Robert Sengstacke Abbott
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Robert Sengstacke Abbott (24 November 1870 [1][2][3] - February 29, 1940) was an African American lawyer and newspaper publisher.
Born in Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia of former slave parents, Abbott's father, Thomas Abbott, passed away the year after his birth. Flora, his mother, met and married John Sengstacke. Sengstacke, a son of Herman Sengstacke, was a wealthy German merchant immigrant who had bought and married a slave girl, Tama. The following year John was born to them. Since the law specified that children follow the condition of their mother, John, and his sister to come, were legally slaves; therefore, Herman eventually decided to send them to be raised by relatives in Germany. John returned to the States and met the German speaking Flora, married, and raised Abbott with a large family background in cross-race successes. John was a Baptist missionary who wrote: "There is but one church, and all who are born of God are members of it. God made a church, man made denominations. God gave us a Holy Bible, disputing men made different kinds of disciples."[4]
Abbott went on and studied the printing trade at Hampton Institute now (Hampton University) from 1892 to 1896. He received a law degree from Kent College of Law, Chicago in 1898, but because of race prejudice in the United States was unable to practice, despite attempts to establish law offices in Gary, Indiana, Topeka, Kansas, and Chicago, Illinois.
In 1905 he founded The Chicago Defender with an initial investment of 25 cents. The Defender, which was once heralded as "The World's Greatest Weekly", soon became the most widely circulated black newspaper in the country, and made Abbott one of the first self-made millionaires of African-American descent. Abbott also published a short-lived paper called Abbott's Monthly.
Abbott met `Abdu'l-Bahá, head of the Bahá'í Faith, in 1912 covering a talk of his during his stay in Chicago[4] and was listed as a frequenter of Bahá'í events in Chicago with his wife in 1924.[4]
After inventing the fictional character "Bud Biliken" with David Kellum, Abbott established the Bud Billiken Club and in 1929 Abbott and Kellum founded the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic.[5]
After searching through several religious communities for an atmosphere free of race prejudice, even among "light skinned" African-Americans, Abbott officially joined the Bahá'í Faith in 1934 because of its freedom from such prejudice at the convention to elect its National Spiritual Assembly.[4][6][7]
Though some of the Sengstacke family became Nazis, Abbott continued correspondence and economic aid to those that accepted his family history, and also assisted the owners of his birth father--the descendants of Captain Charles Stevens--whom Abbott was able to assist during the Depression; even to paying for the education of children.[4]
Abbott died of Bright's disease in 1940 and was interred in the Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago. His will left the newspaper in the control of his nephew, John Henry Sengstacke.
His home, the Robert S. Abbott House, is a National Historic Landmark.
[edit] References
- ^ 1
- ^ 2
- ^ 3
- ^ a b c d e Robert S. Abbott and the Chicago Defender: A Door to the Masses by Mark Perry, printed in October 10th, 1995 issue of the Michigan Chronicle.
- ^ Celebrated African-American parade of pride boasts Baha'i connections August 3, 2007
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?&id=0-cwAAAAIAAJ&q=Bahai&pgis=1 The Lonely Warrior: The Life and Times of Robert S. Abbott By Roi Ottley] By Roi Ottley, Published 1955, H. Regnery Co., p. 13
- ^ A Long and Thorny Path: Race Relations in the American Bahá'í Community(Chapter) by Richard W. Thomas, Ph.D. pp. 37-66, of Circle of Unity: Baha'i Approaches to Current Social Issues edited by Anthony A. Lee, Published 1984 Kalimat Press, ISBN 0933770286, p.44 especially.
- Boris, Joseph J., ed. Who's Who in Colored America (1928-1929), Who's Who in Colored America Corp., New York, 1929, p. 1
- Taitt, John, The Souvenir of Negro Progress, Chicago, 1779-1925, The De Saible Association, Inc., [Chicago, 1925?], p. 27
- Watkins, Sylvestre C., The Pocket Book of Negro Facts, Bookmark Press, Chicago, 1946, p. 1
