John H. Sengstacke
| John H. Sengstacke | |
|---|---|
Sengstacke in 1942
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| Born |
November 25, 1912 Savannah, Georgia |
| Died | May 28, 1997 (aged 84) Chicago, Illinois |
| Cause of death | Stroke |
| Spouse(s) | Myrtle Elizabeth Picou |
| Children | John H. Sengstacke III, Lewis Willis Sengstacke, and Robert Abbott Sengstacke |
| Parent(s) | Herman Alexander Sengstacke and Rosa Mae Davis |
John Herman Henry Sengstacke (November 25, 1912 – May 28, 1997) was an African-American newspaper publisher and owner of the largest chain of black newspapers in the country. He was also a civil rights activist and worked for a strong black press, founding the National Newspaper Publishers Association in 1940, to unify and strengthen African-American owned papers. He served seven terms as president of the association, which by the early 21st century had 200 members.
The nephew of Robert Sengstacke Abbott, Sengstacke was his designated heir to take over his Chicago Defender, which he did after his uncle's death in 1940. Sengstacke also published the Michigan Courier in Detroit; the Tri-City Defender in Memphis, Tennessee, and acquired the Pittsburgh Courier in 1966, re-opening it the next year as the New Pittsburgh Courier.
Sengstacke worked with President Franklin D. Roosevelt to have African-American reporters admitted to presidential press conferences. He pressed for opportunities in the United States Postal Service for African Americans. One of Sengstacke's major political goals was to desegregate the armed forces. President Harry Truman supported this goal, naming Sengstacke to the commission he formed in 1948 to integrate the military.
John Herman Henry Sengstacke was born in Savannah, Georgia, to Herman Alexander (called Alexander) Sengstacke and his wife Rosa Mae Davis on November 25, 1912. He was named for his paternal grandfather, John H. Sengstacke, a Congregationalist minister, teacher and publisher. The elder Sengstacke was the son of Herman Sengstacke, a German sea captain, and his wife Tama Melrose, a former slave from West Africa whose freedom he purchased in Georgia. She died young after the birth of their daughter, and Sengstacke returned with the mixed-race children to Germany for relatives to raise while he was on ships. Later, both Sengstackes returned to the US. Several years later, John H. Sengstacke was ordained as a Congregationalist minister. After settling in Woodville, now a neighborhood of Savannah, Georgia, he became a teacher to improve black education, and a publisher of two local newspapers, including the Woodville Times.
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