The Courier was certainly a newspaper with rock star status in the African American community, and one that got the attention, if not admiration, of the country as a whole.

It reached into black communities throughout the nation, which makes it such an important tool for research. This makes Marlene Bransom's compilation of deaths carried in the newspaper even more important. I had a chance to see her books firsthand in Cleveland last weekend at the Ohio Genealogical Society conference. She has 4 volumes completed thus far.