The New Orleans Tribune, First Black Daily Newspaper - Mark Charles Roudané

Research at the National Archives and Beyond

The New Orleans Tribune: An Introduction to America's First Black Daily Newspaper Mark Charles Roudané was born in New Orleans and currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota. An educator, author, and public speaker, Mr. Roudané’s recent release, The New Orleans Tribune, An Introduction to America’s First Black Daily Newspaper, has sold over 800 copies. His articles have appeared in numerous journals including the Atlantic magazine South Atlantic Review and the Journal of the Louisiana Creole Research Association. Mr. Roudané was featured as the keynote speaker at the 150th Anniversary of the Tribune at Dillard University and recently presented lectures on Tribune history at Savannah State University, the Louisiana Public History Forum at Southern University of New Orleans, and the Louisiana Creole Research Association. Mark's roots are in Africa, France, Haiti, and Louisiana. His 4th great paternal and maternal grandmothers were enslaved in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Both had children with French colonists. Their descendants lived as free people of color in Louisiana, including Jean Baptiste Roudanez, the publisher of the New Orleans Tribune, and Louis Charles Roudanez, the newspaper’s founder and his great, great grandfather. Mark's father, also named Louis Charles Roudanez, was the first to be listed as white on his birth certificate. His paternal ancestry was hidden from him, and he did not discover the Afro-Creole roots until after his death. Inspired by his heritage, Mark spent the last several years passionately reading and researching the South’s first Black newspaper, L’Union, and America’s first Black daily newspaper, the New Orleans Tribune.