Home / Full timeline / Robert S. Abbott publishes the first issue of the Chicago Defender, which becomes one of the most widely read Black newspapers in the country.
Robert S. Abbott publishes the first issue of the Chicago Defender, which becomes one of the most widely read Black newspapers in the country.
1905 (Jun 1)
Robert S. Abbott began publication of the militant Chicago Defender. It became one of the most widely read, influential Black newspapers in the country. Abbott was the son of an enslaved butler and a field woman who purchased their son's freedom. After his father's death, Abbott's mother married John Sengstacke, an editor, educator, and clergyman. Young Abbott worked on his stepfather's news sheet. He received his education at Hampton Institute, where he came under the influence of General Samuel C. Armstrong, the man who had also molded Booker T. Washington. In Chicago, Abbott began his newspaper with a staff composed of former barbers and servants as well as a few recently educated Blacks. He attracted journalists, Willard Motley among them, and he published the early poems of Gwendolyn Brooks. Abbott's scathing attacks on Southern racism coupled with his appeals for Northern migration enhanced the Chicago Defender's prestige.
References:
- • Hornsby, Alton. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.