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RICHMOND, Va. -- The nation's oldest black newspaper, founded 20 years after the Emancipation Proclamation by 13 former slaves, celebrated its 100th anniversary this week with a special edition that symbolizes its heritage.
'It hasn't slacked up any,' said John Templeton, the bespectacled 27-year-old editor of the weekly Richmond Afro-American and Planet.
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The newspaper, which reaches 40,000 readers each week, printed its first full-color edition to celebrate its first century in business.
Templeton spoke with pride of the newspaper's past -- a history highlighted by fiery John Mitchell Jr., the editor from 1884 until his death in 1929.
Mitchell was threatened with death numerous times when the newspaper printed attacks on the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings, voter fraud, mistreatment of black teachers, unfair treatment of blacks in the judicial system and other 'Jim Crow' injustices common to the old South, Templeton said.