Of all the nineteenth-century black newspapers in the Austin area, one of the most influential was the Sunday School Herald (1889–1892) and its antecedent, The Herald (1893–1917). Edited by the Reverend L. L. Campbell, the Sunday School Herald was touted as providing “The Highest Religion, Education training” and a “A Newspaper Devoted to the Moral Religious and Educational Interests of the Baptist Sunday Schools and denomination of Texas.” A prominent figure in Austin’s history, Campbell became the pastor of the Third Baptist (now Ebenezer) Church in 1892 where he remained in leadership for thirty-five years. Many of the 1892 issues of the Sunday School Herald have survived, and most have articles on religious and morality topics, along with a fair number of advertisements for national and local products and services. The advertisements undoubtedly helped make the paper financially successful, but ads for alcohol were noticeably absent.
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