"Alice E.McEwen" (July 29,1870-?)

Was an African-American journalist,newspaper editor,and teacher.She was one of 23 

African-American women working as a journalist in the United States prior to 1891.

Alice Elizabeth McEwen was born to the Reverend & Mrs.A.N. McEwen in Nashville,Tennessee.She attended public schools in the city,and then went to Fisk University in 1881 and Roger Williams University in 1884.In 1885,she published her first article,"The Progress of the Negro," in the Montgomery Herald.She continued writing for the Herald,The Spelman Messenger,and other newspapers until she graduated from Spelman on May 24,1888.Her valedictorian address,titled "The Advantage of Adversity," was published in several southern newspaper.

After graduating, Alice's daddy hired her as the assistant editor of The Baptist Leader,which he was editor.

Alice continued to publish.She read her paper "Women in Journalism" before the National Press Association in Washington,D.C.,and another paper at the Women's Baptist State Convention in Greenville,Alabama,both around 1890."Signs of the Times" appeared in The Freeman in 1891 and was reprinted in The Southern Watchman of Mobile,Alabama.

In addition to writing and editing,Alice worked as a teacher in Montgomery,Huntsville,and Talladega,Alabama.In September of 1892,she was elected and served as secretary of the Huntsville Normal School.She then worked as 
the principal of a school run by the Odd Fellows in Moss Point,Mississippi.

"Thomas-C.Flemming" November 9 1907-November 21,2006"

From Jacksonville,Florida his grandma initially raised him.At the age of  8 his family moved to Harlem,New York and in 1919 they moved to Chico,California.In 1926 he graduated from from Chico High School and began working as a bellhop for the Admiral Line,(then) spending five years as a cook for the Southern Pacific Railroad.He entered journalism in the early 1930s as an unpaid writer for the Spokesman,a progressive black newspaper in San Francisco.

During the Great Depression,he entered school as a political science major at Chico State College.In 1934,after three semesters he returned to San Francisco.In 1944 he was hired as founding editor of the Reporter,which later merged with another African-American newspaper,the Sun, to become Sun-Reporter.For Almost 50 years Thomas wrote for the Sun-Reporter.

In July 1997, he retired as executive editor to focus on his memoirs,which have appeared in more than 60 weekly installments as "Reflections on African-American history." The column is distributed by the National Newspaper Publishers Associations and sent to more than 200 African-American newspapers nationwide.Also in 1997,he self-published his first book, a 48-page collection of stories and photos from his early boyhood in Jacksonville and Harlem.On his 91st birthday,he published "Black Life in the Sacramento Valley 1850-1934."

A Lifelong bachelor Thomas was the 1997 winner of the Career Achievement Award for Print from the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalist and is the nation's oldest and longest-running African-American journalist.The co-founder in 1944 of the Sun-Reporter,he continued to write two articles a week for the paper.

Throughout his long career,he came in contact with such greats as Dr.Martin Luther King,Jr., W.E.B. Dubois,Charles Houston,Asa Philip Randolph,Mary McLeod Bethune,Duke Ellington,Thurgood Marshall,Malcolm X, Langston Hughes and Paul Robeson.In 1997, Thomas received the the Career Achivement California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.Thomas died to congestive heart failure.

"Malvin-(Mal) Goode" (February 13,1908-September 12,1995)

hHe was born in White Plains,Virginia,educated in the public school system of

Homestead,Pennsylvania,and graduated from the University of  Pittsburgh in 1931.He was employed for twelve years as a laborer in the steel mills while  in high school and  college for five years after his graduation.Appointed  to a position in the Juvenile Court as a boys work director at the Centre Avenue YMCA,he   spearheaded  the fight against discrimination in the Pittsburgh branches of the of  YMCA.He worked  with the Pittsburgh Courier  (where he remained for 14 years).

A year later he began a career in radio broadcasting with KQV doing a 15-minute news show two nights a week.Soon,he had a five-minute daily news show WHOD radio where in 1952 he was named the stations news director.In 1962 he became  the first  African-American to work as a news correspondent  for ABC as a United Nations reporter.Malvin first assignment was coverning the Cuban Missle Crisis;he distinguished  himself  with incisive TV and radio reports during the long hours of debate at the UN.For two months in 1963 he joined three of  his peers to conduct  courses in journalism for over 1oo African students in seminars in Largos,Nigeria; Addis Abba,Ethiopia; Dar es Salaam,Tanzania.

He became the first African-American member of the National Association of Radio and Television News Directors in 1971.Malvin died of a stroke in Pittsburgh.

"Cyril-Lionel-Robert-James"(January 1 1901-May 1989)

aHe was an Afro Trinidadian journalist,socialist theorist,and writer.
He was born in Trinidad  and Tobago,then a British Crown Colony.The son of a schoolteacher from Tunapuna,Trinidad,he was strongly influenced by his mama who was an avid reader.

He was a gifted child who at age six won scholarship to Queens Royal College.After College,James worked a school teacher and as a cricket reporter.During this time he also wrote two novels,"La Divina Pastora"(1927) a "Triumph" (1929).With an interest in politics,he wrote a biography of  the Trinidadian labor leader, Arthur Cipriani,"The Life of Captain Cipriani," published in 1929.

In 1932,he immigrated to England where he reported cricket matches for the Manchester Guardian.Politically,James was a strong supporter of West Indian Independence.He wrote a pamphlet,"The Case for West Indian Self-Government," published in 1933.

James moved to London where he studied Karl Marx,Friedrich Engles,and Leon Trotsky.He initially joined the independent Labor Party (ILP) and became chairman of its Finchley branch. 
.He also wrote wrote for left-wing journals such as the New Leader and Controversy When James became a Marxist he left the ILP and formed the Revolutionary Socialist League.As a follower of  Trotsky,James was highly critical of Joseph Stalin and the British Community Party.



In 1936,he published "Minty Alley" a novel on his childhood in Trinidad.He also wrote a play about Toussaint L' ouverture,the leader of the Haitian revolution,and in 1936,Paul Robeson.
played the leading role in its production at the Westminster Theatre.

James published several books on politics including "Abyssinia and the Imperialists" (1936) and
"World Revolution 1917-1936" (1937).This historical account was highly critical of Stalin's 1924.
pronouncement,"Socialism in One Country," and provided support for the ideas Leon Trotsky.He
study of the Haitian revolution," "The Black Jacobins,"was published in 1938.

