Minneapolis commission backs National Register listing for Spokesman-Recorder building

The Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission voted unanimously Oct. 6 to recommend that the Minneapolis Spokesman and St. Paul Recorder Headquarters Building, 3744 Fourth Avenue South, be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s official list of properties worth preserving.

All eight commissioners present voted yes. Staff and commissioners described the nomination as long overdue recognition of the building and of the Black press that has operated from it for decades.

“It’s really long overdue for this recognition,” said Commissioner Cedric Alexander, who grew up on 36th and Portland, around the corner from the building.

The building is home to the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, the state’s oldest Black-owned newspaper. The Spokesman-Recorder’s publisher and CEO, Tracey Williams-Dillard, owns the property and spoke at the hearing.

What the nomination says

Erin Kay, a senior city planner in the Department of Community Planning and Economic Development, presented the nomination. CPED sponsored it with funding from a National Park Service grant for underrepresented communities, and chose the property in consultation with the Minneapolis African American Heritage Work Group and Williams-Dillard. A consulting team from Hess, Roise and Company prepared the document.

The building, completed in 1958, is a one-story concrete block structure with a storefront window and a mural on its south wall honoring figures from its history. It was designed by Vernon K. Huso, with Black contractor Wayne Glanton serving as project engineer. The city designated it a local landmark in 2015.

The nomination argues the property is significant under two National Register criteria. Under criterion A, it is tied to the Minneapolis Spokesman and the St. Paul Recorder, which have served Black communities across Minnesota and represent Black contributions to media in the areas of ethnic heritage, Black commerce, communications and social history. Under criterion B, it is tied to Cecil Newman, whom staff described as an activist, businessman, editor, publisher and champion of civil rights. Staff agreed with both findings and with a period of significance from 1958, when the building opened, to 1976, when Newman died.

Newman launched the two papers on Aug. 10, 1934, with nearly identical content apart from the masthead and some social coverage. He chose the Old South Side for a permanent home in the 1950s and led the papers until his death in 1976. His wife, Launa Q. Newman, took over and merged the two papers in 2000. Their granddaughter, Williams-Dillard, became CEO and publisher in 2006. The paper marked its 92nd anniversary this year.

Kay said that although some windows and interior spaces have been altered, staff agree the building keeps enough integrity to convey its significance.

Commissioners asked whether listing would protect the building. Kay said National Register status is honorary and carries no specific protections, though a federal permit or federal funding for a future project could trigger a federal review of its effects on the property. Local landmark status, which applies to the exterior, is a separate program.

Speakers describe the paper’s role

Williams-Dillard told commissioners the recognition is an honor and a chance for visitors to see one of Minnesota’s oldest African American businesses.

“It’s the history holder of a lot of content from the African American community that is being held nowhere else,” she said.

Samuel Friedman, author of “Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey in the Fight for Civil Rights,” said his eight and a half years of research convinced him that Humphrey’s civil rights work depended on Newman. Friedman said he has read every published word Newman wrote between 1922 and 1948, and that the Spokesman exposed police violence, housing discrimination and prejudice by employers and unions when white-run newspapers rarely did.

“None of Hubert Humphrey’s valiant work on civil rights would have occurred without Cecil Newman and the Minneapolis Spokesman,” Friedman said. He noted that Newman was the first person to telegram Humphrey after his 1948 Democratic National Convention speech, and that Humphrey replied the victory was “ours, not mine.”

LaJune Lange, president of the International Leadership Institute and a research historian, said families turned to 3744 Fourth Avenue when a child was racially profiled or an injustice was more than they could handle alone. She said Newman gave people access to help at a time when public defenders and equal access to the courts did not exist for Black Minnesotans.

Commissioner Smith praised the application, noting “deep love and history in a time where not everybody welcomes the news.”

Next steps

The Minnesota State Historic Preservation Review Board will take up the nomination at its Nov. 10 meeting. City staff will send a letter summarizing the commission’s opinion to the state historic preservation officer. Final listing on the National Register is decided by the National Park Service.

The commission also voted 7-0, with one abstention, to recommend the Harry Davis Sr. and Charlotte Davis House at 3621 Portland Avenue, a few blocks from the Spokesman-Recorder building. Davis became the first Black person elected to the Minneapolis School Board in 1969 and, in 1971, the first Black candidate for mayor of Minneapolis. That nomination also goes to the state review board on Nov. 10.

How to comment

The public can send comments on either nomination to the State Review Board by email to Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer Amy Spong at amy.spong@state.mn.us, or by mail to Secretary, State Historic Preservation Review Board, Minnesota SHPO, 50 Sherburne Ave., Suite 203, St. Paul, MN 55155.

Disclosure: The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder is the subject of this nomination, and its publisher, Tracey Williams-Dillard, owns the building and spoke at the hearing.

Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@spokesman-recorder.com.