Title

January 16, 1903
- Ayer Annual1
- Content: Republican
- Established: 1896
- Pages: 4; 8 (changed in Apr. 1903); some special issues of 30+ pages
- Size: 18 x 24
- Editor: H.R. Cayton
- Publisher: H.R. Cayton
- Frequency: Weekly, Friday, AM paper
- Coverage
- Region: King county
- County: King county
- Unique ids
- LCCN: sn84025811
- OCLC: 10328970
Digitization plan
2008-2009 grant
- Plan to digitize 1900-1913
- Sample reel - UW Microfilm # A3151, dates 1896.02.26 - 1902.12.26 (includes two issues of Daily republican and two issues of Republican).
- Reels ordered by UW
History
Essay Draft
Final
Seattle Republican - final draftDraft
The
Seattle Republican wa
s Seattle'
s fir
st truly
succe
ssful African American new
spaper. Out of
seven black new
spaper
s to appear in the city between 1891 and 1901, it alone
survived into the early 20th century. Fir
st i
ssued on May 19, 1894 and continuing until 1913, the paper (initially called
simply the
Republican) repre
sented the political view
s of the Republican Party, but not without critical
scrutiny by it
s publi
sher and editor Horace Cayton
Sr. Begun a
s a weekly, the
Seattle Republican aimed for both a national and biracial audience, reporting on event
s well beyond the border
s of Wa
shington
State. It covered national political new
s in
some depth, and i
s a particularly rich
single
source of information concerning the treatment and
succe
sse
s of African American
s all around the country, particularly in the
South. But it
s primary focu
s wa
s local party politic
s and
Seattle'
s African American community. It became a daily in February 1896 in order to publi
sh a newly revi
sed City Charter and help the daily
Seattle Post Intelligencer outmaneuver it
s rival the
Seattle Times, but it quickly reverted to a weekly a month later and remained
so to the end of it
s run. The
story of the
Seattle Republican i
s the
story of Horace Ro
scoe Cayton. Born into
slavery in 1859, he became a college educated intellectual and made hi
s paper a
strong and re
spected voice in the rapidly growing city of
Seattle. A
ssi
sted by hi
s wife
Su
sie Revel
s (her
self a publi
shed author), he empha
sized the advantage
s of thi
s booming frontier city, growing pro
sperou
s a
s a
supply center for the gold field
s in the Klondyke and later in Ala
ska.
Cayton u
sed hi
s paper to encourage African American
s to migrate we
st where opportunity wa
s not cru
shed by prejudice, or at lea
st not openly denied. Employment wa
s the big i
ssue in the Pacific Northwe
st, not race relation
s. He never failed to recognize white citizen
s who treated black
s fairly, nor he
stitate to criticize African Americand who failed to live up to hi
s standard
s. Cayton
spoke for the New Negro,
saw education and determination a
s the key
s to realizing the American Dream. A
s did many black new
spaper editor
s, Cayton worked clo
sely with the Republican Party and promoted it
s political agenda. But a
s Seattle grew,
so did graft, pro
stitution and political corruption. The paper took on thi
s growing crime problem and Cayton occa
sionally paid the price for hi
s hone
st reporting on powerful local citizen
s. Arre
st, law
suit
s and other ploy
s were u
sed again
st him, but the general public, once appri
sed of the fact
s, u
sually rallied to hi
s cau
se. Reader
ship wa
s racially mixed although circulation remained mode
st, probably never exceeding about 2,000
sub
scription
s.
Cayton wa
s an avid con
sumer of all
sort
s of new
s coverage and during the 1890'
s hi
s wa
s the only We
st Coa
st paper regularly receiving cable and telegraphic new
s report
s from both the
New York Sun and
New York World. He produced
several regular column
s; "Political Pot Pie," analy
sed local politic
s while the "Afro American" and "Brother in Black" u
sually focu
sed on national event
s. "Realm of Religion" commented on local, national and international church matter
s. The paper included local Jewi
sh community new
s and took up the cau
se of Japane
se immigrant
s in California. Theatre and mu
sical event
s were covered. A
s Seattle matured into a more co
smopolitan city, race relation
s hardened. In 1912 Cayton wrote: "The Negro in the United
State
s i
s half free and half
serf. Tho
se of them in the North, Ea
st and We
st are theoretically free and enjoy equal privilege
s before the law, while tho
se of them in the
South are
serf
s with no right
s which the white man i
s bound to or doe
s re
spect. Thi
s country will be rent a
sunder
sooner or later if it trie
s to maintain
such a
state of affair
s. The que
stion
s involving human right
s can not be
settle by compormi
se
s [sic], but mu
st be
settled on the
square and in the open. Will you do it?" (Augu
st 9, 1912,p.8) But Cayton, hi
s family and hi
s paper faced mounting difficultie
s. The Republican Party al
so faltered. In 1913 the
Seattle Republican cea
sed publication. Cayton'
s political activi
sm continued but wa
s often
stymied. He edited
several more paper
s (
Cayton's Weekly,
Cayton's Monthly and
Cayton's Yearbook) but never regained the prominence he had once enjoyed. He died in 1940, leaving behind a publi
shed record of hi
s unique and
significant contribution
s to the development of a city and it
s ethnic population
s.
Research
- N.W. Ayer & Son's American newspaper annual -- 1897 -- 828
- NDNP Candidate Title List (Appendix A1.2)
- Chronicling America record (LOC) - Seattle Republican
- WorldCat record - Seattle Republican
- WSL record - Seattle Republican
- UW record - Seattle Republican
TopReel
- Filmed by: UW (OCLC)
- Positives held by: UW (1908-1913 also held by WSL)
- Negatives held by: UW
- UW Holdings:
- Location: MicNews
- Call Number: Microfilm A3151
- Lib. Has Feb. 23, 1900- May 2, 1913, Incomplete
Notes
Duplication and te
sting paid for by UW
lrobinson, 2009/03/23 11:06Data re-batched WA-NDNP_DB_20090312 and uploaded, OCLC fixed reel date
s, comma
s and character return
s, I fixed dateA
sPrinted for 1900-08-05 and marc org code
s in databa
se
lrobinson, 2009/03/12 10:39Film eval data batched (W
SL_Metadata_2009-02-03) and
sent to OCLC Feb. 03, 2009
lrobinson, 2009/02/09 16:19Evaluation of film i
s fini
shed -
see re
sult
s below
lrobinson, 2008/12/19 16:14Going through the fir
st reel and notice that the fir
st title for Feb. 26, 1896 i
s the Daily Republican. Re
searching if thi
s wa
s an earlier title or a
separate paper.
lrobinson, 2008/11/14 14:08Refilmed. Ma
ster
s and
service copie
s held by OCLC. Holding
s li
st in UW catalog doe
sn't
seem to match excatly. Date
s begin Feb. 26, 1896.
lrobinson, 2008/11/10 10:50 TopEvaluation
Link to
Seattle Republican Spreadsheets (Google)Totals
Top