Underground newspapers of the 1960s and ’70s were central to the New Left and broader countercultural movements, serving as both platforms for dissent and vehicles of radical visual experimentation. Often dismissed by mainstream journalism due to their limited circulation, lack of professionalism, and overt bias, these publications were nonetheless vital expressions of political, social, and aesthetic resistance. Historian Bob Ostertag emphasizes the near inseparability of social movements and their press, yet notes the critical neglect of underground newspapers in historical scholarship. Emerging from earlier activist publications and enabled by accessible printing technologies like mimeograph and offset printing, underground newspapers eschewed editorial conventions, embracing experimental layouts, psychedelic imagery, and DIY production methods. Publications like The Los Angeles Free Press, Berkeley Barb, San Francisco Oracle, and East Village Other became iconic not just for their messages, but for their groundbreaking graphic design. These papers also served as training grounds for influential designers and illustrators such as Ron Cobb and Steven Heller, who valued the freedom of expression and anti-commercial ethos they offered. Movements beyond the New Left—including the Black Panther Party, Red Power, Chicano rights, Women’s Liberation, and Gay Liberation—each developed their own newspapers, forming a diverse ecosystem of radical print media. Through networks like the Underground Press Syndicate and Liberation News Service, these publications shared content and ideology, reinforcing solidarity across causes. The underground press is a rich, underappreciated chapter in both journalistic and design history—one where visual form and political function were deeply intertwined in the service of revolution.

TIMELINE

1958 - The Realist was founded by Paul Krassner

1960s - Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) founded as part of the New Left

1964 - Los Angeles Free Press founded

1965 - Watts Riots

1965 - Fifth Estate newspaper founded, Detroit; Berkeley Barb newspaper founded, Berkeley; East Village Other newspaper founded, NYC

1965 - The Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) founded

1966 - San Francisco Oracle founded

1966 - Album, The Electric Newspaper, released by The East Village Other

1967 - Liberation News Service (LNS) founded

1968 - San Francisco Oracle ceases publication

1968 - The Freep published the names, addresses, and home telephone numbers of eighty undercover narcotics agents.

1969 - last national convention of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

1969 - The Chicano Press Association was formed

1970 - It Ain’t Me Babe was published by Berkeley Women’s Liberation

1970s - Freep purchased by Larry Flint

1973 - The Underground Press Syndicate (UPS) dissolved

1980 - Berkeley Barb newspaper ceases publication

1981 - Liberation News Service (LNS) dissolved

2011 - facsimile edition of the San Francisco Oracle published

REFERENCES

Guida, J. (2021). The East Village other. JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/the-east-village-other/

Cobb, R. (2015). Cartoons. Roncobb.net

Cohen, A. (1990). The San Francisco Oracle: A Brief History. Serials Review, 16(1), 13–46.

Dreyer, T., Embree, A., Duncan, C., & Bishop, S. (2021). Exploring Space City!: Houston’s Historic Underground Newspaper.

East Village other. (n.d.). https://nyujournalismprojects.org/eastvillageother/

Embree, A., Dreyer, T., & Croxdale, R. (2016). Celebrating the Rag: Austin’s iconic underground newspaper. Lulu.com.

Fortin, J. (2020). Ron Cobb, 83, a Pioneer In Science Fiction Design. The New York Times, B7-.

Glessing, R. (1970). The Underground Press in America.

Heller, S. (2018, May 6). It was 50 Years Ago Today . . .. PRINT Magazine. https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/50-years-ago-today-1960s-design/

Heller, S. (2022). Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counterculture New York.

Kaplan, G. (2013). Power to the People: The Graphic Design of the Radical Press and the Rise of the Counter-Culture, 1964-1974. University of Chicago Press.

Kramer, D. J. (Ed.). (2023). Heads Together: Weed and the Underground Press Syndicate, 1965-1973. Edition Patrick Frey.

McMillian, J. (2011). Smoking Typewriters: The sixties underground press and the rise of alternative media in America. Oxford University Press.

Morley, M. (2019, March 7). The cost of free Love and the designers who bore It—Meet the women of psychedelic design. AIGA Eye on Design. https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/women-of-psychedelic-design/

Ostertag, B. (2007). People’s movements, people’s press: The Journalism of Social Justice Movements. Beacon Press.

TRR. (2020, September 7). The feminist fandom of Trina Robbins. The Revolution (Relaunch). https://therevolutionrelaunch.com/2020/08/02/the-feminist-fandom-of-trina-robbins/

Underground Newspapers