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Front page of The North Star, June 2, 1848.
Credit: Library of Congress
In 1847, Martin Delany partnered with Frederick Douglass to start The North Star, which would go on to become the most important abolitionist newspaper published by African Americans. While Douglass edited the paper in Rochester, New York, Delany traveled through Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, lecturing, reporting, and drumming up subscriptions for the newspaper. Confronted by the rising tide of racism and the paper’s poor prospects, Delany broke with Douglass in June 1849 and returned to Pittsburgh, then entered medical school at Harvard.