The issues would be digitized as part of a project to create digital archives of the African-American newspaper.

ST. PETERSBURG – The Nelson Poynter Memorial Library and USF St. Petersburg have partnered to create digital archives of Pinellas County’s historic African-American newspaper, The Weekly Challenger.

Pinellas County is asking residents to take part in this important initiative by donating back issues published from the 1960s through the 1990s for digitizing.

“The Weekly Challenger has offered an important voice for Pinellas County’s African American communities since 1967,” said Poynter Library special collections librarian Jim Schnur. “We deeply appreciate anyone who has older issues to share, or even clippings from older issues, so we can try our best to preserve as much of the paper as possible.”

Anyone interested in providing issues for the archive should contact Schnur at (727) 873-4094, or email the newspaper at weeklychallengerarchive@gmail.com. This significant reservoir of Pinellas County’s cultural heritage will be digitally preserved through funds recently provided by the Florida Legislature.

The Weekly Challenger, started in 1967 by Cleveland Johnson, is an African-American, family-owned newspaper published in St. Petersburg. In 2013, The Weekly Challenger transferred many of its historical issues and photograph collections to the Poynter Library. In recent years, the newspaper has expanded its content and reach by adding national news to the website, theweeklychallenger.com.

To learn more about The Weekly Challenger digital initiative, watch the hour-long “Speaking of History” lecture recorded last month at Heritage Village on PCC-TV. The video can be found here: youtube.com.

For information about the Poynter Library, go to lib.usfsp.edu.

The Weekly Challenger | Nelson Poynter Library | USF St. Pete | TB Reporter

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