In that same year,he moved to America,where he lectured on political issues and continued to publish books about politics,including "Dialectical Materialism and the fate of Humanity" (1947),
"Notes on Dialectics"(1948)," "The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the USA"(1948), "State Capitalism and World Revolution" (1950),and "The Class Struggle" (1950).

James also wrote at length about the work of Walt Whitman & Herman Melville.In America,his Marxist writings caught the attention of Senator McCarthy and fellow right-wingers,in 1953,Under the threat of deportation  for having overstayed his visa by ten years.In his attempt to
remain in the USA,James,while being detained on Ellis Island,wrote a study of Herman Melville,
"Mariners,Renegades and Castaways:The Story of Herman Melville and the World We Live in," and had copies of the privately published work sent to every member of  Senate.

James lived for a while in Africa but in 1958 returned to the West Indies.Influenced by the events
the Hungarian uprising in 1956,his book "Facing Reality" (1958) revealed  disillusionment with both Communsion and Trotskyism.Soon afterward he worked on a biography of George Padmore
and parts of the book appeared in the National journal.

In 1963 James published "Beyond Boundary," a combination autobiography and an analysis of  sports and politics.Other books by James include "Radical America" (1970) and "Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution" (1977),and "Radical America" (1970).

He moved back to London where he died.

"Roi-Ottey-"{August 2,1906-October 2,1960)

Vincent Lushington "Roi" Ottey was the second of three children of Jerome Peter & Beatrice Brisbane Ottley immigrated to New York from the island of Grenada.Roi was educated at St.Bonaventure (1926-1928),University of Michigan (1929),and St.John's Law School (Brooklyn,New York).

From 1931-1937,Roi worked for Amsterdam News as a reporter,columnist,and editor.He also joined New York Writers' Project as editor in 1937.Published New World A-Coming: Inside Black America in 1943,incorporating Writers' Project reports; it became a bestseller and was adapted into a series of radio programs.Worked as a war correspondent for PM,Pittsburgh Courier,and Liberty,publicity director of national CIO War Relief Committee in 1943.He later became a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and broadcasted reports for both Columbia Broadcasting System and the British Bradcasting System.In 1943,he served as publicity director for the National CIO War Relief Committee.

Roi reported on such events as the Nomandy Invasion,the hanging of Mussolini,and the Arab French conflict in Syria.He interviewed important Allied political leaders and such personalities as Pope Plus XI,Governor Talmadge of Georgia,and Samuel Green,Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.At the Chicago Tribune,he wrote series on the migration of African Americans from the agricultural South to the industrial North and its impact,the voting trends among African Americans, and the war.Topics in the latter series included the plot to remove all African Americans,soldiers from occupied Germany,the desire of the African American to full participation,and the stellar performance of the African American soldier.

Additionally,he wrote articles on African American achievers in Chicago,such as Dr.Philip C.Williams, the first African American to be admitted to the Chicago Gynecological Society. Other books include Black Odyssey: The Story of the Negro in America (1948),No Green Pastures (1951), and The Lonely Warrior: His works White Marble Lady (1965),a novel  and The Negro in New York: An Informal Society History,1626-1940 (1967,with William J.Weatherby) were published after his death.

"George-Freeman-Bragg"[January 25,1863-March 12,1940]

He was born into slavery in Warren Count,the son of George Freeman

Bragg,a carpenter,& Mary Bragg a semtress. At the age of two George moved with his family to Petersburgh,where his grandma Caroline Wiley Cain Bragg lived.A devout Episcopalian,she was instrumental in the founding of Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church in 1867,and her extended family composed a majority of the congregation.

George attended his family's church and Saint Stephen's Normal School  as well,where he studied under Giles Buckner Cooke,a former confederate staff officer and dedicated educator of freeman people.George also became involved in the field of Journalism.From an early age he delivered newspaper and accordingly established realtionships with prominent white residents of Petersburg,among them an editor of the Petersburgh Index,John H.Chamberlayne,who in time gave him practical experience in every aspect of newspaper publishing.John also introduced George to the world of Virginia politics,for the editor was a close ally of William Mahone,of  Petersburgh,who created the Readjuster Party and actively courted African American voters.George moved quickly through the normal school at Saint Stephen's and enterd its theological department in the autumn of 1878.Six months the church's white rector expelled him for insufficient humility,just in time for George to become caught up in the campaigns of the Readjusters.He worked at William's headquarters in Petersburgh throughout the successful campaign of 1881,assisting with distribution of literature and other political tasks.For his efforts George was appointed a page in the 1881-1882 session of the House of Delegates.






On July 1,1882,George put his knowledge of journalism to work by founding a weekly newspaper,the Petersburgh Lancet.Its first motto was "Sworn to no Party; of no Sect am I; I can be silent,but will not lie." George was concerned above all  with civil rights,and he encouraged African Americans to become politically active in order to demonstrate and protect their citizenship.At that time African American political activity in Virginia was closely tied to to the Readjuster Party.In 1884,following the previous year's electoral defeat for the Readjusters,a split developed between William and African American political leaders over the the local congressional nomination.William's candidate James D.Brady,defeated Joseph P.Evans,an African American man,for the seat from the Fourth Congressional District,which included Petersburgh.George supported Joseph and accused William of dictatorial behavior concerned less with African American rights than African American votes.The nasty split and Joseph's subsequent loss disillusioned George about politics.He blamed Joseph's defeat on William's corruption and on African American voters' willingness to be corrupted.

On September 12,1885,George announced that the Lancet would eschew and partisan politics and instead urge African Americans to concentrate on moral,educational,and commercial pursuits.Two months later it declared that it would henceforth focus on the activities of African American Episcopalian.In January 1886 the paper adopted a new motto reflecting the change in George's outlook:For what is a man profited,if he shall gain the whole world,and lose his own soul." Beginning on February 6 of that year the paper appeared as the Afro-America Churchman,which was published for a time by his younger sister Carrie Bragg.

