Founded in 1946 as Negro Achievements by Horace J. Blackwell, an African-American clothing merchant of Fort Worth, Texas, who also had already founded The World’s Messenger in 1942, featuring romance-true confession type stories of working-class blacks, Sepia is a photojournalistic magazine that featured articles based primarily on achievements of African Americans. It was part of the rise of postwar publications and businesses aimed at black audiences.
Sepia magazine covers from the 1970s
George Levitan, a Jewish-American man born in Michigan, who was a plumbing merchant in Fort Worth, bought the magazines and Good Publishing Company (aka Sepia Publishing) in 1950. He changed the magazine’s name gradually; in 1954 he named it Sepia, and published it until his death in 1976. He changed the name of Messenger to Bronze Thrills and had success with that for some time as well, also publishing black-audience magazines Hep and Jive.
After Levitan’s death, Sepia was bought by Beatrice Pringle, who had been part of Blackwell’s founding editorial team. She continued it until 1983, closing it despite respectable circulation. It was always overshadowed by Ebony, founded and published in Chicago.
Here is a photo collection of Sepia magazine covers in the 1970s.
The Jackson, October 1971
Freda Payne, February 1972
Muhammad Ali, March 1972
Gloria Hendry, May 1973
Last photo of Jackie Robinson together with his family, January 1973
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