Louisville Defender photographs
Collection
Identifier: 1985_026-PA
Approximately 16,000 photographs from the files of the Louisville Defender, an African American newspaper published in Louisville beginning in 1933. Subjects include local activities, persons, places, politicians, the newspaper’s annual Black Expo and national figures such as Martin Luther King.
These photographs were received from Defender publisher Frank L. Stanley's widow, Vivian Stanley, and son, Kenneth Stanley, after his death. They were received as part of Frank Stanley's collection (most of which is housed in University Archives & Records Center), but have historically been housed and described separately. This finding aid preserves that practice.
This collection is open to researchers.
27.875 linear feet (Processed materials: 34 manuscript boxes, 1 flat. Unprocessed materials: 8 records center boxes)
The Louisville Defender was founded in 1933 by Alvin Bowman, with the encouragement and financial backing of John Sengstacke and the Chicago Defender. Public service projects quickly made the paper an important part of Louisville's black community. From 1936 to 1974 Frank L. Stanley, Sr., through the paper and through his many activities, came to personify the Defender in the local and national communities. College-trained as an English teacher, he was a founder and five-time president of the National Newspaper Publishers' Association; twice national president of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity; vice-chairman of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights; commissioned in 1946 and 1948 by the United States Secretaries of War and Defense to inspect troop conditions in occupied Europe; a leader in advocating open access to public accommodations in the 1960s; and in 1962 was invited by the United States Department of State to conduct journalism seminars in Africa.
These photographs were received from Defender publisher Frank L. Stanley's widow, Vivian Stanley, and son, Kenneth Stanley, after his death. They were received as part of Frank Stanley's collection (most of which is housed in University Archives & Records Center), but have historically been housed and described separately.
Part of the University of Louisville Archives and Special Collections Repository