About The golden rule. [volume] (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1898-19??
Vicksburg, Miss. (1898-19??)

The Golden Rule

Founded in 1898 by Willis Elbert Mollison, a prominent African American attorney and politician, the Golden Rule was published as a four-page weekly newspaper in Vicksburg, Mississippi. A former editor for the Mayersville Spectator (1877-1948), Mollison was a significant and accomplished figure in the black community; he served as president of the Lincoln Savings Bank of Vicksburg, Chancery Court Clerk (1883-1892) and District Attorney (1893-1897?) of Issaquena County, and state delegate to the Republican National Convention several times. Henry L. Slaughter, Mollison's business partner, served as the paper's manager.

The motto of the Golden Rule," Therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," befitted the paper's title, as this principle suggested how the black community struggled to achieve equal status with its white counterpart. The Golden Rule was one of several African American newspapers printed in Vicksburg at the end of the 19^th century. Although the number of black newspapers being published in Mississippi increased, most were short-lived due to lack of financial support from black businesses, as they were small and scarce. Mollison urged his readers for support in the January 14, 1899 edition, one of two extant issues: "Without the support of the business community, composed almost exclusively of whites; no newspaper can long survive." The last time the Golden Rule appeared in N. W. Ayer & Son's Newspaper Annual was in the 1907 directory.

Similar to other African American newspapers published in the late 19^th/early 20^th centuries, the Golden Rule served as a means of communication within the black community. The paper published obituaries, and while it covered a mix of local and state news to some extent, it chiefly reported global and national news. An example of content from the January 14, 1899 issue of the Golden Rule is an editorial pertaining to New York's estimable donations to the poor, a topic in keeping with the golden rule principle.

Note: A portion of the issues digitized for this newspaper were microfilmed as part of the Miscellaneous Negro newspapers microfilm collection, a 12 reel collection containing issues of African American newspapers published in the U.S. throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Creation of the microfilm project was sponsored by the Committee on Negro Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies in 1947. For more information on the microfilm collection, see: Negro Newspapers on Microfilm, a Selected List (Library of Congress), published in 1953. While this collection contains selections from more than 150 U.S. newspapers titles, for further coverage, view a complete list of all digitized African American titles available in the Chronicling America collection.

Provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History