Nikole Hannah-Jones Among Founders Reviving USA’s First Anti-Slavery Newspaper ‘The Emancipator’

The United State’s first abolitionist newspaper against slavery is being revived and reimagined.

Named The Emancipator, the publication is being re-established by Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research and The Boston Globe, according to the Associated Press. 

The newspaper was originally founded in 1820 — over 200 years ago — in Jonesborough, Tenessee by iron manufacturer Elihu Embree. 

A digital collection of a monthly newsletter from that time period put out by The University of Tennessee’s library detailed that Embree’s goal in starting The Empancipator was to “advocate the abolition of slavery and to be a repository of tracts on that interesting and important subject.”

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With that in mind, the newspaper’s new website details its contemporary resurgence is geared towards “reframing the conversation on racial justice and equity to hasten the reality of an antiracist society.”

It aims to put a mix of “academic expertise” and “lived experiences” into the ongoing conversation on racial justice via critical and sharp voices, debates and “evidence-based opinions.

The newspaper also wants to showcase “missing and underamplified voices — past and present — and what they reveal about the way forward.”

The Emancipator‘s new founders and advisory board include Ibram X. Kendi, Kimberly Atkins Stohr, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Joy-Ann Reid and co-editors in chief Deborah Douglas and Amber Payne.

“I like to say it’s anti-racism, every day, on purpose,” said Douglas, an author and former journalism professor. “We are targeting anyone who wants to be a part of the solution to creating an anti-racist society because we think that leads us to our true north, which is democracy.”

“Everybody is invited to this conversation. We want it to be accessible, digestible and, hopefully, actionable,” the scholar noted.

Additionally, Payne added: “Our country is so polarized that partisanship is trumping science and trumping historical records… These ongoing crusades against affirmative action, against critical race theory are not going away. That drumbeat is continuing and so therefore our drumbeat needs to continue.” 

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