Robert Sengstacke Abbott was born on November 24, 1868, in the Frederica Community of St. Simons Island, Georgia. His mother, Flora Butler, had been enslaved, as had his father, Thomas Abbott, who died when Robert was still an infant. Flora Abbott moved with her baby to Savannah, and married John H.H. Sengstacke, who is credited with encouraging young Robert's future career as a journalist and reformer.
Robert Abbott attended Beach Institute in Savannah, and Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina. He also attended Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, where he learned the printer’s trade. He received a Bachelor of Law degree from Kent College of Law in Chicago, but was never able to establish a law career because of racial discrimination.
In 1905, Abbott founded The Chicago Defender newspaper, and thus embarked on a career that would place him in the footsteps of a long line of African-Americans who used the written word as a sword against injustice. The Chicago Defender would become one of the most influential and widely read African-American-owned newspapers in America.
Abbott died on February 29, 1940.
Robert Abbott's home in Chicago. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
A photoengraver at The Chicago Defender, Chicago, Ill., in 1941. Photograph by Russell Lee, courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
A linotype operator at The Chicago Defender, in 1941. Photograph by Russell Lee, courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
A typesetter at The Chicago Defender in 1942. Photograph by Jack Delano, courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.