Edward Elder Cooper

File:Edward Elder Cooper.jpg

Edward Elder Cooper was a prominent early black publisher in the United States. He was born into slavery in Duval County, Florida on 10. June 1859, and died at the age of 49 on 9 July 1908.{{cite journal|last1=Gatewood|first1=W. B.|title=Edward E. Cooper, Black Journalist|journal=Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly|date=1 June 1978|volume=55|issue=2|pages=269–324|doi=10.1177/107769907805500207|s2cid=145061486}}

Cooper was the publisher of the Indianapolis Freeman, starting in July 1888, then sold it in 1892.{{cite book|last=Taylor, Jr.|first=Robert M.|editor=David J. Bodenhamer|others=Robert Graham Barrows|title=The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bg13QcMSsq8C&pg=PA781|access-date=5 April 2012|year=1994|publisher=Indiana UP|isbn=9780253312228|page=781|chapter=Indianapolis Freeman}}

Cooper then launched The Colored American in Washington, D.C. starting in 1893.{{cite book|last=Ratzlaff|first=Aleen J.|editor1-first= David B.|editor1-last= Sachsman|others=S. Kittrell Rushing, Roy Morris, Jr.|title=Seeking a voice: images of race and gender in the 19th century press|year=2009|publisher=Purdue UP|location=West Lafayette|isbn=9781557535054|pages=131–140|chapter=Illustrated African American Journalism: Political Cartooning in the Indianapolis Freeman|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvchtbfW4FMC&pg=PA131}} Cooper allied the newspaper with Booker T. Washington, Mary Church Terrell, and generally with the Republican Party. The newspaper fell into debt and shut down in 1904.{{cite web

|title=About The colored American. (Washington, D.C.) 1893-19?? | url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83027091/ | publisher=Library of Congress }}