The Underground Press

“Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one” – A.J. Liebling

During the 1960s, mainstream media refused to print unbiased coverage of the events taking place around the country involving the counterculture and political activism. Therefore individuals and groups decided to start their own underground publications.

By the late ’60s there were 150 underground newspapers in the U.S. with a total circulation of about 2 million readers. This was during a period when many mainstream newspapers were shutting down.

Many of these newspapers were started by students at college campuses and echoed the themes of the day, such as student rights, minority rights, antiwar activities, women’s rights, gay rights, anti-capitalism, rock music reviews, new art forms, class struggle and other forms of protest. Many of these periodicals experimented with new forms of journalism. Interviews, speeches, new slang, profanity, sexual openess, counter-cultural events and revolutionary sentiments filled the pages of the underground press.

Likewise these publications innovated new forms of text and graphic display including freedom from traditional page layouts, extensive use of color and psychedelic imagery, collage, stylized fonts (typefaces). Like the wonderful concert posters of the era, the underground press embodied the alternative art and culture of the period.

The Underground Press Syndicate was formed to help the alternative press deal with legal issues like censorship (common in certain areas), copyrights (all members of the syndicate were free to use another’s material) and legal defense funding. The UPS represented over one hundred publications like The Berkeley Barb, The San Francisco Oracle, Rat, Old Mole, The Great Speckled Bird, Liberation, Ramparts, Kaleidoscope, Resist, Leviathan and many others.

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