George journalistic shift coincided with his return to the seminary.A change in the rectorship at Saint Stephen's Church allowed him to reenter what become Bishop Payne Divinity and industrial School in the autumn of  1885,and in July 1886  he gave up publication of the Afro-American Churchman.Ordained a deacon on January 12,1887,George took over the ailing Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in Norfolk,which depended on missionary support for survival.On December 19,1888,he was ordained a priest at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church in Norfolk,thus becoming only the twelfth African American Episcopal priest in the United States.During his five years in Norfolk he invigorated and expanded his congregation,making it,into the fully self-supporting Grace Episcopal Church.He also established the industrial School for Colored Girls and served from 1887-1890 on the board of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.On September 20, 1887,William married Nellie Hill,a member of another prominent family in Petersburgh's African American community.They had two sons and two daughters.


On November 17,1891,George was called to resuurrent another church,the Saint James African Episcopal Church in Baltimore.Start with sixty-nine members and dependent on financial aid from the bishop,he made the church sufficient,tripled the size of its congregation within a few years,and erected a new church building in 1901.George helped establish the Maryland Home For Friendless Colored Children in 1899 and devoted much time to preparing twenty African American men for the ministry.During his forty-eight years in Baltimore he returned to his roots in publishing by editing a monthly newspaper,the Church Advocate,writing and printing,more than a score of books and pamphlets,several of which dealt with the history of African American in Virginia.His most important works included The Colored Harvest in the Old Virginia Diocese (1901),Afro-American Church Work and Workers (1904),The Story of  Old St.Stephen's,Petersburgh,Va.(1906),A Bond-Slave of Christ: Entering the Ministry Under Great Difficulties (1912),History of the Afro-American Group of  the Episcopal Church (1922),and The Hero of Jerusalem (1926),which commemorated the centennial of the birth of  William Mahone.

In recognition of George's contribution to the church and to African American historiography,Wilberforce University awarded him an honorary D.D. in 1902.He was a central figure in the Conference of  Church Workers Among the Colored People,the national black episcopal organization,which argued that the appointment of black bishops would increase the number of African Americans in the church.Twice George was proposed for elevation to bishop.He was suggested as bishop.He was suggested as bishop of Haiti in 1911 and as suffragan bishop of Arkansas in 1917 but was not elected either time.

He continued his ministry at Saint James Church until his death at Provident Hospital in Baltimore following a brief respiratory illness.

"Timothy-Thomas-Fortune" (October 3,1856-June 2,1928)

Was an orator,civil rights,leader,journalist,writer, editor,and publisher.He was the

highly influential editor of the nation's African American newspaper The New York Age,was the leading economist in the African American community.He was a long-time adviser to Booker T.Washington and the ghost writer,and the editor of Booker's first autobiography,The Story of my Life and Work.Timothy's philosophy of militant on behalf of the rights of African American people laid one of the foundations of the Civil Rights Movement.

He was born during slavery in Marianna,Jackson County,Florida,to Emanuel & Sarah Jane Fortune.He started his education at Marianna's first school for African Americans after the Civil War.His family moved to Jacksonville where he attended Stanton High School for Negroes.Timothy worked both as a page in the state senate and as apprenticed printer at a Jacksonville newspaper during the time Emanuel,was a reconstruction politician in Florida.At one time Timothy also worked at the Marianna Courier and later the Jacksonville Daily-Times Union.These experiences would be the start of a career wherein he would go on to have his work published in over twenty books and articles and more than three hundred editorials.In 1874 he was mail route agent and then he was promoted to customs inspector for the eastern district of Delaware but only held this position for a few months before resigning in order to attend Howard University.

He was mostly self-taught,in 1875 Timothy Timothy enrolled in Howard University to study law.He changed to journalism after two semesters before leaving school altogether to begin work,in 1876,at the People's Advocate,a newspaper in Washington,D.C.

He moved to New York in 1881 and began process whereby over the next two decades he would become known as editor and owner of a newspaper named first the Globe,then the Freeman and finally the New York Age.

Upon  arrival  in New York,Timothy began working as a printer.He became part owner of various,publications,ultimately founding the New York Freeman 1884.That same year he published a book atitled Black and White: Land,Labor,and Politics in the South.Four years later The Freeman took the new name of The New York Age and set out to become "The Afro-American Journal of News and Opinion."

In Chicago on January 25,1890,Timothy co-founded the militant National Afro-American League to right wrongs against African American authorized by law and sanctioned or tolerated opinion.The league fell part apart after four years.When it was revived in Rochester,New York,on September 15,1898,it had the new name of "National  Afro American Council," With Timothy as president.These two organizations would play a vital role in setting the stage for the Niagara Movement,NACCP and other civil rights organizations to follow.Timothy was also the leading advocate of using "Afro-American to identify his people.Since they are "African in orgin and American in birth," it was his argument that most accurately defined them.

With Timothy as the helm as co-owner with Emanuel Fortune Jr.and Jerome B.Peterson,the New York Age became the most widely read of all African American newspapers.It stood at the forefront as a voice agitating against the evils of discrimination,lynching,mob violence and disenfranchisement.Its popularity was due to Timothy's editorials which condemned all forms of discrimination and demanded full justice for all African Americans.Ida Bell Wells Barnett's newspaper Memphis Free and Headlight had its printing press destroyed and building burned as the result of an article published in it on May 25,1892.Timothy then gave her a job and a new platform from which to detail and condem lynching.His book The Kind of Education the Afro-American Most Needs was published in 1898.He published Dreams of Life:Miscellaneous Poems.After a nervous breakdown,Timothy sold the New York Age to Fred R.Moore in 1907,who continued it until 1960.Timothy published another book,The New York Negro in Journalism in 1915.

Timothy went to work as an editor at the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African League's house organ,the Negro World,in 1923.At its height the Negro World had circulation of over 200,000.With distribution throughout the United States,Canada,Europe,Africa,the Caribbean,and in Central America it may have been the most widely disturbed newspaper in the world at that time.During his tenure at the Negro World,Timothy rubbed shoulders with such literary luminaries as Zora Neale Hurston,W.A. Domingo,Hubert Harrison,and John E.Bruce among others.

Timothy moved to Red Bank,New Jersey,in 1901,where he built his home,Maple Hill.

He died in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.

"George-Edwin-Taylor" (August 4,1857-December 23,1925)

Was born in Little Rock Arkansas (Pulaski County) to Bryan (Nathan) Taylor,a slave

and Amanda Hines,a " free African-American woman; he had eleven siblings,none of whom are known by name.Nothing is known about his parents,except Amanda Hines was forced to leave Arkansas in 1859 in compliance with the state's Free Negro Expulsion Act,signed into law on February 12,1859.She fled with baby,Taylor to Alton,Illinois,a major center of the Underground Railroad.


