The Lighthouse & Informer
The Lighthouse & Informer, long the leading black newspaper in S.C., was a weekly published here from 1941 to 1954 by journalist and civil rights advocate John Henry McCray. McCray published articles covering every aspect of black life and columns and editorials advocating equal rights. In 1944, after the S.C. General Assembly repealed laws regulating primaries and the S.C. Democratic Party excluded blacks from voting in them, John H. McCray helped found the Progressive Democratic Party, the first black Democratic party in the South.
KEYWORDS: NEWSPAPER, PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, COLUMBIA, RICHLAND COUNTY