The Root

CTL-E-0736 · Publication · other · 2008-present; 2008–present

Verified evidence grade of this record

Digital news/commentary outlet focused on Black culture and politics; founded by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Donald Graham. Passed through Univision and G/O Media before returning to Black ownership in 2025.

Notes

Merged into canonical KG 2026-10-03 from MEDIA-001; source entity IDs: CTL-DR-MEDIA-001:MED-119; source research type(s): Publication.

Sources

Wikipedia, 'The Root (magazine)'; Journal-isms, 'Univision Buys TheRoot.com' (2015)
Adweek, 'Univision Acquires The Root'; Wikipedia, 'The Root (magazine)'
Wikipedia, 'The Root (magazine)'; Journal-isms, 'The Root Gets Its First Black Owner' (2025)
Black Enterprise, "'The Root' Has Made Its Way Back To Black Ownership"; AV Club (2025)
blackenterprise.com (2025-10); eurweb.com (2025-10)
blackenterprise.com (2025-10); avclub.com (2025-10); en.wikipedia.org (The Root)

Record CTL-E-0736 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: Verified · CTL research: MEDIA-001.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph

Cite as: CultureTechLens, “The Root (CTL-E-0736),” October 4, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-0736/

From the Archive

The archive in pictures

The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.

Chicago Blues All-Stars performing live at Buddy Guy’s Legends, ChicagoPhoto: BluesAllstars, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Overton Hygienic Building, 3619–6227 S. State St., Chicago — Anthony Overton’s Black Metropolis business headquartersPhoto: Andrew Jameson, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Chess Records studio booth during restoration, ChicagoPhoto: get directly down, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Trust & evidence

Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.

Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — none to date.