Little is known about his time in Alton,except his mama died from tuberculosis in 1861 or 1862,and the young George lived in "dry good boxes" before he was taken to the La Crosse Wisconsin,area area,where he lived from 1865-1891.While in La Crosse (1865-1867),he lived the Henry & Agnes Southhall family and attended La Crosse's schools.From 1867,he was raised by politically active African American farmer near West Salem,Wisconsin.George attended county schools and Wayland Academy (1877-1879) in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin,where he studied the "classical curriculum."


From 1879,Edward worked as a journalist in the La Crosse are,contributing to numerous local newspapers and eventually and editing the Wisconsin Labor Advocate.He was active in local and state politics,especially in the labor movement and in the Wisconsin People's Union Labor parties.Edward moved to Okaloosa,Iowa,and in 1891,when he owned and edited and the Negro Solicitor.While in Iowa,he was president of the National Negro Democratic League,the National Negro men's Protective Association,and the National (Negro) Knights of Phythias.From Iowa (1891-1910),Edward moved to Florida,where he was the executive director of Jacksonville's "Colored" Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and editor of three local newspapers: the Promoter,the Florida Times-Union (colored section),and the Florida Sentinel.


He married three times:Mary Hall of Prairre du Chien,Wisconsin,on October 15,1885;Cora E.Cooper in Okaloosa,Iowa,on August 25,1894,and Marian Tillinghast of Green Cove Springs,Florida circa 1919.No children were born to any of these marriages.


Edward's principal success (and failure) was his candidacy of the National Negro Liberty Party in 1904 for the office of president the United States.That election was won by Theodore Roosevelt,but Edward's 1904 candidacy reflected the enormous trama then facing African-American voters who were witnessing a fundamental failure of both Republican & Democratics to protect civil rights gained after the war,a systematic and through disfranchisement of  their in Southern states,and an imposition  of  Jim Crow Law & segregation.The Liberty Party's platform contained planks that supported pensions for ex-slaves,independence for Puerto Ricans & Filipinos,and representation for voters in the District of Columbia.It is condeemed disfranchisement efforts sweeping the South.The state of Arkansas played a role in attempt to dehumanize African Americans.


He died in Jacksonville,Florida.The cause of death and his burial is known.

"Luis-Gonzaga-Pinto-Gama" (Luis-Gama) (June 21,1830-August 24,1882)

Was a Brazilian poet,journalist,legal activist,abolitionist leader,and former

slave.He was born a free mulatto in Salvador,the capital of Brazil's Bahia province.

The legal knowledge Luis had gained in previous years allowed him to help free over five hundred slaves.Without formal legal training,he argued successfully in court for the freedom of people who had been enslaved in violation of an 1831 law that had declared all incoming Africans to be free.The self-made lawyer was immensely passionate and provocative in the courtroom,sometimes openly calling for slave rebellion.

His mama,Luisa Mahin,was a black woman who had formerly been enslaved.Luisa made a living for a time selling vegetables and fruits in the streets before helping to lead two slave revolts.Her involvements in the rebellions resulted in her being deported back to West Africa.
In 1873 the party drafted and approved a bill that called for the gradual liberation of enslaved blacks in Brazil. Luis wanted immediate rather than gradual emancipation and angrily left the party because of it.

His daddy was a Portuguese aristocrat about whom little is known.

Luis was sold into slavery at age 10 by his daddy who was trying to pay off gambling debts.The sale was illegal,as Luis had been born to a free mama and trade of slaves was no longer allowed in Brazil.Nonetheless,Luis lived and worked as a house slave for eight years in Sao Paulo.

In 1847 the seventeen-year-old befriended Antonio Rodrigues de Prado,a law student who taught Luis how to read and write,and pipqued  Luis interest in learning more about law.

Antonio also encouraged Luis to gather documentation proving the illegality of his sale into slavery.Once he had gathered these documents,Luis  ran away and join the army.While serving there he worked as a clerk at the private law firm of Francisco Maria de Sousa Furtado Mendonca,who mentored Luis in law and would later become the godfather of Luis son.Luis served in the military for six years,he was discharged in 1854 for insubordination.


After discharge luis began working in Sao Paulo police stations as a copyist and clerk while working a book on the side,Primieras Trovas Burlescas,which was published in 1859.Primieras was a collection satirical social commentary in the form of poetry.Its publication made Luis a prominent and controversial figure.


Some of the best-known poems from the collection criticized Brazillian mulatto society for disregarding their oppressed black countrymen and for romanticizing was accompanied by Luis increasing with abolitionism.


Luis joined the growing liberal political movement in Brazil and helped establish the anti-monarchy,pro-democracy Brazilian Republican Party.Not all abolitionists were antimonarcy,nor were all in favor of black participation in abolitionists activities.There were also division in the party over the time frame for the emancipation of slaves in Brazil.In 1873 the party drafted and approved a bill that called for the gradual liberation of slaves in Brazil.In 1873 the party drafted and approved a bill that called for the gradual liberation of slaves in Brazil.Luis immediate rather than gradual emancipation and angrily left the party because of it.


The legal knowledge Luis had gained in previous years allowed him to help free over five hundred slaves.Without formal legal training,he argued successfully in court for the all incoming Africans to be free.The self-made lawyer was immensely passionate and provocative in the courtroom,sometimes openly calling for slave rebellion.


Luis established an abolitionist journal called Diabo Coxo in 1864.Four years later he also began writing anti-slavery pieces for a prominent newspaper,O Ipiranga and in 1869 he joined the editorial board of of a newspaper called Radical Paulistano.


In 1881,Luis started a fund,Caixa Emancipation Luis Gama,to purchase the freedom of slaves.The following year he founded the Abolitionist Center of Sao Paulo.


Unfortunately,the preeminent Brazillian abolitionist's life was cut short as slaves in his nation were near liberation.Luis died of diabetes complications.Six years later later,in 1888,Princess Isabel,the Brazilian sovereign,signed the Golden Law,freeing the remaing slaves in her nation.

"Rene-Maran" (November 5,1887-May 9,1960)

He was a Black French journalist,and the first black writer to win the renowed French literary prize,the Prix Goncourt.


