Cecil Earl Newman founded Minnesota's most successful black newspapers. Despite many early financial setbacks, Newman believed that African-Americans in Minneapolis and St. Paul could support their own newspapers. While working as a Pullman porter, he contributed both copy and money to an early Minneapolis black paper. He founded the Minneapolis Spokesman and St. Paul Recorder in 1934 and served as editor and publisher until his death in 1976. Newman's papers covered the social scene of the Twin Cities black community while advocating civil rights and the cases of individuals facing discrimination. Newman also belonged to more than forty professional and civil-rights groups, and he was the first black president of the Minnesota Press Club.

Newman was born on 25 July 1903 in Kansas City, Missouri, the first child of Cora Lee Saunders Newman and Horatio Oscar Newman, who worked as an attendant at a private club. Horatio, whose parents had migrated to...