The Colored Citizen was founded in 1867 by Henry Mayson, a leader for the black community in and around the urban city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was the first African American newspaper in the state, and it was commercially viable. Its intended publication date was May 11, 1867; Mayson published a prospectus in the Vicksburg Herald calling for equal educational opportunities for black and white children, the right for black men to hold public office, and the eradication of legally-enforced racial discrimination. A note attached to the prospectus in the Daily Clarion says it will be published "by an intelligent colored man" in opposition to black political "antagonism".