Rene was born in Martinique of Guyanese Parents.After a four-year stay in Gabon,Central Africa,where his daddy was serving in a colonial post,Rene returned in 1894 to France,where he attended the lycee.He later completed his baccalaureate at Bordeaux,which he thereafter regarded as home.Like his daddy,Rene entered the French colonial service.In 1910 he left for Bangui to serve as petty officer in charge of indigenous affairs in the Ubangi-Shari territory for French Equatorial Africa(present-day Central Africa Republic).The only black Frenchman to hold such a post,Rene serve from 1910-1925.


His first book of poems (Batouala) was born out of  this experience,and was first published in French in 1921.This translation is,based upon the franker 1938 edition.He wrote seven other books including Le Livre de la Brousse (1934) and an autobiographical novel Un Homme pareli aux autres.He stated that he spent six years,off and on,writing his best work by observing the ways of the tribal troups and learning their langlanguages.

"Paul-Samuel-Henderson" (October 10,1899-May 24,1988)

Was an African American photojournalists for the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper from

1929-1960.He became well known for taking pictures of large groups and distant objects atop a ladder he carried.Paul primarily photographed people,including church groups,politicians,graduations,local college and university groups,weddings,events during the African-American Civil Rights Movement,and more.He was a member of the NAACP,a vestryman at St.James Church,charter member of the Druid Hill Avenue Neighborhood Club, assistant treasurer of a local Frontiers International Club,and supported the The Salvation Army.

Paul was born in Springfield,Tennessee and was the youngest of four children to Ike A.& Annie L.Henderson.At age 18 he registered for the World War I draft on September 12,1918 while working as a bricklayer for a steel company in Gary,Indiana.In 1920 his profession changed to driver  for a laundry in Gary.At some point during his residence in Gary,he attended the School for Professional Photography.

After leaving Indiana,Paul worked for a newspaper in Roanoke,Virginia.He moved to Baltimore in 1929 and became what the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper called their first photographer.Paul used a large format  view camera to produce glass negatives,and eight by ten inch and four by five inch acetate negatives.

Paul documented racial segregation and early civil rights protests as community members of the Baltimore City's African-American population.Paul photographed  NAACP Baltimore Branch president  Lillie Carroll Jackson,Baltimore City Mayor and Maryland State Govenor Theodore Mckeldin,Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall  when he was a lawyer for the NAACP,journalist and publisher Carl Murphy,businesses and people along Pennsylvania Avenue,which was a main artery for African American culture and life in Baltimore and much more.

Paul bequeathed his photograph and object collection to the Peale Museum.When the Peale closed its doors in 1997,the collection was transferred to the Maryland Historical Society.

In 1930,he married schoolteacher and "prominent society girl"Elizabeth Johnson.Elizabeth was a graduate of Douglass High School and Coppin Normal for Teachers (now Coppin State University) in Baltimore whose career flourished in the Baltimore City Public School system.Paul & Elizabeth had no children.

In 1966 Paul became so gravely ill that on January 22,the Baltimore Afro-American printed a premature obituary for him.In the same issue,the newspaper ask readers for prayers for Paul who had been in Hopkins Hospital for the past week.In April 1966,the newspaper's Bettye M.Moss updates readers in her column about Paul's condition,stating that he is able to be "up and about"at the Bolton Hill Nursing Home at Lafayette Avenue and John Street in Baltimore.By June the Afro-American reports that John is back at at 1925 Druid Hill Avenue in Baltimore.

Paul died at Union Memorial Hospital after a reported with long term illness.Services were held at St.James Episcopal Church at Lafayette and Arlington avenues.He had outlived his wife Elizabeth,who passed away in 1982.His obituary stated that he was survived by his brother,Willard Henderson,who lived in Tampa,Florida.

"Carl-Murphy" (January 17,1889-February 25,1967)

Was an African American Journalist,publisher,civil rights leader,and educator.


Dr.Carl Murphy was born in Baltimore,Maryland;his parents were John Henry Murphy Sr. & Martha Howard Murphy.He graduated from Howard University in 1911,Harvard University in 1913,and the University of  Jena Berlin in 1913.Carl  served as professor of German and chairman of the German department at Howard University between 1913 and 1918 it was in that year he joined the staff of the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper,by his daddy John Murphy Sr.


In 1922,upon his daddy's death,Dr.Murphy assumed control of the paper and in the next four decades solidified the Afro's place  as a major African American newspaper.At its peak,the Afro-American published more than a dozen editions in Baltimore;Washington,D.C.;Richmond,Virginia;and Newark, New Jersey.Carl built up the Afro-American from a journal of 14,000 circulations to more than 200,000;employing more than 200 workers.


In addition to his responsibilities to the Afro,Carl became actively involved with the Baltimore branch of the NAACP .In December 1932,he declared the NAACP's intention the challenge racial segregation at the University of Maryland.By 1935,with the help of NAACP attroneys Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall,the NAACP forced open the university's law school,with a strategy that would be used successfully across the Jim Crow South.Perhaps Carl's most significant single contribution to the Baltimore Afro American cause came in 1935 when he engineered the election of Lillie Carroll Jackson to the presidency of the local NAACP branch.A perfect complement to Carl's more subtle leadership style,the straightforward  and tireless Carroll remained in the post until 1970.
Under the leadership of  Carl,the Afro newspaper was deeply involved in the organization of Dr.Martin Luther Jr's "March on Washington for jobs and Freedom."The paper designed a team of  columnists and reporters to aid in the demonstration's promotion,and dispatched another team of journalists to detail its progress.In its 80th anniversary issue,the Afro called Carl "a man with a purpose."Carl ran the paper for 45 years.He was a lifelong mason mason, member of President Herbert Hoover's 1930 Commission to Haiti and a member of the Electoral College for 1960 Presidential election.His impact was felt far beyond his home in Baltimore,Maryland.As a result of Baltimore's separate but unequal racial order,Carl and the Afro staff were very concerned with the usatisfactory education being provided to African American children and the complicity of Baltimore's white power structure in this provision.During the 1920s the newspaper intensified its campaign its campaign for a first rate school system,in order to provide African American children with upward mobility in American society as well as remunerative and fulfilling employment for for African American educators.Thes efforts serve as the foundation for a stable and prosperous African American middle class.


