Barnett, Claude Albert (16 September 1889–02 August 1967), entrepreneur and journalist, was born in Sanford, Florida, the son of William Barnett, a hotel worker, and Celena Anderson, both of whom emphasized pride in their Black heritage. His parents separated when he was young, and Barnett moved to Mattoon, Illinois. He attended elementary school in Mattoon, Chicago, and Oak Park, Illinois. He went to Oak Park High School near Chicago and was a domestic worker for ...
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Barnett, Claude Albert (16 September 1889–02 August 1967), entrepreneur and journalist
Robert L. Harris
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Chandler, Harry (17 May 1864–23 Sept. 1944), newspaper publisher and promoter
Bruce J. Evensen
Chandler, Harry (17 May 1864–23 Sept. 1944), newspaper publisher and promoter, of Southern California, was the eldest of four children born in Landaff, New Hampshire to Moses Knight Chandler and Emma Jane (Little) Chandler, who worked in a bobbin factory in neighboring Lisbon....
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Chandler, Otis (23 November 1927–17 February 2006)
Ann T. Keene
Chandler, Otis (23 November 1927–17 February 2006), newspaper publisher, was born in Los Angeles, California, the elder child and only son of Norman Chandler and Dorothy Buffum. Norman Chandler was the scion of a wealthy newspaper dynasty that had long controlled the Los Angeles Times...
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Cooper, Kent (1880-1965), journalist
Sandra Opdycke
Cooper, Kent (22 March 1880–31 January 1965), journalist, was born in Columbus, Indiana, the son of George William Cooper, a lawyer who served as mayor of Columbus and as a U.S. congressman, and Sina Green. Starting as a delivery boy, Cooper worked for Columbus newspapers from the time he was eleven until he entered Indiana University in 1898. In 1899, when his father died and he had to withdraw from college, he returned to reporting, first at the ...
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Grier, Barbara (4 Nov. 1933–10 Nov. 2011), editor and publisher
Joanne E. Passet
Grier, Barbara (4 Nov. 1933–10 Nov. 2011), editor and publisher, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Phillip Grier, a pharmaceutical salesman, and Dorothy Black, a stenographer from a theatrical family. Her parents separated when she was ten and divorced four years later. Raised by her mother, Grier and two younger sisters spent their childhoods in Michigan, Colorado, and Kansas. She graduated from Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kansas, in ...
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Haessler, Carl (1888-1972), journalist and socialist trade unionist
Dan Georgakas
Haessler, Carl (05 August 1888–01 December 1972), journalist and socialist trade unionist, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Herman F. Haessler and Elizabeth Wagner. The political life of that city was dominated at that time by immigrant German social democrats. Haessler earned a B.A. at the University of Milwaukee, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford University, where he studied for two years. He completed his formal education with a Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois, where he also taught. In 1917 he married Mildred Barnes; they had two children....
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Heldman, Gladys Medalie (13 May 1922–22 June 2003), tennis player
Linda J. Borish
Heldman, Gladys Medalie (13 May 1922–22 June 2003), tennis player, promoter, and publisher, was born in New York City, the daughter of well-known New York attorney and judge George Z. Medalie and Carrie Medalie, a scholar of Greek and Latin. Heldman earned a BA from Stanford University in ...
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Johnson, John H. (19 January 1918–8 August 2005), businessman, magazine and book publisher
Margena A. Christian
Johnson, John H. (19 January 1918–8 August 2005), businessman, magazine and book publisher, was born Johnny Johnson, the grandson of slaves and the only child of Leroy Johnson and Gertrude Jenkins Johnson in Arkansas City, Arkansas. His father was a sawmill worker who died in a work accident. His mother cleaned houses and worked as a cook, saving enough money for them to eventually move to Chicago since Arkansas City did not have a high school for blacks....
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Kilgore, Barney (9 Nov. 1908–14 Nov. 1967), newspaper publisher and editor
Richard J. Tofel
Kilgore, Barney (9 Nov. 1908–14 Nov. 1967), newspaper publisher and editor, was born Leslie Bernard Kilgore in Albany, Indiana, the first child of Tecumseh Kilgore and Lavina Elizabeth Bodenhorn. At the time of Barney’s birth, his father was the local superintendent of schools, but he soon relocated the family to South Bend, Indiana and became an insurance agent. Barney was educated in the public schools of South Bend, and then at DePauw University in Greencastle, from which he graduated in ...
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Koenigsberg, Moses (1878-1945), journalist
James Boylan
Koenigsberg, Moses (16 April 1878–21 September 1945), journalist, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Harris Wolf Koenigsberg, a tailor and businessman, and Julia Foreman. Both parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Precocious and big for a child, Koenigsberg moved swiftly into the adult world. At age twelve he was unjustly accused of plagiarism and punished, causing him to leave school. Afterward he briefly attached himself to a revolutionary army in Mexico, clerked in a law firm, and became a reporter on the ...
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Neuharth, Al (3 Mar. 1924–19 Apr. 2013), journalist and publishing executive
Rob Wells
Neuharth, Al (3 Mar. 1924–19 Apr. 2013), journalist and publishing executive, was born Allen Harold Neuharth in Eureka, South Dakota, the younger of two sons of Daniel and Christina Neuharth. Neuharth’s father, a creamery operator, died when he was twenty-two months old. Raised by a single mother, Neuharth worked in a butcher shop and as a newspaper carrier. He graduated from Alpena High School in ...
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Smith, William Henry (1833-1896), journalist and political adviser
Olive Hoogenboom
Smith, William Henry (01 December 1833–27 July 1896), journalist and political adviser, was born in Austerlitz, New York, the son of William DeForest Smith, a seller of wagons and carriages and a farmer, and Almira Gott. In 1835 Smith moved with his parents to Homer, Ohio. There he later became the secretary of a branch of the Underground Railroad for runaway slaves, which ran through the southern part of Union County. After graduating from Green Mount Seminary, a Quaker school near Richmond, Indiana, he worked for a year as a tutor....
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Stone, Melville Elijah (1848-1929), journalist
David Paul Nord
Stone, Melville Elijah (22 August 1848–15 February 1929), journalist, was born in Hudson, Illinois, the son of Elijah Stone, a Methodist minister, and Sophia Louisa Creighton. In 1860 Stone’s family moved to Chicago, where he attended Chicago High School for one year. He began his career as a reporter in 1864 on the ...
