Historic African American newspaper recently added to the Arizona Memory Project

PHOENIX – In 1929, Ayra Hackett was the only African American female newspaper owner in the State of Arizona and one of just a few in the United States. That year she founded The Arizona Gleam, a newspaper that included news from the First Colored Baptist Church and the African American community as a whole.

Based out of Phoenix, The Arizona Gleam also included news from around Arizona and the world, while highlighting achievements of local community members.

“The Arizona Gleam, much like African American newspapers across the U.S., served an important function by providing knowledge about African American communities and helping to establish an identity for those communities,” Sativa Peterson, National Digital Newspaper Program Grant Project Director and News Content Program Manager for the State of Arizona Research Library, said. “Plus, it was published by a nearly all-female staff, which is quite remarkable for the 1930s!”

This is one of the approximately 40 titles being digitized his year. The Arizona Gleam on the Arizona Memory Project includes issues from 1929 through 1937, the entire era in which the paper was published. It will be available indefinitely and can be viewed for free on any digital device at https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/digital/collection/theazgleam.

For questions about this or any digital collection, or for cultural institutions interested in sharing collections on the Arizona Memory Project, contact [email protected].

The Arizona Memory Project provides free online access to the wealth of primary sources in Arizona archives, museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions. This project is supported by the Arizona State Library, Archives & Public Records, a division of the Secretary of State, with federal funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services

-30-

Arizona Secretary of State

1700 W. Washington Street

Phoenix, AZ 85007