Robert S. Abbott

Robert S. Abbott was born on November 24, 1870 in St. Simons Island, Georgia from former slave parents. He studied the printing trade at Hampton Institute from 1892 to 1896 and then received a law degree from Kent College of Law, Chicago, in 1898. Despite his successful completion of a law degree, he was unable to practice law due to racial prejudices. He attempted to establish law offices in Indiana, Kansas, and Illinois, but he was unsuccessful.

Abbott’s most notable accomplishment was that he founded The Chicago Defender in 1905.  He initially invested 25 cents into the newspaper and had a press run of 300 copies.  The first issues of the newspaper were formed in 4-page, 6-column handbills filled with local news items and clippings from other newspapers. From there, it grew into the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper by the advent of World War I, with more than two-thirds of its readership base located outside of Chicago. In 1910, Abbott hired his first full-time paid employee, J Hockley Smiley, and they worked together to help The Defender attract a national audience. The paper started addressing national issues and Smiley incorporated yellow journalism techniques to boost sales and to dramatize various racial injustices in America such as lynching, rapes, and assaults. The Defender’s most successful campaign was in support of “The Great Migration” movement. The Defender had job listings and train schedules to try and convince southern blacks to migrate North. It was very successful, considering that at least 110,000 blacks came to Chicago alone between 1916-1918, nearly tripling the city’s black population.

Robert S. Abbott became one of the first self-made millionaires of African American descent. He died on February 29, 1940 of Bright’s disease and left The Chicago Defender to his heir and nephew, John Henry Sengstacke. 

Source: http://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/defender.html