To peers and contemporaries,the diminutive Carl was a giant.Following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Brown v.Brown of Education (1954),Thurgood Marshall publicly acknowledged a debt of gratitude to Carl.For his effort on behalf of civil rights,the NAACP awarded him its highest honor,the Spingarn Medal,in 1955.Morgan State University,on whose board Carl had served as a trustee for decades,named its Fine Arts Center in his honor.Carl Murphy died on February 25,1967,the very the Maryland General Assembly repealed a 306-year state law banning interracial marriage,a battle the Afro publisher and civil rights leader had waged for decades.Carl met his future wife,Vashti Turley Murphy,while she was a student in his German class at Howard University;they married June 20,1916,just before he returned to Baltimore to run to run the paper.Vashti taught school in Washington D.C.,and got her B.A. degree from Howard in 1913.In 1911,while studying at Howard,Vashti and 22 other women founded the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc.

"William Cooper Nell"(December 16,1816-May 25,1874)

Was an African American abolitionist journalist,publisher,author,and civil servant of Boston,Massachusetts,who worked for integration of schools and public facilities in the state.Writing for abolitionist newspapers The Liberator and The North Star,he helped published the North Star.


He also helped found the New England Freedom Association in the early 1840s,and later the Committee of Vigilance,to aid refugee slaves.The Committee of Virilance supported resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850,which increased penalities even against citizens in free states who aided refugee slaves.


William's short stories,Services of Colored in the Wars of 1776 and 1812 (1851) and Colored Patriots of the American Revolution (1855),were the first studies published about African Americans.He is noted as the first African American to serve in the federal civic service in the post office.


He was born in Boston,Massachusetts to Louise Cooper,from Brookline,and William Guion Nell,from Charleston,South Carolina.His daddy was an important in the abolitionist movement,having helped to create Massachusetts General Colored Association in the 1820s.William encountered racial discrimination as a student.In 1829 he was passed over for an award given to excellent students upon graduating from the Smith School,apprently because of his race and excluded from a celebratory dinner.The award was financially supported by the estate of anti-slavery advocate Benjamin Franklin.The school committee instead gave him The Life of Ben Franklin,an autobiography.


Inspired by the founding of William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper,The Liberator,William decided to challenge race-based discrimination and segregation,as as his daddy had. William was particulary interested in encouraging the intellectual and social well-being of young African Americans.William was dedicated to integration and opposed the separate abolitionist organizations for African Americans and whites.In this devotion  to integration,he dismantled the abolitionist Massachusetts General Colored Association,which had been organized by his daddy.


William studied law in the early 1830s.He was never admitted to the bar he was never admitted to the bar because he would not swear allegiance to Constitution of the United States,as he believed it was a pro-slavery document.He was influenced by the opinions of William and Wendell Phillips.Around this time,William also began his association with William and The Liberator.This connection would continue until the paper closed in 1865.He fought for the ideas of William throughout the abolitionist campaign.


William Nell began working against the existing system of segregated schools for African American and white children in Massachusetts,gathering 2,000 signatures from the African American community on a petition to the state legislature.In 1855 William Nell and colleagues gained a victory,segregation was ended in Boston schools.William Nell also encouraged young African Americans to learn outside of the public school system.William Garrison said of him,"Perhaps no one has done so much-certain no one has done more- for the intellectual and moral improvement of our colored youth.


In 1843,William Nell continued his crusade against segregation within the abolitionist movement by denouncing the Buffalo National Negro Convention.He claimed they served as and promoted exactly the type of separate abolitionist he was fighting against.


On the other hand,he was influential in beginning the New England Freedom Association,an all African-American organization which helped fugitive slaves in the North.In this case,William Nell supported an African American group since the he believed its cause was closer to the hearts of African Americans than whites.William publicized the Freedom Association's direct aid to fugitive slaves as well as the abolitionist cause.He also fought for higher education and encouraged the improvement of young African Americans;with John T.Hilton,he founded the Adelphia Union and the Young Men's Literary Society of Boston.


William Nell was a leader in campaigns to desegregate public facilities in Boston:the Boston railroad (1843) and Boston performance halls (1853).


William served as publisher to Frederick Douglass' The North Star,from late 1847 until 1851,moving temporarily to Rochester,New York,during this period.He also joined New York anti-slavery societies and founded a literary society.He ended his work with Frederick during the latter's feud with his close friend William Garrison.William Nell ended all contact with Douglass finally in 1853 when the leader advocated the Colored National Council and the Manual Labor School,which represented the types of segregated institutions which William Nell detested.Fredrick attacked William Nell and other leading African American activists who supported William Garrison,including Robert Purvis of Philadelphia and Charles Lenox Redmond.


In 1850,William Nell and other petiitoners requested money from the state legislature to commission a monument to Crispus Attucks,one of the first martyrs of the American Revolution.When Boston commissioned a major monument to the Boston Massacre to be installed on the Common in 1888,the fallen Crispus was featured in it prominently.


A few years later,in 1855,William Nell achieved another success when the legislature finally abolished segregation in public schools.In regognition of his efforts on this issue,a commemorative dinner was held to honor him.During 1855,William Garrison The Liberator employed William Nell to journey around the Midwest and study African American anti-slavery efforts.He attended graduation at Oberlin College,appreciating the easy relations among the integrated students.


William Nell was outraged by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dreadscott v.Sandford ruling in 1857,which said that ethnic Africans had no legal standing in the United States as they were not considered citizens under the Constitution.In 1858 he organized a memorial celebration of Crispus Attucks at Faneuil Hall,a traditional site of commemoration and worked with others to have "Crispus Attucks Day"designated in Boston.He reminded people of the participation of African Americans in the fight for Independence from Great Britain,and helped have Crispus recognized in the commemoration of the Boston Massacre.That same year,William organized the Convention of Colored Citizens of New England.While it was contrary to his earlier dislike of segregated abolitionist efforts,he argued that the Scott decision was such an insult to African Americans that they needed to act separately.


In his time apart from the newspaper,William worked for legislation to allow African Americans into the Massachusetts militia.He could not succeed in this but lived to see African Americans served in the United States forces during the Civil War.


With the outbreak of the Civil War,William worked to have African Americans accepted as soldiers in the Union Army.In 1861,he was hired as a postal clerk in Boston,the first African American to served in the federal civil service.


On April April 14,1869,William married Frances Ann Ames,the twenty-six-year-old daughter of Philip Osgood Ames,a barber from Nashua,New Hampshire and his wife Lucy B.(Drake) Ames.The Nells had two sons,William Cooper,Jr.(1870-92)and Frank Ames (1872-81).


