R. S. Jervay established the paper in 1927 and it continued under his son Thomas C. Jervay Sr. The Wilmington Journal is one of North Carolina’s oldest African American newspaper and has published stories on local, state, and national events for nearly a century. It succeeded the Daily Record that was destroyed in the Wilmington Coup of 1898. Fundraising efforts in 2021 helped save the newspaper's building at 412 South 7th Street. Mary Alice Thatch served as editor and covered the Wilmington 10 trial.
R.S. Jervay, Thatch’s grandfather, started The Wilmington Journal, originally calling it The Cape Fear Journal. Nearly three decades before, the Daily Record, another Black newspaper in Wilmington, had been targeted during the Wilmington Massacre of 1898. Thomas C. Jervay Sr., Thatch’s father, led the paper through the civil rights movement, including a 1973 firebombing of the newspaper’s offices. That period included the wrongful convictions of the Wilmington 10, nine Black men and one white woman, in connection with the 1971 firebombing of a Wilmington grocery store.

Alex Manly was the owner of "The Daily Record" before it was burned by white supremist in 1898 and was he forced out of town.

EBONY Magazine's first edition, which came out November 1, 1945.

John B. Russwurm and Freedom's Journal, the first Black newspaper.

Kenneth Edmonds, the current publisher of The Carolina Times.

Kenneth Edmonds, Publisher of The Carolina Times Dies, Possibly Marking The End Of The Historic Durham, NC Paper

Longtime Ebony and Jet magazines editor Lerone Bennett Jr, known for works such as 'Before the Mayflower' and 'Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream' .
Has died, (Feb 14, 2018), he was 89.

At the helm of The Wilmington Journal, Mary Alice Thatch pushed to cover issues affecting the Black community that had been ignored by the mainstream press.

Negro Digest Publishes Charles White’s ‘Images of Dignity’

WITH MASTERFUL STROKES, Charles White (1918-1979) captured the strength, character and complexity of African Americans in dramatic charcoal illustrations.

Exodus II, 1966, a four-color lithograph

The Drawings of Charles White
J'Accuse! No. 14. 1965. done in charcoal, Collection of Heritage Gallery (The drawing was nominated for an award by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in 1966. It is also called Spirituals)

The Drawings of Charles White
Young Farmer, 1953, done in crayon

The Drawings of Charles White
Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep, 1956, Collection of Harry Belafonte

The Drawings of Charles White
Song, 1952, done in oil, Collection of Harry Belafonte

The Drawings of Charles White
Flying Fish, 1961, done in charcoal

The Drawings of Charles White
Move On Up A Little Higher, 1961

Raleigh's first Black American weekly newspaper.

P.B. Young, The Dean of the American Black Press

The Carolina Times was founded as The Standard Advertiser in 1921 by Charles Arrant, who was killed in 1922. In 1927 the newspaper was purchased by North Carolina Central University alumnus Louis Austin in Durham, North Carolina. The paper continues to be published today by Austin's grandson, Kenneth Edmonds, and is the only black-owned and operated newspaper in Durham.

Thanks to funding from an IDEA grant from UNC Libraries, the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is pleased to now have the full run of 1951 issues of the Carolina Times digitized.

The Carolina Times-Durham, NC -Saturday December 2, 1950

Original Copies Of 1898 black-Owned Newspaper Rediscovered

Angry white supremacists burned down "The Daily Record," a black-owned newspaper, on Nov. 10, 1898.

Photograph: The North Carolina Mutual's three founders: John Merrick, C. C. Spaulding, and Dr. Aaron Moore, are pictured in this 1903 publication..