Twin-City herald (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1927-1940  Browse the title

Twin-City Herald, published weekly in Minneapolis, Minnesota between 1927 and 1940, was one of many short-lived African American newspapers issued in the Twin Cities in the 1920s and 1930s, with each lasting an average of only 5 years. What distinguishes the Herald is the notability of its co-founder, Cecil E. Newman, who later became a leader in the Twin Cities Black community and publisher and editor of the influential and long-running African American newspapers the Minneapolis Spokesman and the St. Paul Recorder.

Newman had moved to Minneapolis from Kansas City in 1922, working as a busboy and Pullman porter. In April 1927 he and printer Joshua E. Perry launched Twin-City Herald, Newman’s first newspaper, with Newman as editor and Perry as publisher. Perry had learned the printing trade at Storer College in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, his hometown. He was the first Black printer to work on the Minneapolis Tribune and had operated his own Perry Printing Company since 1919.

The four-page, six-column Herald featured coverage of local and national news related to the African American community and to racism and racial issues and local African American society events. A particular area of editorial concern was job discrimination in the Twin Cities. During its 13 year run, Twin-City Herald was known as a training ground for young Black journalists who went on to form the backbone of the African American press in Minnesota and the Midwest through the 20th Century. In addition to Cecil Newman, this included Estyr Bradley (Peake), who chronicled African American life as a society reporter and editor at many Twin Cities African American newspapers until the 1980s.

Cecil Newman continued as editor of Twin-City Herald until 1934 when he left to start the Spokesman and the Recorder newspapers; Perry then took over the editorship. Twin-City Herald continued in publication until July 1940, when Perry sold the newspaper to young white journalist Cormac A. Suel following publication of the July 13, 1940 issue. Suel, who acquired the newspaper for its mailing rights, dropped the African American focus and moved publication to Robbinsdale, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. He published one remaining issue under the masthead Twin-City Herald, dated July 20, 1940, before changing the title to Robbinsdale American. At the time of its sale Twin-City Herald was the oldest Black newspaper in Hennepin County, Minnesota.

Perry immediately launched another African American newspaper, Twin-City Leader, which published its first issue on July 20, 1940, and remained in publication until August 1941.