Delilah L. Beasley
| Delilah L. Beasley | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 9, 1867 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | August 18, 1934 San Leandro, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Historian, columnist |
| Parent(s) | Daniel Beasley Margaret Harris |
Delilah Leontium Beasley (September 9, 1867 – August 18, 1934), was an American historian, and newspaper columnist for the Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, US. Beasley becomes the first African-American woman to be published regularly in a major metropolitan newspaper.
As a writer, Beasley has the distinction of being the first person to have presented written proof of the existence of California black pioneers, in her writings, Slavery in California (1918) and her classic, The Negro Trail-Blazers of California (1919), a pioneering work in the field of California black history. Her journalists career spanned over fifty years, including detailing the racial problems in California and the heroic achievements by Blacks to overcome them, during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Beasley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the oldest of five children in the family of Daniel Beasley, an engineer, and Margaret Harris, a homemaker. After her parents' death while she was still a teenager, Beasley had to find a full-time job to support herself, she pursued a career as a trained masseuse. She began her newspaper career in 1883 writing for a black newspaper the Cleveland Gazette, founded by Harry C. Smith. She wrote briefly about church and social activities. Three years later, she published her first column in the Sunday Cincinnati, Ohio, Enquirer under the headline "Mosaics". Beasley studied journalism under Dan Rudd, a well-known newspaper publisher of the Colored Catholic Tribune in Cincinnati.
In 1910, at age 39, Beasley moved to Oakland, California, attending lectures and researching at University of California, Berkeley and writing essays for presentations at local churches. In 1910 the African American population in Oakland was 3,055. The small black population supported a flowering of indigenous institutions and community formation in the 10s and 20s. Among these institutions were various black-owned small businesses, churches, and private social-welfare organizations. In addition, several black newspapers were published in Oakland, including the Oakland Sunshine, which began publication in 1902, publisher William Prince, and the Western Outlook, established in 1894, publishers J. S. Francis and J. L. Derrick. In 1915, she wrote for a black audience in the Oakland Sunshine.
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