William Darrell Garth Sr., the longtime owner and publisher of the Citizen community newspaper chain covering African-American communities throughout the city and suburbs, and a business leader who mentored young Chicagoans of color to invest in their communities, has died.
Garth died Friday at RML Specialty Hospital in Chicago from complications of diabetes, according to his son William Darrell Garth Jr. He was 78.
For more than 30 years, Garth was the chief executive and publisher of the Citizen newspaper chain, which included the Hyde Park and Chatham Citizen papers and the Chicago Weekend paper, the largest chain of black-owned newspapers in the Midwest. As owner and publisher, he was dedicated to telling stories affecting black residents overlooked by the city’s mainstream papers.
The Alabama-born businessman started as an advertising sales representative at the Citizen Newspapers in 1969 when the company was run by future Rep. Gus Savage. When Savage won a seat in the U.S. House in 1980, he sold his stake in the chain to Garth, who took over control of the paper and extended its reach from the West Side to the south suburbs of Chicago, all communities with large black populations.
“He was a very savvy newspaperman and publisher,” said Garth Jr., who goes by his middle name. “He cared about, as he would always say, being the eyes and ears of the community as he reported what is right, what is just and what was important to the community.”
Over his long career, Garth was active in numerous organizations, including the Illinois Press Association, the National Newspaper Publishers Association and the Midwest Black Publishers Association.
In a statement released Saturday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Garth “was more than the successful publisher of the Chicago Citizen and other respected publications. He was a philanthropist and community leader whose legacy will live on in the countless lives he has touched.”
Friends and family said Garth’s background as a salesman and his vantage point as a newspaper owner in underserved communities made him recognize the importance of small business and leadership coming from within the neighborhoods. As a founding member of the Chatham Business Association, most recently serving as its chairman, Garth was instrumental in recent revitalization efforts in Chatham, including the opening of a Target store and several other chain businesses.
“Mr. Garth was responsible for a lot of the development in Chatham,” said Melinda Kelly, the business association’s executive director, who was also mentored by Garth. “In bringing a Nike outlet (store), the Target store, the Home Depot, he was at the forefront.”
“He was a man of integrity who cared a lot about his community,” said Paul A. Labonne, a vice president and community investment officer for PNC Bank, whom Garth wooed to the Chatham Business Association as his vice chairman. “He will be deeply missed.”
Over the years, Garth also mentored scores of young African-Americans, recognizing their talents and nurturing them to become active members in their communities, something he believed was more effective than social services and government programs, Kelly said. Under his personal tutelage in business and community involvement, Kelly said she learned lessons that remain with her today.
“He taught me know who you support and why. You have to understand who you’re supporting and what they’re bringing back to the community,” she said.
In 1995, six years after his youngest son Quentis was killed in a domestic stabbing at his South Side home, Garth started a foundation in his name that has provided more than $1 million in scholarships since its creation, his family said.
In addition to his son, Garth is survived by his daughter-in-law, Janice, three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending.
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