Robert Vann was one of the founders of The Pittsburgh Courier which was incorporated March 10, 1910. In 1913, he became the Editor of The Courier and remained such until the time of his death.

Credit: Courtesy of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

The national reach of the Pittsburgh Courier during the 1930s made its editor Robert Vann a powerful voice in the African- American community. Vann's support of the Democratic party won him appointment to five important state committees in Pennsylvania and then thrust him upon the national stage. In 1935, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed the former tobacco worker from North Carolina the nation's first black assistant attorney general.