Central Florida Negro Edition – Orlando Sentinel

The Central Florida Negro Edition, a weekly supplement to the Monday Orlando Sentinel, included numerous photographs of individuals, students, organization and church members from the Central Florida Area and beyond.

On page 72 in her book, Black America Series – Orlando Florida, published in 2003, Senator Geraldine Fortenberry Thompson writes: “E.B. Mitchell photographed happenings in Orlando’s African American community for inclusion in the Sentinel’s Negro Edition, which was printed on pink newsprint and commonly called ‘the pink sheets’.”

It should be noted that there were a number of Orlando Sentinel supplements printed on pink paper and distributed to smaller communities in the Central Florida area. All of these weekly supplements were referred to as the pink sheets or pink pages.

The first publication of the two- page Central Florida Negro Edition in the Orlando Sentinel was February 18, 1952 – page 11 and page 13.

The correspondents listed in the first printing on February 18th and the second printing are shown below. In one week, the number of community members who had signed up to be correspondents supplying photographs and information for publication increased from 14 to 18.

In December 1952, a letter to the editor of the Orlando Sentinel Negro Edition from “A News Loving Man from Umatilla” gave these words of encouragement to the African American communities in Central Florida: “Let’s do our part and contact a correspondent when we have some newsworthy item.” And they did!

An article on Hungerford High School Football players published in the Orlando Sentinel on February 5, 2006 (p. C6), hints at the importance of the special edition: “If the Orlando Sentinel, the city’s morning paper, wrote about Hungerford’s games in the ’50s to the mid-’60s, the write-ups appeared in a supplemental Monday section called the Central Florida Negro Edition, which was delivered only to predominantly black neighborhoods.”

The image below is the front page of the Central Florida Negro Edition published January 25, 1965 – Orlando Sentinel microfilm collection at the Orlando Public Library.

The Central Florida Negro Edition is the most well-known newspaper devoted to African Americans in Central Florida; however, it was not the first. That honor goes to the Florida Christian Recorder.

In her book, Orlando: a centennial history, Eve Bacon reports that the first newspaper devoted to African Americans was started in 1900 when G. C. Henderson began publication of the Florida Christian Recorder. The weekly newspaper contained news of interest to the African America population and continued for fifteen years until the death of the editor. The office was located at 502 Patrick Street.

Explore the Central Florida Society of Afro-American Heritage guide.

Read about the Orlando Negro Chamber of Commerce Business Directories