Delaney was the first Negro editor to be sued for libel. He was fined for his statements; but his popularity was so great that the fine was paid by popular subscription.
The Mystery ceased publication under that name in 1848, at which time it was purchased by the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Statement by N. Y. Sun, Origin of The Ram’s Horn
As the result of a statement by the editor of The New York Sun, “The Sun shines for all white men and not for colored men,” in January, 1847, The Ram’s Horn was begun. Its editor was Willis Hodges, who according to The Afro-American Press and Its Editor[2], furnished the money necessary to publish the first issue by whitewashing in New York City for two months. Within a short period of time the circulation of the paper reached two thousand five hundred copies. The subscription price was $1.50 to subscribers within the state, and $1 a year to those outside the state. Its motto was—“We are men, and therefore interested in whatever concerns men.” The publication was a five column folio, printed on both sides. It suspended publication in June 1848.
[1] March 21, 1828, the name was changed to Rights of All.
[2] Published by I. Garland Penn in 1891.
CHAPTER II
THE ABOLITIONIST PRESS (1847-1865)
Douglass Founds North Star
With the founding of the North Star, at Rochester. N. Y., November 1, 1847, a new era in Negro Journalism was begun. The new paper was conducted on a much higher plane than any of the preceding publications. The editor of the North Star was Frederick Douglass, a man who stood head and shoulders above his colleagues. In fact, Douglass is in Negro Journalism what Bennett, or Pulitzer, or Greeley, or Dana is in American Journalism. The personal fame of the man gave his paper at once a place among the first journals of the country.