Founded in 1934 by Cecil Earle Newman (who remained editor until his death in 1976),[2] it is the oldest continuously operated black newspaper and longest-lived black-owned business in Minnesota.

[10] Under Newman's leadership, the newspaper played a key role in the civil rights movement in Minnesota.

[3] The late photographer, filmmaker, writer, and composer Gordon Parks was a photo-journalist for the newspaper.

[11] The newspaper building on Fourth Avenue was declared a historic landmark in 2015 for its association with the civil rights movement in Minnesota.

[12][13] In 2021, the newspaper's archives from 1934 to 1964 were publicly digitized in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Minnesota Historical Society.