Robert Abbott | Celebrating Historical Black Figures

We at GoodTrust are celebrating Black History Month and want to honor the sacrifices and contributions of African Americans who fought for equality with their entire lives. Black History month rightfully celebrates heroes like Martin Luther King, Rosa Park, and many others that changed history. In this article series, we would like to bring attention to less-known African-Americans that had an immense impact on the equality movement and the future of the United States.

In 1905 Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded the Chicago Defender, which eventually became one of the most circulated black-owned newspapers in the entire country. 

Robert Abbott was born on December 24, 1870 in St.Simons, Georgia. He was born to freedman parents who both had been enslaved before the civil war. Abbott highly valued education and attended Hampton Institute and graduated from Kent Law School in Chicago in 1899. After he was told that he was “too dark” to practice law, he decided to defend his people in public rather than in court.

Abbott had many great ideas but lacked sufficient funding for his own newspaper, so he took a job at his stepfather's newspaper. He borrowed some money to set up his own office in his landlady's dining room. The only equipment he had was a folding card table and a kitchen chair.

May 5th 1905 marks the date Abbott started the Chicago Defender, a newspaper that encouraged people to move from the southern states to the north. He sold the first 300 booklets by visiting all the shops in his neighborhood, including the local church and stores. After 15 years, in 1929, the Chicago Defender became the most sold black-owned newspaper, with a circulation of 250,000 copies. The paper played a major role in the “Great Migration” from 1915 to 1948, displaying the opportunities for employment, education and freedom for African Americans. The Defender also demanded full equality and fought against discrimination, segregation, and lynching. 

Abbott is told to have influenced over 50,000 African Americans to leave the southern states and migrate to the north. He also worked closely with President Roosevelt to create employment opportunities for African Americans in the US Postal Service.

Robert Sengstacke Abbott will always be remembered as the entrepreneurial writer who influenced and improved the lives of many African Americans. GoodTrust would like to honor him and his legacy with this article. 

Abbott’s image was animated with GoodTrust Memories to embrace his legacy and memory. Animate your own photos here. 

Happy Black History Month!