In the postwar environment, when the South was still legally segregated, the publishing history of Sepia, based in Fort Worth, Texas, reflects other changes.

[3] After Blackwell's death, his magazines and Good Publishing Company were bought by George Levitan, a Jewish-American plumbing merchant born in Michigan.

But they developed a magazine to appeal to the African-American market, which was receiving new attention in the postwar period, and had considerable success for decades, building distribution to a national audience.

[5] According to African-American author Joyce Rochelle Vaughn, in the preface of her book "Thirty Pieces of Silver: The Betrayal of Elvis Presley", an aunt who raised her had told her to never listen to Elvis Presley’s music because "Sepia" magazine had run an article in early 1957 in which he was quoted saying that the “only thing Negroes can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes.” She then decided, forty years later, to undertake a full study and complete unmasking of falsely reported news surrounding his life and career.

Sepia focused on various aspects of African American culture, including prominent leaders of churches, civil rights, popular music, and education.

[6] The magazine often exposed issues such as lynching and Ku Klux Klan operations in the South in its earlier edition; after some of the successes of the civil rights movement had been achieved, it covered the rise in inner-city violence among blacks.

Levitan financed John Howard Griffin's investigative journalism for his book, Black Like Me (1961), which was first serialized in Sepia under the title Journey into Shame.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame held an exhibition: The Sepia Magazine Photo Archive - 1948-1983: 35 Years of the African-American Experience in Music, January 19, 2009 – April 12, 2009.

Howard Kramer, curatorial director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, commented, “Sepia magazine was a vital voice in the African-American community for many decades.