From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Our Colored Citizens, Colored Notes, and Colored News (Maysville Newspaper)
(start date: 1900 - end date: 1921)Around the middle of December, 1900, the Daily Public Ledger newspaper in Maysville, KY, had a column titled "Our Colored Citizens." The column was dedicated to brief notes about African Americans in the city. On page one of the December 15, 1900, issue is a request for submissions; the first sentence of the column reads, "Send in news if you want it printed." The column can be found on any of the four pages of the various newspaper issues, and in the last available papers, published in 1912, the column was still called "Our Colored Citizens."
The Daily Public Ledger was a four-page Republican newspaper that was founded in 1892. Thomas A. Davis was one of the eight original owners, and he would become the sole owner until 1907, when the paper was sold to Arthur F. Curran [sources: Chronicling America information website and A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians, vol. 3, by E. P. Johnson]. In 1912, Daily Public Ledger was changed to Public Ledger, and the column "Our Colored Citizens" was continued in the retitled newspaper up to March 22, 1920.
In some issues of the newspaper, the column was dedicated to a particular community, such as the "Mill Creek Colored News" printed in the Public Ledger on January 18, 1917, p.3. "Washington Colored News" was printed on April 24, 1919 on p.4, and also in the 1919 May and October issues. These were the last three "Colored News" columns printed in the Public Ledger.
There were also a few issues of the newspaper with the column titled "Colored Notes." The first was printed on March 3, 1920; the second on June 28, 1920; and the last on January 17, 1921.
Issues of the Daily Public Ledger and Public Ledger are available online at Kentucky Digital Newspaper Program [KDNP].