African American Collection: African American Media and Marketing Collections

Abstract

African American media has a long history that goes back to the Revolutionary era of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Contemporary communication vehicles have always been used to broaden methods of connection. Handbills and broadsides were used to promote ideas and actions pertaining to African American interests, notably during the anti-slavery movement and by the Underground Railroad. Pittsburgh can claim the first African American newspaper to be published west of the Allegheny Mountains with Martin R. Delany’s Mystery. Today the communication vehicles are different since technology has drastically changed the media and marketing landscape. The need to preserve the history of media and marketing is important to understand how information was communicated. Further, African Americans in media and marketing have made a significant impact on life in Western Pennsylvania professionally, politically, socially, and economically.

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