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The Louisiana Weekly: Still a chronicle for Black New Orleans [1]

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Date: 2024-06-21  

For close to 100 years, the Louisiana Weekly has chronicled the lives of Black people in New Orleans. Orlando Capitola Ward Taylor partnered with Constant Charles Dejoie to start the newspaper despite the tumultuous times of the 1920s.

Before then, news coverage of the Black community did not exist.

“It was this era wherein our daily city newspapers, The Times-Picayune and States-Item, completely ignored us as a people and the rich community from whence we came, “ Lolita V. Cherrie wrote in a Creole Genealogical and Historical Association blog post. “It was only through our local Louisiana Weekly…would we find ourselves and not images of who we should be.”

Born in Huntsville, Texas in 1891, Taylor wore many professional hats. He received a bachelor’s degree from Wiley College in 1913. He also studied at Columbia and Xavier universities before becoming a New Orleans teacher in 1915.

Taylor was 33 when the first issue of the Louisiana Weekly was published on Sept. 19, 1925 as the New Orleans Herald.

“By October 17, 1925, the newspaper had 4,500 subscribers, which its founders called a record in Negro Journalism,” according to the Amistad Research Center.

After leaving the publication in 1927, Taylor returned to his career in education, serving as a teacher and principal for 35 years. During those same years, he edited the New Orleans edition of the Pittsburg Courier; was a reporter for the Associated Negro Press; started his own public relations firm; became a published author, radio and TV personality; and served as state deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Division of Savings Bonds.

A member of the Original Illinois Club and Bunch Club, Taylor attained the highest degree as a Prince Hall mason.



Taylor, who died Sept. 29, 1979, is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in New Orleans.

For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/06/21/bitd-the-louisiana-weekly-orlando-c-w-taylor/

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