Chicago Bee
The Chicago Bee or Chicago Sunday Bee was a Chicago-based weekly newspaper founded by Anthony Overton, an African American, in 1925. Its readership was primarily African American and the paper was committed to covering "wholesome and authentic news",[1] and adopted a middle-class, conservative tone.[4] Politically, it was aligned with the Republican Party.[5] Overton established Half-Century Magazine in 1916 and it was published until 1925.
 The Chicago Bee Header | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet, later Tabloid[1] |
| Owner(s) | Anthony Overton |
| Founded | 1925[2] |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | 1947[3] |
| Headquarters | Chicago Bee Building, 3647 S. State Street, Chicago |
After sharing quarters with the Hygienic Company in the 1920s, the Bee moved into the new Chicago Bee Building, an Art Deco structure built between 1929 and 1931.[6] However, after Overton's bank failed in the 1930s, the two businesses shared quarters once again, as the Hygienic Company moved into the Bee building.[7]
Chandler Owen became editor of the Bee after moving to Chicago.[8] The Bee initially supported the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, which Owen supported, but later joined other publications including the Chicago Defender in opposing the union.[9]
Subsequent editors of the paper included Ida B. Wells and Olive Diggs.[10] The Bee's editorial staff was mostly female,[11] and the newspaper covered the black women's club movement extensively.[1] It distinguished itself from other newspapers in the Chicago black press in its promotion of black history and literature.[12][11]
The Bee sponsored the original "Mayor of Bronzeville" contest which led to the use of the term "Bronzeville" for the neighborhood.[1] The concept was originally suggested by theater editor James Gentry, who coined the term and had been sponsoring a beauty contest in the neighborhood since 1916.[13] When Gentry left the paper in 1932, he took his concept with him to the Chicago Defender, which continued the contests.[13]
The paper's founder and owner Anthony Overton was a wealthy industrialist, owning such concerns as the Overton Hygienic Company, a cosmetics firm.[14] He had also made a previous venture in publishing, in the form of the Half Century Magazine.[14] After Overton's death in 1946, the Bee was briefly continued by his sons in a tabloid format, but was unsuccessful.[1] It ceased publication in 1947.[3]
Very little of the Bee survives today, apart from the building it occupied. One historian was unable to find a single intact issue from the years 1925 to 1935.[15]
References
- Trodd 2011, p. 458.
- Mahoney 2001, p. 71.
- Grant & Grant 2013, p. 47.
- Reed 2011, p. 104.
- Capozolla 2004, p. 944.
- Reed 2011, p. 98.
- Ingham & Feldman 1994, p. 498.
- Trodd 2011, p. 4.
- Reed 2011, p. 129.
- Knupfer 2006, p. 5.
- Knupfer 2006, p. 64.
- Schlabach 2013, p. xv.
- Schlabach 2013, p. 19.
- Mahoney 2001, p. 70.
- Bates 2001, p. 203.
Works cited
- Bates, Beth Tompkins (2001). Pullman Porters and the Rise of Protest Politics in Black America, 1925-1945. ISBN 0807875368.
- Capozolla, Christopher (2004). "Owen, Chandler". Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: K-Y. ISBN 1579584586.
- Grant, Carl A.; Grant, Shelby J. (2013). The Moment: Barack Obama, Jeremiah Wright, and the Firestorm at Trinity United Church of Christ. ISBN 978-1442219977.
- Ingham, John N.; Feldman, Lynne B. (1994). "Overton, Anthony". African-American Business Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary. ISBN 0313272530.
- Knupfer, Anne Meis (2006). The Chicago Black Renaissance and Women's Activism. ISBN 0252072936.
- Mahoney, Olivia (2001). Douglas/Grand Boulevard: A Chicago Neighborhood. ISBN 0738518557.
- Reed, Christopher Robert (2011). The Rise of Chicago's Black Metropolis, 1920-1929. ISBN 978-0252093173.
- Savage, Beth L. (1994). African American Historic Places. ISBN 0471143456.
- Schlabach, Elizabeth (2013). Along the Streets of Bronzeville: Black Chicago's Literary Landscape.
- Trodd, Zoe (2011). "The Black Press and the Black Chicago Renaissance". In Tracy, Steven C. (ed.). Writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance. ISBN 978-0252093425.
- West, Sandra L. (2003). "Chicago". Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. ISBN 1438130171.