[2] The City Sun was founded by African American journalists Andrew W. Cooper and Utrice C. Leid.

[3] The City Sun, whose motto was "Speaking Truth to Power",[2] was rare among black-owned newspapers in its critical attitude toward African-American politicians.

In a front-page editorial in 1993, the newspaper advised David Dinkins, New York's first African American mayor, that he was "beginning to look like a wimp".

[4] In 1989 The City Sun, together with the Amsterdam News, another black-owned newspaper in New York, published the name of the "Central Park jogger", Trisha Meili, who had been raped and beaten almost to death.

Leid explained her decision to name the jogger by referring to an incident involving Tawana Brawley, a minor who said she had been raped, and the double standard practiced by the mainstream media: The same media [that] had no difficulty identifying the underage Wappinger-Falls teenager [Brawley] by name [and] invading the sanctity of her home to show her face ... have been careful to avoid identifying the Central Park woman.