From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)

Reid, Daniel Isaiah

(born: 1879 - died: 1950) Daniel I. Reid was a journalist, politician, and school teacher in Lexington, KY. He was one of the first African American news reporters for the Lexington Herald as early as 1934 and up to his death in 1950, according to Polk's Lexington (Fayette County, Ky) City Directory. Reid was born in Lexington, the son of Edward and Lizzie Eubank Reid [source: Death Certificate]. In 1905 when the local media reacted to the death of James Piersall with advice on how best to improve Negro society and decrease crime, Daniel Reid advocated that Negro school teachers teach from the Bible so that Negro students could become moral and responsible adults.

In 1907, Daniel Reid, an unapologetic Democrat, wrote an editorial praising the good deeds of the city leaders and administrators [Democrats] toward Colored people in Lexington. Reid was a member of the Colored branch of the Democratic Party in Lexington. From 1907-1910, he was principal of the short-lived Forest Hill School in Lexington. He had taught at other schools in Lexington and would do the same after Forest Hill School was closed in 1910.

In 1909, Daniel Reid was at the center of the injunction W. D. Johnson had filed against both Reid and Wade Carter. Johnson, a dedicated Republican, was editor of the Lexington Standard and had leased the newspaper plant from Wade Carter up to May 1910. Following the election of President Taft, Johnson was assigned to the General Land Office in Washington, D.C., and on a return visit to Lexington he found that Wade Carter had taken possession of the newspaper plant and turned it over to Daniel Reid, who was publishing the Lexington Standard as a campaign publication for the Democrats. Fayette Circuit Court granted an injunction against Reid, stopping him from having anything to do with the newspaper plant or the newspaper.

During the days that the Lexington Standard was closed by the injunction, the newspaper was printed by the Lexington Leader. W. D. Johnson was not able to resume the newspaper and forced to suspend it indefinitely because the building where the paper was printed was slated for other purposes. In 1911, Daniel Reid attempted to revive the Lexington Standard as a Democrat newspaper but was unsuccessful; the Lexington Standard would never be revived. In March 1912, Reid established The Lexington Weekly News with Edward D. Willis as publisher and A. W. Davis as his business officer.

The following year, Reid purchased a meat store at 753 N. Limestone and moved it to the corner of 7th and Mill Streets. Six months later, he attempted to open a night school for Negroes. In October 1913, a branch of the Negro Business League was formed in Lexington with Daniel Reid serving as the temporary secretary. The Lexington Weekly News had closed, and Reid had established a new newspaper, The Colored Citizen. [There had been two earlier African American newspapers with the same name in 1866, one in Cincinnati and the other in Louisville.] Daniel Reid had also served as editor of the Colored column in the Tribune, was the printer for the Christian Soldier newspaper, and had served as chair of the Sunday School Convention of the Colored Christian Churches.

Daniel Reid was the husband of Cora Reid, and the couple had several children. They lived at 705 Dakota Street. Daniel Reid died July 5, 1950 and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

For more, see "People's Views," Lexington Leader, 2/10/1905, p. 7; "Negro teacher," Lexington Leader, 10/21/1907; the injunction articles in the Lexington Leader - 10/25/1909, p. 7 - 10/26/1909, p. 3 - 10/27/1909, p. 9; "Editor Johnson," Lexington Leader, 11/6/1909, p. 2; "Democratic Negro editor," Lexington Leader, 9/1/1911, p. 1; "Colored Notes," Lexington Leader, 6/9/1912, p. 8; "Night school for Colored people," Lexington Leader, 1/22/1913, p. 3; National Negro Business League," Lexington Leader, 10/5/1913, p. 2; "New Colored paper," Lexington Leader, 10/22/1913, p. 11; "Colored paper," Lexington Leader, 10/26/1913, p. 7; and "The Lexington Weekly News...," Freeman, 3/30/1912, p. 2.