The Christian Recorder

The Christian Recorder is the official newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and is the oldest continuously published African-American newspaper in the United States. It has been called "arguably the most powerful black periodical of the nineteenth century," a time when there were few sources for news and information about Black communities.

The Recorder covered secular as well as religious news, and reported news of the black regiments serving in the Civil War. It advocated support for Union troops. It was also known for having an Information Wanted section, where Black families who had been forcibly separated in the slave trade could seek news about their missing loved ones. The paper's coverage included birth, marriage, and death notices.

It also featured music, poetry, and reader stories, and was "a major source of literature by and for African-Americans" during this time period. The paper published Julia C. Collins' novel as 31 serialized chapters in 1865, as well as many of her essays. It also printed works by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and James W. C. Pennington.