When Robert L. Vann took over the Pittsburgh Courier from Edward Harleston, not even he could have imagined what this paper was going to become.
Joined by Ira Lewis in 1914 and Bill Nunn in 1920, these three formed a trinity that created the greatest Black newspaper this country has ever known. Whereas most Black newspapers would have been happy with a 20,000 circulation, they grew it to more than 200,000 before Vann’s death in 1940.
Upon his death Vann hand-picked Lewis as his successor to manage the paper, naming him editor, while Nunn would handle the editorial side. Even though Mrs. Jesse Vann took over the ownership, and title of president and treasurer of the board, she had no prior experience having been a housewife before. However, she understood that in order for the paper to continue to function as the leading Black paper in the country she needed to rely on the two parts of the trinity left, Nunn and Lewis.
The two working smoothly with Jesse Vann built the paper to more than 480,000 and around 350 employees in the Pittsburgh shop and probably around 1,000 or more overall nationally during the 1940s.
The Double V campaign during the early 1940s was credited with helping raise the circulation because the paper encouraged Blacks to fight in World War II while still fighting for their freedom at home. The Courier did what most newspapers were created to do, be a crusader for the people. Because TV hadn’t started yet, and radio and daily newspapers had only token Blacks if any; the best of the best worked for the Courier, forming the most creative and informative newspaper in this country’s history.
But in 1948 Lewis died, leaving Nunn as the lone trinity member. Earl Hord, a long time advertising executive with the paper, took over as general manager from 1952 through 1955, and then the board voted politician W. Beverly Carter Jr. as publisher in 1955 through 1960. One of the first moves he made was to force Nunn out. With Nunn’s departure the breakup of the trinity was complete and the demise of the Courier, and the National Courier in particular was well on its way. Even though Nunn returned in 1960 through 1964 as executive editor, he and new owner S. B. Fuller didn’t see eye to eye. Fuller’s new philosophy was to move away from crime coverage and crusading to good news and depending on other organizations to crusade. And if Blacks were having a hard time it was their fault.
Even though the paper had fallen to 100,000 in 1960, it was still the largest in the country and had the potential to grow once again with the proper leadership. Because the 1960s were the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. leading the way, Blacks, first in the South then throughout the country, rose up against segregation and discrimination; but with Fuller at the helm, the Courier never really took advantage of this opportunity to rise again. This led to the national side of the paper, which was where the bulk of the circulation was, gradually fading away, until today only the city paper remains. According to Bill Nunn Jr., the peak of the local paper was around 33,000.
There were many things that led to the Courier’s drop in circulation: the invention of television during the 1950s; the installation of the new printing presses leading to the paper becoming a union shop which yanked the payrolls up; the decline in railway transportation which eliminated most of the Pullman Porters who distributed the paper throughout the South; the emergence of Ebony and Jet magazines; the emergence of Black newspapers throughout the South during the ‘60s; the changing of how newspapers made their money from circulation to advertising; the sale to S. B. Fuller, who had no clue as to what a newspaper was all about. But the main cause was the death of visionaries such as Vann and Lewis which led to the shackling of Nunn. These were men who saw the opportunities and took advantage of them, compared to many who followed that did not have the vision and/or the cash to keep the paper, especially the National Editions alive.
In 1910 Vann saw a need to assimilate and distribute information to the Black community of Pittsburgh and later the entire country. He saw the need to not just get information to the elite Blacks, or an avenue for poetry and other elitist writing, but something for everyone. His vision included sports, entertainment of all kinds, comic strips, religion, society, features on successful Blacks, as well as hardcore news of all kinds. Blacks were starving for a Black newspaper for and about them. So when Vann provided it to them, they gobbled it up like a starving child. He realized he couldn’t do it by himself, nor did he have all the answers, so he surrounded himself with the best he could find, Nunn on the editorial side, and Lewis on the business side. They in turn surrounded themselves with the best of the best, thus creating something that will never be matched again in history.
Some of the people who led the Pittsburgh Courier over the years were: Robert L. Vann, editor and publisher; Jesse L. Vann, president and treasurer; Daisy E. Lampkin, VP; Ira Lewis, manager; William Nunn Sr, managing editor, executive editor; P. L. Prattis, executive editor, city editor; Earl Hord, ad manager, business manager, general manager; J. Walker Carroll, ad manager; George F. Brown, magazine editor, managing editor; W. Beverly Carter Jr., publisher; Harold L. Keith, city editor, managing editor; Frank Bolden, feature editor, city editor; George Barbour, city editor; Robert M. Ratcliffe, news editor; Toki Schalk Johnson, women’s editor; Rev. Bert Logan, religious editor; Bill Nunn Jr., sports editor; Hazel Garland, associate editor magazine section, city editor, editor; Sam Milai and Wilbert Holloway, art; Wendell Smith, sports editor; Chester Washington, news, sports; Ralph Koger, city editor; S. B. Fuller, chairman of the board, publisher; to name a few.
(Reprinted from Courier Nov. 17-23, 2010 edition.)
