Hoyt W. Fuller was an editor and writer who worked as editor of the Negro Digest, which became the Black World in 1970. The Negro Digest, later renamed Black World, was an African-American magazine founded in November 1942 by John H. Johnson. It was first published locally in Chicago, Illinois. The Negro Digest was similar to the Reader’s Digest but aimed to cover positive stories about the African-American community.

Fuller was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1923. After the death of his father, Thomas Fuller, and an illness that caused his mother, Lillie Beatrice Ellafair Thomas, to become an invalid, Fuller went to live with an aunt in Detroit, Michigan.

In 1927, Fuller returned to Atlanta to visit his grandmother who encouraged him to explore the black culture. After completing high school, Fuller enrolled at Wayne State University where he graduated in 1950 with a BA in literature and journalism.

After graduating college, Fuller found work at the Detroit Tribune (1949-1951), and Ebony magazine (1954-1957). Fuller became frustrated with the disconnect between Ebony’s content and the struggle for black freedom, so he quit his position as associate editor in 1957. In his autobiographical work Journey to Africa (1971), Fuller describes his inability to find employment after leaving Ebony and his anger at the racially oppressive culture of America. As a result, Fuller moved to Europe, living for three years (1957 to 1960) in France and Spain. In 1981, Fuller died in 1981 from a heart attack in Atlanta.

sources:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Negro-Digest

Hoyt W. Fuller (1923-1981)