Louis E. Burnham was the Editor of “Freedom,” the newpaper Paul Robeson founded, Associate Editor of the “National Guardian” in the 1950’s and a well known lecturer on African-American affairs.
Born in 1915 and educated in Harlem, New York, Burnham attended City College of the City University of New York. As a college student, he became interested in the Civil Rights Movement and joined the American Student Movement and the Young Communist League. He later travelled around the country and organized the first chapters of the American Student Union on black college campuses and was the Youth Secretary of the National Negro Congress. He served as Executive Secretary of the Southern Negro Youth Congress and was editor of its newspaper and its right to vote campaigns. Burnham also helped organize the sharecroppers movement and was active in many campaigns to end segregation in the south. Burnham died in 1960.