The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder (MSR), the state’s oldest Black-owned newspaper, is on its way to receiving national recognition. Along with the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center and the former home of civil rights leader Harry Davis Sr., the MSR has been nominated by the City of Minneapolis for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.
For nearly 90 years, the MSR has chronicled the lives, struggles, and triumphs of African Americans in Minnesota. If approved, the designation would place MSR among the few Black-owned newspapers nationwide recognized as sites of national historic significance.
“This would shine a long overdue light on the decades of work the MSR has done to uplift African American voices and secure its place on the national stage,” said Tracey Williams-Dillard, CEO and publisher of MSR, and granddaughter of founder Cecil E. Newman…