''The Black Dispatch'' (1914–1982) was an African- American weekly newspaper published in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...

Roscoe Dunjee Roscoe Dunjee (1883–1965) was an American civil rights activist, journalist, and editor in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He founded '' The Black Dispatch'' in 1915, the first black newspaper in Oklahoma City, and used it as a platform to support civ ...

was the paper's editor. Dunjee was an influence on

Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel '' Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. Ellison wrote '' Shadow and Act'' (1964), a co ...

, who was a courier for the paper. Under the editorial guidance of Dunjee, the paper maintained significant circulation, especially outside of Oklahoma. This caused financial difficulty for the paper as out-of-state subscribers would have been disinterested in advertising targeted to Oklahoma residents. Roscoe Dunjee sold his stake in the newspaper to his nephew, John Dunjee, who later became the new editor for the paper after Roscoe retired in 1955.

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