On this day, November 7, in 1837

White Abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot and killed by a mob of pro-slavery partisans in Alton, Illinois, where he was the editor of an abolitionist newspaper called the Alton Observer. Pro-slavery groups in Illinois had previously destroyed three of Lovejoy's printing press' by violently seizing them and throwing them into the river. When word got around that a new printing press was to be delivered, a mob of people surrounded the printing warehouse in an attempt to burn it down. Lovejoy was killed with a shotgun as he attempted to stop the pro-slavery mob from entering the building. I guess the fight for independent media in America has been going on for a long time.