"[1] The paper was founded by Forrest White Woodard, who was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on February 12, 1886.
[2] He moved as a young man to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he worked at a number of different jobs and operated a number of businesses (including a used car lot and a real estate business) before establishing The Philadelphia Independent in 1931.
He was joined by his second wife, Kathryn "Kitty" Fambro Woodard (1911–2003), who took over the day-to-day operation of the newspaper after his death on March 2, 1958.
Throughout its history, the Independent competed with the Philadelphia Tribune for black readers.
Kitty Woodard told The Philadelphia Inquirer in a 1997 interview, "The Independent was for the masses.