The New Orleans Tribune is a New Orleans-based contemporary publication rooted in uplifting and prioritizing Black audiences near and far. The modern-day Tribune was founded in 1985 by Dr. Dwight McKenna and Mrs. Beverly Stanton McKenna. It was named in of honor the historic New Orleans Tribune founded circa 1864 by Dr. Louis Charles Roudanez. And it is in the spirit of Roudanez’s Tribune that The New Orleans Tribune proudly serve the community today.
Roudanez broke new ground in American journalism. Born in St. James parish and reared in New Orleans, he studied medicine in Paris, France, where he earned his first degree. He received a second medical degree at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College.
Roudanez used his newspaper and medical practice to fifght for the rights of people of color, both free and enslaved. As as a voice for the voiceless and crusader of justice, Dr. Roudanez founded the first Black daily newspaper, advocating for issues such as weekly wages for the newly freed Black people in New Orleans, the right to integrated education, and the right to vote for Black men.
When you read the modern New Orleans Tribune, one of the most respected African-American community news magazines in America, you are sharing a part of history. While we do not publish in French and English as Roudanez did in the 1860’s, we are proud that The New Orleans Tribune speaks the language of the African-American experience.
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