"Robert Sengstacke Abbott" (1870-1940).

Was an African American lawyer and newspaper publisher.Born on St. Simmons Island Georgia to a former slave parents,Robert was still a baby when his father, Thomas Abbott,died.Floria his mother,then met and married John Sengstacke,who came to Georgia,from Germany in 1869.John background was remarkable:his father,Herman was a wealthy German merchant immigrant who in 1847 had purchased the freedom of a slave woman,Tama,from the auction block and subsequently married her;John their child was sent to Germany to be raised there.John returned to the states and met the German speaking Floria,and raised Robert with a large family background in cross-race successes.John was a Congregationalist 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.John 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 racial prejudice was unable to practice,despite attempts to establish law offices in Gary,Indiana,and Chicago Illinois.In 1905 he founded The Chicago Defender with an initial investment of 25 cents.The Defender,which became the most widely circulated black newspaper in the country,came to be known as "American Black newspaper" and made Robert one of the self-made millionaires of African American descent.The unique point point in history when the Chicago Defender was becoming popular allowed it to be successful.Tension was building in the years surrounding World War 1 Blacks were migrating from the south to the industrial centers of the north that were in great need of workers to manufacture goods for the the war.Also stories from previous migrants to the north were tricking down to the south and giving hope to the people of the south.Robert,through his writings in the Chicago Defender captured those stories,encouraged people to leave the south for the north.In fact,he even set a date,May 15,1917,for when The great Northern Drive,a name he coined for the event to occur.In the weekly,he showed pictures of Chicago and gave plenty of space classifieds for housing and wrote how awful a place,the south was to live in comparison to the idealistic North,a place of prosperity and justice.This persuasive writing,"thereby made this journal probably the greatest stimulus that the migration had.Robert was a fighter,a defender of rights.He had ideas and expectations of his race that he fought his whole life to help them become a realty.In fact,he created a list of nine goals,of which created the Defender's Bible:1.American race prejudice must be destroyed 2.The opening up of all trade-unions to blacks as well as whites.3.Representation in the President's Cabinet.4.Engineers,fireman and conductors on surface,elevated and motor bus lines throughout American.5.Representation in all departments of the police forces over the the entire United States.6.Government schools open to all American citizens in preferences to foreigners.7.Motormen and conductors on surfaces,elevated and motor bus lines throughout America.8.Federal legislation to abolish lynching. 9.Full enfranchisement of all American citizens.The Chicago Defender not only encouraged people to migrate north for a better life,but to fight for an even better lifestyle once they got there.The slogan of the paper and number one of the Defender's bible,"American race prejudice must be destroyed,"is an excellent example of what he through the paper was capable of and what the ideal experience of an African American or any American should be.Using the Chicago Defender,Robert fought for his cause.He remembered the history of his nation,especially in his arguments concerning interracial marriage.He wrote,"Miscegenation began as soon the African slaves were introduced into the colonial population and continues unabated today...What's more,the opposition to interracial marriage has heightened the interest and solidified the feelings of those who resent the injunction of racial distinction in their private and personal affairs." (He believed that if laws were to restrict one's choice in a mate then in was in pure violations of the constitution and the "decision of two intelligent people to mutual love and self-sacrifice should not be a matter of public concern.Robert also published a short-lived periodical called Abbott's Monthly.The Defender actively promoted the northward migration of Black Southerners,particularly to Chicago;indeed,its columns not only reported on,but helped to bring a bout the Great Migration (African American).Defender circulation reached 50,000 by 1916;125,000by 1918; and more than 200,000by the early 1920s. A key distribution network for the newspaper were the African American railroad porters (who by 1925 came to organize as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters).John met abdu I-Baha head of the Baha I Faith,in  1912 covering a talk of his during his stay in Chicago during his journey in the West and was listed as a frequenter of Baha I events in Chicago with his wife in 1924.After inventing the fictional character "Bud Billiken"with David Kellum,John established the Bud Billiken Club and in 1929 John and David  founded the Bud Billiken Parade Picnic.After searching through several religious communities for an atmosphere free of race prejudice,even among "light skinned"African American,John officially joined the Baha I Faith in 1934 because of its freedom from such prejudice at the convention to elect its National Spiritual Assembly.John 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 John was able to assist during the Depression;even paying for the eduction of children.John died of Bright's disease (Kidney disease), in 1940 in Chicago Illinois.He was buried in Lincoln Cemetery on Blue Island in Illinois.His will left the newspaper in the control of his nephew, John Henry Sengstacke.