The New Orleans Tribune, the first black-owned daily newspaper in the United States. Its founder, Dr. Louis Charles Roudanez, had been one of the publishers of L'Union, a black-owned paper that closed amid threats and intimidation during the tumultuous end of the Civil War in Union-occupied New Orleans. Roudanez was a tireless and strong believer in equality and liberty, and he believed it would be crucial to have a black-owned paper active during Reconstruction. He began publication of the Tribune two days after the final issue of L'Union.
The Tribune lasted six years, finally closing after it lost financial and political support in 1870. Roudanez remained active politically through the end of Reconstruction, when the removal of Federal troops opened the way for whites to usher in the era of Jim Crow laws and segregation. Roudanez sent women and children in his family to live in Paris, France, and he focused on his medical practice.