William died of a stroke.His wife survived him by by over twenty years dying in Nashua,New Hampshire,on September 13,1895.

"Joseph Carter Corbin" {March 26,1833-January 9,1911}

Journalist,served as Arkansas state superintendent of public instruction during Reconstruction and was the founder and president of the first African American institution of higher education in Arkansas.
He was born in Chilicote, Ohio,the eldest of free African American parents,William & Susan Corbin.He had eleven siblings.He attended school during the winter months,a common practice at the time.
In 1848 he traveled Louisville,Kentucky,assist Rev.Henry A.Adams as a teacher.Joseph taught school for some years and then attended Ohio University at Athens.He graduated with a B.A. in art in 1853 and an MA in art in 1856.An honorary doctoral degree was later conferred on Joseph by an unknown Baptist institution in the South.According to some sources,Joseph worked as a messenger in the Bank of Ohio Valley at Cincinnati and edited and published a newspaper,The Colored Citizen for eight years.
On September 11,1866,Joseph married Mary J.Ward,a Kentuck native,in Cincinnati.They had six children,two of whom lived to adulthood.In 1872,the family moved to Little Rock Arkansas,where Joseph worked as a reporter for the Arkansas Republican and later in the Little Rock Arkansas Rock Post Office.
From 1873-1875,Joseph served as Arkansas's superintendent of public instruction and, by virtue of holding that office,was president of the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees.As president he signed the contract for the construction of University Hall (now called Old Main),which was the first building at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.It was very unusual for an African American man to hold such a position during that time,but he was qualified and connected with the Republican Party establishment in power then in the South.
Joseph later taught mathematics,according to to the best to the best available evidence,for two years at Lincoln University in Jefferson City,Missouri,beginning in the fall of 1874.Joseph had worked on legislation to create in Arkansas for African American students.That legislation was adopted in 1873,but there was no time to put it in operation because Reconstruction was overthrown with the Brooks-Baxter War of 1874 and Republican state officials lost their jobs.Joseph did not sell his house in Little Rock,and when he was vacationing there,then-US Attroney General Augustus Hill Garland (later governor) encouraged him to open Branch Normal College of Arkansas Industrial University in Jefferson County.In 1875,Joseph was appointed principal of Branch Normal,a position he held until 1902.The school is now
the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
While at Branch Normal,he conducted teaching training institutes in Arkansas and Oklahoma,under the superintendent of public schools,believing that such courses inspired teachers to improve and gave them the opportunity to see exhibitions and new methods of teaching.With R.C.Childress,a teacher at Branch Normal,Joseph formed the Teachers of Negro Youth,the first state association for African American teachers in 1898.Joseph was the first president of that organization.Twenty years after his death,the organization became known as the Arkansas Teachers Association,which after integration,merged with the Arkansas Education Association in 1969.
Branch Normal's enrollment grew from seven students in 1875 to 1841 by 1894.A two-story brick building with classrooms and an assembly hall was constructed.A dormitory for girls was also built,and an industrial department was established with courses in sewing,typing,and printing.These were added between 1880 & 1900.Joseph's daughter worked as the sewing and industrial teacher for women,and his wife taught art at the school.Joseph himself wrote articles on mathematics and constructed mathematics puzzles that were published in Barnes' Educational School Vistors,the Mathematical vistor,the Mathematical Magazine,and the Mathematical Gazette.
Joseph spoke and read Greek,Latin,German,French,Italian,Hebrew,and Danish.He seems to have taught himself because he was very interested in languages.He taught Greek and Latin at Branch Normal until the curriculum was modified in 1889.Joseph
played and taught students to play piano,organ,and flute and trained the Normal School Choir,which was featured every commencement.A civic-minded man,Joseph served secretary and third Grand Master of the Arkansas chapter of the Prince Hall Masons and as vice president of the Colored Industrial Fair.
Joseph experienced conflict with the Board of Trustees of Branch Normal as well as the state legislature,which recommended he be fired in April of 1893 because of an investigation into alleged financial mismanagement of the school.He was dismissed in 1902.In 1905,he became principal of Merrill Public School in Pine Bluff.
Joseph died,in Pine Bluff and is buried in Chicago.

"Phillip Alexander Bell"(1808-1889)

African American journalist who was born in New York City cut his political teeth in early abolitionist politics in the Northwest.Philip attended Colored Citizens Conventions as early as 1830 and established his first newspaper,the Weekly Advocate,in 1837 after working for William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator.After migrating to San Francisco,California in 1860,he maintained his connections with important abolition leaders such as William & Frederick Douglass by reporting on African American political and economic opportunities in the West.
In 1862,Philip joined forces with Peter Anderson yo edit the Pacific Appeal,one of the first major African American newspapers in California,he and Peter clashed.By 1865,Philip established his own weekly newspaper,The Elevator,under the slogan,"Equality Before the Law." The Elevator demanded California legislators approve the proposed Reconstruction-era constitutional amendments acknowledging African American citizenships and suffrage rights.Philip also regularly editorialized on behalf of expanding African American children's educational opportunities.California state legislators repeatedly rejected efforts to grant African Americans greater civil rights,but the ratification of the 14th & 15th Amendments allowed African American male Californians voting rights in 1870.
Intially a strong supporter of the Republican Party,Philip organized the Idependent Equal Rights League in 1876 to lobby politticians across party lines to support African American opportunities.Peter charged Philip with seeking patronage perks,and most African Americans continued to support the Republican Party,Philip remained a powerful figure with African American California until his death.

