Since the first black American newspaper, Freedom Journal, was founded in 1827, publications across the nation have given voice to the black American experience. Pioneering black Americans, men and women, paved the way for others to tell their stories, to describe experiences and current events from their own perspectives. Similar to religion and music, the publications helped instill a sense of community and collective awareness. Many credit the longstanding Chicago Defender, for example, with initiating the Great Migration of black Americans from the South to the North after the Civil War. Stanley Nelson’s film spotlights the history of a variety of significant papers, tracing owners and writers, like Fredrick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, and Robert S. Abbott. Through narration, archival footage, and unprecedented interviews with surviving publishers and writers, some of whom are now no longer living, The Black Press offers an essential document of the brave journalists whose impact has been long overlooked.  ST