Screen_shot_2009-10-05_at_7.56.43_a.m.
The Vanguard is being put out by the local Black Chamber of Commerce with a 1000 print run, the AZ Daily Star says. The chamber’s president, Clarence Boykins, is the publisher.

Boykins, who said he put up the initial investment to start up the Vanguard, is publisher. He tapped Tucson freelance writer and editor Theda K. Rogers to be executive editor.

Boykins picked up the first 16-page edition, printed at Territorial Publishers, Friday and called it “a great beginning.”


He said the paper aims to improve communication for blacks who are dispersed around Southern Arizona, while increasing the understanding of black culture in the larger community.

The Vanguard’s website is here; Phoenix’s African-American newspaper, the Arizona Informant, is here.
The Daily Star says there were more than 25,000 blacks in Tucson in the last census, or about 4.3 percent of the population.