It has
been very sad to read about the increasing violence amongst young people, in
Chicago (and around the U.S.). Innocent victims, such as 15-year-old, Hadiya
Pendleton, who recently performed at President Obama’s Inauguration, are being
gunned down, as though a human life were a commodity. I can only pray that
something can, and will, be done about it, very soon; and Chicago youths will
be given new outlets for focusing their energy and frustrations.
Of course, some of these outlets have, and do, exist. One
such organization is the Bud Billiken Club. Founded
by The Chicago Defender newspaper founder,
Robert Sengstacke Abbott, and its Executive
Editor, Lucius Harper, in 1923.
Robert
S. Abbott was born in 1868, in St. Simons Island (SSI), Georgia, where my family spends a lot of our leisure time. The Abbott Family name is very prevalent on the Island. Robert's relative, Viola Abbott, is a friend of my mother's, and lives on the SSI property that once belonged to Georgia's founder, James Oglethorpe. Robert's parents were
former slaves, and his father, Thomas Abbott, died when he was very young. His
mother, who happened to speak German, subsequently met and married a mixed-race
German man, John Sengstacke, who had come to Georgia, from Germany. Robert took John's surname as part of his name. After Robert became successful, he returned to St. Simons Island, during the 1930s, and erected a memorial obelisk in honor of his father and two aunts, on the grounds of Fort Frederica (built by James Oglethorpe in the 18th century to defend against Spanish raids).
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| Robert S. Abbott |
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| James Oglethorpe |
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| Abbott Memorial, Fort Frederica, St. Simons Island, Georgia |
Robert studied printing at Hampton University, in the early
1890s, and received a Law Degree, a few years later, from Kent College of Law, in
Chicago. However, due to the racial prejudices
against him, he was unable to practice; despite attempts to open law offices in
Gary, Indiana, Topeka, Kansas and Chicago, Illinois.
In 1905, he founded The Chicago Defender newspaper, with an initial investment
of $25. The paper quickly became
the most widely-circulated, Black newspaper in the country, and came to be
known as "America's Black Newspaper." Its success made Robert one of
the first, self-made millionaires of African-American descent. The Defender's circulation reached 50,000 by 1916;
125,000 by 1918; and more than 200,000 by the early 1920s. A key distribution
network for the newspaper was created by the African-American railroad porters.
One of the reasons that The Chicago Defender was
so popular was because it openly spoke out about African-American’s civil
rights. Robert created a list of nine goals that constituted The Defender′s Mission:
1.
American race
prejudice must be destroyed
2.
The opening up of all
trade unions to Blacks as well as Whites.
3.
Representation in the
President's Cabinet
4.
Engineers, firemen,
and conductors on all American railroads, and all jobs in government.
5.
Representation in all
departments of the police forces over the entire United States
6.
Government schools
open to all American citizens in preference to foreigners
7.
Motormen and
conductors on surface, elevated and motor bus lines throughout America
8.
Federal legislation
to abolish lynching.
9.
Full enfranchisement
of all American citizens.
Robert also wrote a lot about how much better it was for African-Americans to live up North. He encouraged many to move from the South - thus becoming one of the pioneers of "The Great Migration" movement, when more than one million African-Americans migrated between 1910 and 1925; and another five million until 1970.
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| African-American Family migrating North |
In 1919, Illinois Governor, Frank Lowden, appointed Robert to the Chicago Commission on Race Relations. The Commission would go on to publish the book, The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot .
In 1923, Robert, and The Defender
Executive Editor, Lucius Harper, decided to form The Bud Billiken Club, as part
of the paper’s children’s page, The Defender Junior, to encourage
readership, appropriate conduct, and community involvement Chicago’s
African-American youth. The naming of
the club has varied histories that range from Chinese mythology to a woman
creating the figure in 1908. However, in
1923 an eleven-year-old boy, named Willard Motley, submitted a drawing to The
Defender of a pudgy and cheerful boy, which Robert subsequently named the
"new Billikin." Abbott placed Willard’s
drawing on The Defender Junior’s page.
Known as “the first Billiken,” Willard continued to pen drawings for The Defender
Junior for the next seven
years; and then became a novelist.