"Malvin Russell Goode"(February 13,1908-

He was born in White Plains,Virginia,his family moved to Homestead,Pennsylvania,near Pittsburgh when he was young.He was the third of four boys and two girls:James,Williams,Mary,Allan,and Ruth.His grandparents had once been slaves,and their story informed his entire family life,giving them ambition and determination.His mama went to West Virginia State University.A great proponent of education,she stressed its importance to her children.
His daddy had very little education,but was a hard worker and stressed to his children the importance of finding
work being good as possible at it.Malvin's daddy worked at the Carnegie Steel Company and eventually moved up to the highest position an African American men could have at that time in the company-that
of first helper in the open hearth.When World War I,ended,he open a first & poultry business.Along with the lessons Malvin learned from his mama,he added to the lessons his daddy taught him,those of hard work and industriousness.Malvin often credited this beginning with his success throughout his life.Malvin grew up and attended school in Homestead,Pennsylvania.During high school he got a job working nights at the steel mill where his daddy worked,and he continued working there throughout his college years at the University of Pittsburgh.
He earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1931,he continued his steel mill job after graduation,staying there until 1936 because jobs were hard to find during the great depression.He felt his luck at having such a good job,and spent time putting aside money for the future.In 1936 Malvin managed to get a different job,this time as a probation officer for Pittsburgh's juvenile court.He also worked as a director of boy's works at the Pittsburgh's Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA).At that time the YMCA offered many insipirational and population programs for urban children and for the community at large.He worked hard to rid the YMCA of some of its discrimination,which was rampant at the time,and he had some success in his endeavors.Sometime in the 1940s Malvin took on the position of manager at the Pittsburgh Housing Authority,where he stayed for six years.It was not until 1948,when he was 40 that he began a career in journalism,it was something he had long considered He was offered a job at the Pittsburgh Courier,Pittsburgh's premiere African-American newspaper.At that time the Courier was the most popular and bestselling paper of its type in the United States.Malvin then decided to try his hand at another form of broadcasting,moving over to include radio broadcasts in his working life.He began with with 15-minute news show for the station KQV.It seemed he had found his calling,he not only enjoyed the work,Malvin was also good at it.From this one small radio job Malvin moved to the station WHOD to do a daily five-minute broadcast,a consistent job that allowed him to gain much experience in the world of broadcasting.This was expanded into a full-blown news show that he took on with his sister Mary.Malvin became the news director of WHOD radio station in 1952.he had not,lost his love of print journalism,and he kept his job at the Courier,later becoming the first African-American member of the National Association of Radio and Television News Directors.
In 1962 ABC News was looking for an African American reporter.They realize that their base of reporters was all white,and they set out to rectify this problem.
Malvin was was recommended to ABC by one of his friends,baseball player Jackie Robinson,and was chosen from among nearly 40 candidates.He won the position because of his professionalism,and in a history-making event he was assigned to cover the United Nations.in New York City a job coverted by many reporters.He was the first African-American reporter hired by ABC.Only a few months after he took the job with ABC,Malvin had to cover the Cuban missile crisis,when it looked like the U.S.and the Soviet Union might go to war because of the presence of Russian nuclear weapons in Cuba.Malvin covered the debates on the topics at the United Nations,taking the difficult and contentious subject and making it accessible to Americans everywhere.He was said to have distinguished himself in the reporting,leading the way for more equality in news coverage across the country.Whereas the news had centered around white concerns and issues,there began to be more about under-represented minorities.This became especially obvious in the 1960s when race riots occurred in Detriot,Los Angeles,and elsewhere.News team had a hard time covering both sides of the story,and there were few reporters who could do so.Malvin was one of the few who was sent in to cover the riots,and did so with respect and sympathy.
Malvin went on to cover such important issues as the assassination of Malcolmn X and the shooting of Martin Luther King,Jr.He refused to be pigeonholed into writing only subject of race.He covered everything anything newsworthy that he found to be of interest to him and of importance in the world.Malvin was was a huge proponent of journalists helping young people become good future journalist.With that idea in mind,in 1963 he took a trip overseas with other African Americans colleagues to help teach journalism in Nigeria,Tanzania,and Ethiopia.Malvin remained working at the United Nations until the 1980s.He then left that post to become a consultant for ABC,he kept an office at the United Nations Building until he was almost 80 and retired from journalism.He also sometimes reported on international affairs for the National Black Network,and was often asked to speak in public about his years as a journalist and about current affairs,as well as civil rights and and important events going on at the United Nations.
He married Mary Lavelle,with whom he would eventually have six children:Robert Malvin Jr.,Richard,Ronald,Roberta,and Rosalia.He died of a stroke at Margaret's Memorial Hospital in Pittsburgh.

"Alice Ruth Moore Dunbar Nelson"(July 19,1875-September 18,1935)

Was an American poet,journalist,and political activists.Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War,Alice was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance.Her first husband was the poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar the poet.He noticed her picture and one of her poems in the Boston Monthly Review in 1895,and was instantly infatuated.They began a two year correspondence and finally met in February 1897.They were married on March 6,1898 in New York City,New York and moved to Washington,D.C.The marriage initiated a tumultuous relationship and they separated in 1902.As husband and wife they shared literacy pursuits and celebrity status in Washington,but their life together was marred by Lawrence physically abusive treatment of Alice.In one incident she was sent to a Washington D.C. hospital where she nearly died after attack.She left him, and moved to Delaware.Shen then moved to Wilmington,Delaware and taught at Howard High School for more than a decade.In 1910,she married Henry Arthur Callis,a prominent physician and professor at Howard University,they ended up divorce.From 1913-1914,Alice was coeditor and writer for the A.M.E. Review,an influential church publication by the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME).In 1916 she married the poet and civil rights activist Robert J.Nelson.Alice joined him in becoming active in politics in Wilmington and the region.They stayed together for the rest of their lives.From 1920,she coedited the Wilmington Advocate,a progressive African American newspaper.Alice also published The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer,a literary anthology for an African American audience.
She was an activist for African Americans and women rights,especially during the 1920s& 30s.While continued to write stores and poetry,she became
more political active in Wilmington,and put more effort into numerous articles and journalism on leading topics.In 1915, she was field organizer for the Middle Atlantic States for the
woman's suffrage movement.In 1918,she was field representative for the Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense.In 1924,Alice campaigned for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill,but the Southern Democratic block in Congress defeated it.From about 1920 on,she made a commitment to journalism and was highly successful columnist,with articles,essays and reviews appearing as well in newspapers,magazines,and academic journals.
She was a popular speaker and had active schedule of lectures through these years.Her journalism career began with a rocky start.During the late 19th century,it was still unusual for women to work outside of the home,let alone
an African-American woman,and the journalism business was a hostile,male-dominated field.
In her diary,she spoke about the tribulations associated with the profession of journalism-"Damn bad luck i have with pen.Some fate has decreed i shall never make money by it" (Diary 366).She discusses being denied pay for articles and issues she had receiving proper recognition for her work.
Alice moved from Delaware to Philadelphia in 1932 with Henry,when he joined the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission.During this time,her health was in decline and she died from a heart aliment.Alice was made an honorary member of Delta Signma theta sorority.Her papers were collected by the University of Delaware.