Gurley Brewer

Gurley Brewer (1866–1919) was an American attorney, newspaper publisher, and political activist. Brewer is best remembered as the editor of the Indianapolis World, one of the first African American newspapers in the state of Indiana.

Biography Early years

Gurley Brewer was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1866, the son of Edward Brewer, a barber, and his wife. Mary. The family moved to the town of Vincennes when Gurley was a small boy. He graduated with honors in 1888.

Career

A talented public speaker, in 1888 Brewer toured the state of Indiana on behalf of Republican Presidential candidate Benjamin Harrison at the request of the Indiana Republican State Central Committee.

In 1900 Brewer was named Deputy State Historian of Indiana. He was also a Deputy State Statistician in that year and was elected an alternate delegate to the 1900 Republican National Convention.

From the first years of the 20th Century Brewer was editor of the Indianapolis World, one of the first black newspapers in the state of Indiana. Brewer frequently took a conservative editorial line, in editorializing in 1903 in favor of the Negro Business League, a group formed in Indianapolis to remove disaffected and unemployed blacks from the community, with a view to assuaging troubled race relations. In July 1903 Brewer publicly declared:

It is very easy to determine who the shiftless, worthless negroes are, for they are found almost altogether in the Indiana Avenue district. Agents of the Negro Business League will make inquiry concerning them, and those who will not work will be reported to the authorities with a request that they be driven out of town.

Brewer became co-publisher of the World with Alexander Manning in 1904, remaining at the helm until 1912. In this capacity he was active in the National Negro Press Association, of which he was elected Second Vice President in 1913.

A staunch supporter of the Republican Party, Brewer backed the conservative William Howard Taft in the controversial 1912 election against the progressive campaign of former Republican President Theodore Roosevelt.

Early in 1919 Brewer was named Indiana Deputy State Oil Inspector. He was 53 years old at the time of his death.

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