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| Willard Motley |
The Rules of The Bud Billiken Club guided young
people to take pride in their race and to strive towards what was then termed, “middle
class respectability.” It was also meant as a way to give underprivileged
children a creative outlet and a chance to shine in the limelight. Over the
years, Bud Billiken became the mascot not only for the children’s page, but for
the whole newspaper. Robert organized dozens of Bud Billiken Clubs, nationwide, for children who pledged to read The Defender.
Initially, Robert, and another Defender Editor,
David Kellum, created a day for the members of the Bud Billiken Club, and the
young people who sold the newspapers, to be an annual November event. However,
by 1929, the day of fun had morphed into a summer-time celebration and parade,
dubbed in 1929 as the Bud Billiken Day Parade.
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| David Kellum |
Children belonging to the Bud Billiken Club were
taught that they should be honest and trustworthy, obey their parents and
respect one another. A cartoon character, Bud Billiken, taught them how.
Through a pen-pal program with children in Africa, South America, Europe and
the Middle East, The Bud Billiken Club helped chip away at the wall of
segregation that had separated these children.
The Bud Billiken Day
Parade is now the second-largest parade in United States, and draws over a
million viewers each year. The event, held on the second
Saturday in August, has attracted more than 50 million children and their
families throughout the United States for a day of community and celebration of
African-American togetherness.
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| 1929 Bud Billiken Day Parade |
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| 1948 Bud Billiken Day Parade |
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| 2012 Bud Billiken Day Parade |
Among the many celebrities to march over the years
are: Muhammad Ali, Lena Horne, Michael Jordan, L.L. Cool J, Oprah Winfrey, Boxer Joe Lewis, Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and, of course, then-Senator Barack Obama
and Michelle Obama, Chicagoan residents.
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| Muhammad Ali in Bud Billiken Day Parade |
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| Joe Lewis in Bud Billiken Day Parade |
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|
President
Harry S. Truman, John H. Sengstacke and Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago
in the 1956 Bud Billiken Day Parade
|
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| The Obamas in The Bud Billiken Parade |
The Bud Billiken Club sponsors scholarships, and
assists youth with job training, internships, and college recruitment. They
regularly feature outstanding Chicago youth through their volunteer work and
essay contests. The Club also organizes, in conjunction with Chicago Defender
Charities, school supply giveaways, reduced rates on computers and Internet
service, and even things such as prom dress donations. There is also focus on
creating safe communities through conflict resolution and promoting education.
Each year there is a Bud Billiken Contest to
determine the Parade’s King, Queen and Royal Court. The winners are determined, based on the amount of Chicago Defender subscriptions sold and a written and
oral essay. The contest is open to children aged eight to eleven; and titles
include King, Queen, Prince, Princess, Lord, and Lady. Though all are awarded,
the King and Queen receive the grand prize of a trip to Disney World. The
winners are announced each year at the Bud Billiken Day Parade and participate
in “a week of fun,” including riding on a float in the parade and visiting
various places around the city as members of the Royal Court.
Today, the Bud Billiken Club is also known as
Bud Billiken Youth. Eighty-four years later, the organization has grown into a
year-round program that supports youth with financial and academic help. They
also continue to shine the light on outstanding young people that may have
otherwise gone unnoticed.
Robert S. Abbott died of Bright’s disease, in 1940, in Chicago. His home, the Robert S. Abbott House,
became a National Historic Landmark.
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| Robert S. Abbott House |
Robert’s will left the newspaper in the control of his nephew,
John Henry Sengstacke, who passed away in 1997. John worked
with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to
welcome African-American reporters in The White House, and to create jobs, for
African-Americans, in the United States Postal Service. One of his biggest
objectives was to desegregate the United States Armed Forces. Ultimately,
President Harry Truman named John
to the commission he formed to integrate the military. John also established
the National Newspaper Publishers Association, which was an endeavor to unify
and strengthen African-American owned papers. He served seven terms as
president of the association. The Chicago Defender still publishes weekly.
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| John Sengstacke |
Robert
S. Abbott established a legacy for African-American youth, which I hope will
create even more, as well as even stronger, legacies
and positive outlets for them.
Sources: Wikipedia, Bud
Billiken Club, Bud Billiken Parade, Google Images
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