Randolph Miller

Photograph and text appeared in a newspaper dated July 1, 1928: He was the motive power for the hand press first utilized by The Chattanooga Times. In later years he edited, published, printed and circulated his own newspaper, The Weekly Blade. It was Chattanooga's most unique publication. For an extended period The Times made a feature of clippings from Editor Miller;s columns under the heading "Flashes from The Blade." With Miller's death several years ago The Blade was discontinued.

Randolph Miller was formerly enslaved who moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee from Georgia in October 1864. He began a new life in the newspaper industry in 1865 after surviving the horrors of slavery and war. Learning to read as he went, he worked as a pressman on several newspapers before starting his own paper, the Weekly Blade in 1898. The Blade became one of the only newspapers in the country to be published and edited by a former slave. Miller used The Blade to advocate for the rights of communities of color still under the heavy oppressions of white supremacy.

The Blade ran for twelve years, and Miller became known for his condemnation of segregation. In 1905, as rebellion against the imposition of Jim Crow laws exploded across Tennessee, Miller organized a three-week boycott of Chattanooga’s newly-segregated streetcars. He started his own taxi service in 1905, the Hack Line, that ran between Chattanooga and outlying African American communities.

Plagued by ill health and overwork, Miller stopped publication of the Blade after twelve years. He died at the reported age of eighty-six in 1916 and is buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga.

Sources: [A.W. Judd, Photographer, Chattanooga, TN, Chattanooga History Center; Center for Historic Preservation and the James E. Walker Library at Middle Tennessee State University; The People's History of Chattanooga]