremost African-American journalist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He served as an editor, publisher, writer, orator and civil rights leader, using his position at a series of black newspapers in New York City as the leading spokesman and defender of the rights of African Americans in both the South and the North.

Fortune's journalism career began in Florida, he moved to New York in 1881, and founded the "New York Freeman" in 1884 (renamed the "New York Age" in 1887). His book, "Black and White: Land, Labor and Politics in the South" was published in 1884. Fortune was known for his editorials that condemned discrimination, lynching, mob violence, and disenfranchisement, and for his uncompromising demand for full equality for all African Americans. He was also one of the few African Americans to be a frequent contributor to major white newspapers, writing for the "New York Sun and the "Boston Transcript."

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