Robert Abbott

Robert S. Abbott

Early Life

On November 28, 1868, Robert Abbott was born on St. Simons Island to Flora Butler and Thomas Abbott, who had been formerly enslaved. Four months after Robert’s birth, his father died of tuberculosis. After her husband’s death, Flora Abbott returned with her son to her hometown of Savannah, Georgia. When Robert was six, Flora married John Hermann Henry Sengstacke, the German-educated son of an African enslaved woman and German immigrant father. Mr. Sengstacke was a Congregationalist minister and operated a school. He raised his stepson Robert, and seven other children, to respect hard work, clean living and traditional morality. At eight years old, Robert had a job as an errand boy. His mother taught her young son the value of wise spending and instilled a strong work ethic. She charged him ten cents a week for room and board.

Attending the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Robert heard Frederick Douglass speak, and the words had a profound effect on him, ultimately redirecting the course of African American journalism. Mr. Douglass was visibly aged, but after being heckled by a group of rowdy whites, threw down his notes and said, “Men talk of the ‘negro problem’. There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have honesty enough, loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough to live up to their own constitution. We intend that the American people shall learn the great lesson of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God from our presence among them.”

Inspired by Douglass’ speech to pursue a career as a printer, Abbott studied printing at Hampton Institute in Virginia. However, he was unable to find work, so he continued his studies at Kent College of Law in Chicago and graduated with a law degree in 1898, the only African American in his class. After trying unsuccessfully to establish a law practice in Illinois, he turned to back journalism.

 

Chicago Defender Newspaper Boy

Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Chicago Defender

Robert Abbott began publishing his paper, Chicago Defender, in 1905. For the first five years Abbott was the sole employee, serving as reporter, editor, typesetter, printer and salesman. Borrowing heavily from the journalistic styles of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, Abbott's Chicago Defender cultivated the art of irony and became known for its use of piercing language and huge, bold headlines. It was the first African American newspaper to have a circulation over 100,000 copies. It contained sections on health, sports, arts, comics, and fashion.

Because Abbott and his writers were vehemently against racial injustice, many white distributors refused to carry the newspaper. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan threatened those who were in possession of the paper, so it had to be smuggled into the South.

Abbott used Pullman car porters and African American entertainers—two groups that had more freedom of movement in the South—to help distribute the paper, as two-thirds of the newspaper’s readers were outside of Chicago.The newspaper was passed from person to person and read aloud in barbershops and churches. It is estimated that for every paper sold, it was read by four to five African Americans, putting its readership at over 500,000 people each week.

While it is still in existence today, times have changed, and the paper is available in online format.

The Great Migration

In the first quarter of the 20th century, the Chicago Defender came to the forefront as the strongest proponent of “The Great Migration”. The paper spoke of the hazards of remaining in the South and lauded life in the North. Job listings and train schedules were posted to facilitate relocation. This movement brought more than 1.5 million Southern African Americans to Northern industrial cities.

The Defender used editorials, cartoons, and articles with blazing headlines to attract attention to the movement. It went as far as to declare May 15, 1917, the date of the "Great Northern Drive." The Defenders’ advocacy is credited with being the single most compelling factor in over 110,000 people moving to Chicago between the years 1915-1917, tripling the city’s African American population.

 

Abbott Monument

NPS Photo

The Abbott Monument

Abbott’s hard work and the success of the Defender made him one of the first self-made black millionaires in the United States. In a letter dated June 5, 1928, Abbott received permission from J.L. Stevens to erect a monument in memory of his father and aunts on Stevens’ land. Abbott’s family members were buried in an African American cemetery which is now part of Fort Frederica National Monument. In 1929, Abbott commissioned the Oglethorpe Marble and Granite Company in Savannah to create an obelisk. Recent archeological research places the African American burial ground just several feet away from the memorial. The cemetery was dedicated by various faith leaders on the 80^th anniversary of Abbott’s death, February 29, 2020.

Robert Abbott’s legacy will be remembered, and his family members’ final resting place will be cared for in perpetuity by the staff of theNational Park Service.