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Newspaper Titan: Dorothy R. Leavell

  • Ninfa O. Barnard
  • Sep 17
  • 4 min read

Dorothy R. Leavell has been the publisher of the Chicago and Gary Crusader newspapers, two historic, family-owned Black publications for over 50 years, succeeding in upholding journalistic integrity in the Black community and excelling in a dwindling, male-dominated industry.


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Dorothy R. Gonder was born on October 23, 1944, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to Sallie Topps-Gonder and Blane Gonder. In 1959, at the age of 15, Gonder visited her aunt in Chicago. Her aunt’s friend, who worked at the Chicago Crusader, advised Gonder to get a summer job at the newspaper. Gonder later attended Lorraine Hansberry’s play, “A Raisin in the Sun,” where she met unknowingly Balm Leavell and Joseph H. Jefferson, the  1940 founders of the Chicago Crusader. While receiving a ride home alongside a friend from Leavell, Gonder talked about what she wanted to do at the newspaper. Gonder found out that Leavell was the founder of the newspaper after getting home. Unfazed, Gonder interviewed for a job at the newspaper later that summer. The newspaper was short-staffed the day she interviewed, so she was hired as a bookkeeper for $35 a week.


Over the next several summers, Gonder worked at the Chicago Crusader. In 1962, she graduated from Pine Bluff’s Merrill High School as valedictorian of her class. Shortly after, she relocated to Chicago to attend Roosevelt University and work at the Crusader on a full-time basis. 


In 1963, Gonder and Leavell were married by Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr. In 1964, they welcomed their first child, Antonio. In 1966, their daughter Genice was born. In 1968, Leavell’s husband became ill with pancreatic cancer, just two days after celebrating Leavell’s 24th birthday.  His funeral was attended by Chicago’s mayor, Richard J. Daley, and dozens of other local dignitaries.


After her husband’s death, co-publisher and founder Joseph H. Jefferson, who had the majority interest in the company, supported Leavell. She was selected to succeed her husband as publisher, becoming the only Black woman publisher in Illinois and Indiana and the youngest employee at both the Chicago Crusader and the Gary Crusader,  which Balm L. Leavell and Joseph H. Jefferson, founded in 1961, and was part of the Crusader Newspaper Group. 


As  publisher and editor of the Crusader, Leavell improved the newspaper's facilities and modernized the production process.  She also moved away from the sensational headlines and focused on local news coverage in Gary, Indiana, and Chicago, Illinois. When Leavell took the Gary Crusader, the city had three Black newspapers. The other two newspapers, the Gary Info and the Gary Defender, eventually closed. 


In 1976, Leavell married John L. Smith, a printer by trade, later joined Leavell as General Manager of the Crusader Newspapers shortly after their marriage. Together, they raised her two children alongside her niece and nephew, Sharon and Leonard Gonder.

In June of 1995, Leavell was elected president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) for a two-year term. In June of 1997, she was re-elected, serving until 1999. During her tenure, she increased the organization’s public reach and visibility. In June of 2006, she was elected Chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation. 


During her more than 50-year membership in the NNPA, Leavell served as  assistant secretary, a member of the board of directors, and as treasurer for ten years. Throughout her lifetime, Leavell has often been honored and recognized for her philanthropic and civic contributions. In 1989, she was honored as NNPA’s Publisher of the Year. She has also received numerous other awards including: the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago; State of Indiana’s “Attorney General for a Day”; Winnie Mandela Endurance with Dignity Award; Nation of Islam Distinguished Service Award; Operation PUSH Family Affair Award by the National Association of Black Media Women; the Fourth District Community Improvement Association Award in Gary; Dollars & Sense Magazine Award for Excellence in Business; the Mary McLeod Bethune Award; the Humanitarian Award from the Council on African Affairs; the Publishing Award from the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club. At the 24th Annual 2013 African Festival of the Arts she was named the Grand Ye Ye at the  Africa International House, Inc. 


In June of  2022, Leavell was inducted into Governors State University’s Black Hall of Fame. In April 2019, she received both the Ida B. Wells Legacy Award and the Katie Hall Public Service Award. In November 2018, Leavell received the Chicago Urban League’s Lester H. McKeever, Jr. Individual Service Award at the Golden Fellowship Gala. In September 2021, the Urban League of Northwest Indiana honored her with its 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award.


In a 2023 interview for Leavell’s induction into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame, Gary media veteran Vernon Williams wrote the following about Leavell, “Since 1968, she has been the quintessential representation of media excellence combined with commitment to myriad social and economic imperatives of Black people who otherwise would have no voice. It is impossible to measure the number of lives that have been touched by Dorothy Leavell. … As a journalist, Mrs. Leavell has enabled a consistent narrative of the highest journalistic imperatives with relentless compassion, fairness, and courage.” Attorney and former Lake County Sheriff Ray Dominguez also wrote that Leavell “has mentored many aspiring journalists for over half a century and still has the passion and energy to continue her life’s work.”






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