Norman R. Hamilton was the publisher of The Portsmouth Star newspaper from 1924 to 1955. He aquired the paper from Col. S.L. Slover, charman of the board of Norfolk Newspapers, Inc. S.L. Slover purchased the controlling interest in the Richmond Times-Dispatch one yaer prior (1923) to the sale of the Portsmouth Star to Hamilton.

Hamilton, born November 13, 1877 in Portsmouth, Norfolk Couty, Virginia, began his newspaper career in 1895 as a reporter for the Norfolk Public Ledger. He became the publisher of The Star in 1917, and in 1924 aquired control of the paper. Hamilton served in various roles throughout his life. He was a collector of customs of Virginia from 1914-1922; chairman of the Port War Board of Hampton Roads from 1916-1918; served as neutrality enforcement officer prior to the entrance of the United States in the First World War; a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1924, 1928, 1932, 1952, and 1960; trustee of Virginia State Teachers’ College 1922-1926; appointed in 1933 as receiver at Washington, D.C., of five District of Columbia insolvent banks, resigning in June 1936; elected as a Democrat to the Seventy-fifth Congress (January 3, 1937-January 3, 1939); unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1938 and for election in 1941 to fill a vacancy in the Seventy-seventh Congress. Hamilton tapped Jeffrey Wilson to write the column, "Colored Notes" in The Portsmouth Star to increase the Black readership of the paper and to provide a column by Blacks and for Blacks in a white newspaper.