Black American History in Utah: A Guide to the Collections

Attached note: "Utah Black newspapers; facsimiles; courtesy of Curly Jones (librarian Marriott Library)"
|| An incomplete run of photocopies of two African American newspapers from the early twentieth century; shelved in oversize.

We have photocopies of three issues of the Utah Plain Dealer though none of them appear to be complete. The third issue has been altered and contains handwritten headlines and captions along with what seem to be personal/family photographs. The only extant version of the Plain Dealer that I have found is held in the Church History Archive and is available digitally.

We have several photocopies of interior sections of a newspaper that do not include dates or paper titles. Three or four appear to be from the Utah Plain Dealer based on advertisements; the rest have notes appended with possible dates and abbreviations (perhaps of titles?).

We have three photocopies of a front page from The Beacon Light from December 4, 19?? (the date is cut off).

We also have the first issue of another paper from a similar timeframe, called The Western Light. This is an original and can be viewed in the reading room.

The Broad Ax has been digitized on Utah Digital Newspapers.

We also have a run of The Broadax from 1974-1975. The first issue of the paper explains the project:
“Between 1895 and 1899, the earliest known black newspaper in Utah, the Broadax, was published. The paper experienced an early death…reportedly all copies were burned or thrown in the river. No known copies exist in Utah today. (Research has indicated the original Broadax was relocated in Chicago and there are microfilm of the early Utah copies. The University Library has ordered these films.) This quarter, black students at the University of Utah, historical motivated, are ‘exhuming’ the Broadax as a current newspaper, which will address itself to black students, black faculty and the black community in Utah.”

The 1974/75 run of The Broadax is available to be viewed in the reading room.