On a May evening in 1905, Robert Sengstacke
Abbott appeared on the streets of Chicago selling
his four-page Chicago Defender, proclaiming it “the
only two-cent weekly in the city.” Using his
landlady’s kitchen table as his desk, Abbott was
the newspaper’s publisher, editor, reporting staff,
business manager and sales force.

Born in Georgia to former slaves, Abbott learned
the printing trade at Hampton Institute in Virginia.
He moved to Chicago in 1897 and worked odd jobs
while earning a law degree at Kent College of Law.

Racial discrimination made it virtually impossible for Abbott to earn a living as a printer or lawyer. Instead he turned to journalism.

Abbott’s fierce opposition to racism and his entrepreneurial skills elevated the Defender to national prominence. Abbott recruited entertainers and Pullman porters to distribute the paper across the nation, providing them with newspaper coverage in return.

Abbott built the Defender into one of the nation’s most influential African-American publications and he is widely regarded as the greatest single force in African-American journalism. His paper’s success made Abbott one of the nation’s first African-American millionaires. He purchased a house at 4742 South Grand Boulevard (now King Drive) in 1926 and lived there until his death.