Houston Defender is an African-American weekly newspaper that features news, art, entertainment, sports, and lifestyle in Houston, Texas. The Houston Defender is an African-American newspaper published weekly in Houston, Texas. The newspaper was established October 11, 1930. C. F. Richardson Sr. established the newspaper. Richardson died in 1939, and his son, C. F. Richardson Jr., took over the newspaper. Then-27-year-old Sonceria Messiah-Jiles purchased the newspaper in 1981. The 2008 circulation was 60,000. In 1993 the bi-monthly Campus Defender tabloid was created for a younger audience; its contributors are middle and high school students and it has been an online publication since 2008.