Fort Wayne Free Press

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Fort Wayne Free Press was an underground newspaper in Fort Wayne, Indiana, published from 1970 to 1974. It was started by George Relue, Tom Lewandowski, Jeff Wentz, and Ted Rhodes. The paper aimed to share news and opinions on local social issues and support community groups. Published every two weeks by Babylon Publishers, a volunteer collective for nonviolent social change, it began after fundraising from a Battle of the Bands at IPFW. The schedule started irregularly as volunteers worked with a tight budget. Early issues highlighted the anti-Vietnam War movement, the United Farm Workers grape boycott, and the firing of a local IPFW sociology professor. Later coverage expanded to civil rights, poverty programs, police-community relations, women’s and gay rights, labor, politics, poetry, crime and justice, health care, the environment, and the arts, including political cartoons. Babylon Publishers also produced Joaquin, a short paper by Fort Wayne’s Mexican-American community, which ran as an insert in the Free Press for a time. A digital copy of the first three years is archived at the Purdue University Fort Wayne Mastodon Digital Collection. Other independent Fort Wayne papers at the time included Where It’s At and Frost Illustrated.