Sepia (magazine)

Sepia Magazine was a black-owned photojournalistic magazine styled like "Life" and sometimes compared to "Ebony". It was published in Fort Worth, Texas. It featured articles based primarily on the achievements of African Americans.

The magazine, which made its debut in 1947 under the name "Negro Achievements", often exposed the obstacles facing blacks, from lynching and Ku Klux Klan operations in its earlier publications to the later rise in violence among blacks. "Sepia" focused on various aspects of African American culture, including churches, civil rights, and education. With the goal of fostering leadership, It also published serious articles on the development of black institutions, including colleges and universities.

The magazine had a circulation of approximately 160,000 in 1983, when its publisher was Beatrice Pringle. In the early 1990s no further information on the magazine was available, and it was not listed in reference sources about United States magazines.

The research for the investigative journalism book Black Like Me was originally published in Sepia. Sepia Magazine was owned and published by George Levitan (who was not himself black) for many years, including during the time that the book "Black Like Me" was published. It was George's idea for an article which sparked the book.

The African American Museum in Dallas, Texas has the picture files of Sepia Magazine in its archives.

Bibliography

Walter C. Daniel, Black Journals of the United States (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1982) ISBN 0-313-20704-6