The Carolina Times was founded as The Standard Advertiser in 1921 by Charles Arrant, who died in 1922. In 1927 the newspaper was purchased by North Carolina Central University

North Carolina Central University

North Carolina Central University is a public historically black university in the University of North Carolina system, located in Durham, North Carolina, offering programs at the baccalaureate, master’s, professional and doctoral levels....

 alumnus Louis E. Austin in Durham, North Carolina

Durham, North Carolina

Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Durham County and also extends into Wake County. It is the fifth-largest city in the state, and the 85th-largest in the United States by population, with 228,330 residents as of the 2010 United States census...

. He changed the name to The Carolina Times.

Austin edited and published The Carolina Times from 1927 until his death in 1971. The paper's motto was "The Truth Unbridled." Austin used the paper to publicize racial inequities and to fight for racial equality in North Carolina and throughout the United States.