John W. Wheeler (c. 1846-1907 or after) was the editor of the St. Louis Palladium, a African-American-oriented newspaper printed in St. Louis, Missouri, from about 1884 until about 1911. [1]
John W. Wheeler (c. 1846-1907 or after) was the editor of the St. Louis Palladium, a African-American-oriented newspaper printed in St. Louis, Missouri, from about 1884 until about 1911. [1]
Wheeler was a freeborn Kentucky native who in 1860 was living at the age of 14 with his parents, George M. Wheeler and Mary M. Wheeler, in Freedom Township, Lafayette County, Missouri. Five others listed by a census enumerator in the household ranged in age from 6 to 24. [2]
Wheeler worked as a servant in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He lived in Indianapolis for a short time before moving to St. Louis in 1867 at the age of twenty, then worked in a tobacco warehouse as a clerk, rising to become a foreman. He went into business as a tobacco contractor, employing as many as thirty men. [3]
Wheeler was married on December 24, 1869, to Hattie Hahn of Indianapolis. [4]
In the 1880 census, Wheeler was listed twice: once as a 33-year-old mulatto who was a tobacco contractor and once as a black laborer. Both listings had him living on Franklin Avenue in St. Louis. He was married to Hattie Wheeler, age 37, and another resident was Mary Wheeler, age 17. [5] [6]
In 1900 he was living on Chestnut Street in St. Louis with Annie Wheeler, 31, and Hulda Nash, 48. [7]
In July 1904, Wheeler was reportedly in a "street scuffle" with another man, who knocked him down. [8]
In February 1907, Wheeler's foot was broken when he was attempting to board a streetcar at 16th Street and Franklin Avenue, St. Louis. [9] He wrote in his newspaper:
The Easton avenue car seemed as if it would stop as it neared the crossing, and I attempted to board the car. Just as the car had reached the crossing and I had one foot on the step, the motorman turned on full speed, which caused me to slip and fall with my weight all upon my right foot. I was dragged about twenty feet. [9]
The streetcar did not stop, and Wheeler was helped to his home by a passer-by. [9] It was said that he would be confined there for "several weeks" and that during his absence his newspaper's affairs would be managed by Olivia Richardson. [10]
Wheeler became a part-time Methodist minister in 1893, and occasionally led the congregation at St. Paul's Methodist Church and other churches in the St. Louis area. He ended his ministry when he took over the Palladium around 1897 but still called himself "the Political Preacher." [3] He also referred to himself as the "Palladium Man." [11]
We have always had the utmost confidence in the brotherhood of mankind, and when the humanity of man is touched, he will turn to the right.
— Wheeler [3]
A Republican, Wheeler accepted appointments given him by Republican politicians. He was involved in "nearly every affair that concerned St. Louis African Americans," and it was said that he held the conservative views of Booker T. Washington in that African Americans should stand together, support black business, raise their moral standards, work with white allies and "not agitate the race question because agitation might make things worse." [3]
He was involved in "practically every movement and issue that concerned black St. Louisans between the 1870s and the first decade of the twentieth century." [11] Wheeler was "known for his self-promoting articles and his penchant for instigating public arguments with colleagues and community leaders." His newspaper was the official organ of two fraternal organizations — the United Brothers of Friendship and the Sisters of the Mysterious Ten. [1]
Wheeler argued against a suggestion by a Missouri state senator that blacks should be settled in the newly conquered Philippine Islands. He wrote in the Palladium: "If the American Negro is wise, he will remain in the land of his birth. If he acknowledges himself incapable of sustaining the oppression he receives here, when the country has been settled for him, what will be his fate when transported to a country in which the only object is the 'struggle for existence'[?]" [3]
Wheeler was active in resisting legislated racial segregation. In 1903, he was among African-Americans who gathered in the state capital to successfully lobby against a bill that would have set aside separate railroad cars for blacks throughout the state. [3]
He was an alternate delegate to the 1900 Republican National Convention. [12]
It was said that "Through a mix of social commentary, moral instruction, gossip, and African American economic and political empowerment," Wheeler used the Palladium to shape opinion among blacks and to "change white perception" of the race. [3]
The Sedalia Weekly Conservator referred to him as a "courageous editor" in August 1904. [13]
According to an unpublished 1969 dissertation by George Everett Slavens, "A History of the Missouri Negro Press," the Palladium "disappeared" in 1911. [11]
The Professional World , a newspaper in Columbia, Missouri edited by Rufus L. Logan, was critical of Wheeler and of his paper. An unsigned World editorial said the Palladium was "filled with whiskey and wine room ads., and has no regard for the truth." The editorial took exception to Wheeler's calling the editor of a third African-American newspaper, the American Eagle, an "old black man." [14]
Such references are disgraceful to the editorial profession and no respectable editor would make use of such. But this is characteristic of the Palladium, and, the worst of all, this bulldozing editor has "Rev." before his name. . . . The Palladium never contains an editorial, but this is easily accounted for as it takes something more than a lead pencil and a tablet to produce an editorial (intelligence) and this is something the Palladium has not. [14]
Sedalia is a city located approximately 30 miles south of the Missouri River and, as the county seat of Pettis County, Missouri, United States, it is the principal city of the Sedalia Micropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 21,387. Sedalia is also the location of the Missouri State Fair and the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival. U.S. Routes 50 and 65 intersect in the city.
Samuel Baldwin Marks Young was a United States Army general. He also served as the first president of Army War College between 1902 and 1903. He then served from 1903 until 1904 as the first Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
Frederick William Schule was an American track and field athlete, football player, athletic coach, teacher, bacteriologist, and engineer. He competed for the track and field teams at the University of Wisconsin from 1900 to 1901 and at the University of Michigan in 1904. He was also a member of the undefeated 1903 Michigan Wolverines football team that outscored its opponents 565 to 6.
Harriet E. Wilson was an African-American novelist. She was the first African American to publish a novel on the North American continent.
Arthur Owen Marshall was an American composer and performer of ragtime music from Missouri. He was a protege of famed ragtime composer Scott Joplin.
Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone was an American businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist. In the first three decades of the 20th century, she founded and developed a large and prominent commercial and educational enterprise centered on cosmetics for African-American women.
Henry Clement "Heinie" Peitz was an American professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Browns, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals. He was part of the famed "Pretzel Battery" with pitcher Ted Breitenstein while playing for the Browns and Reds in the 1890s.
Andrew Bird Glaspie was an American soldier, politician, newspaper publisher, and college football player and coach.
A Guest of Honor is the first opera created by celebrated ragtime composer Scott Joplin. The opera had two acts, followed the model of grand opera, and followed the events surrounding the 1901 White House dinner hosted by President Theodore Roosevelt for the civil rights leader and educator Booker T. Washington.
Alexander Miles was an African American inventor and businessman, best known for being awarded a patent for automatically opening and closing elevator doors. He was awarded U.S. Patent 371,207 on October 11, 1887.
Charles Sumner Mitchell was an American newspaper publisher and editor. He was the assistant editor of the St. Cloud Journal-Press from 1881 to 1894, the publisher of the Alexandria Post-News from 1894 to 1920, the editor-in-chief of the Duluth News Tribune from 1906 to 1920 and of the Washington Herald from 1920 until his death in 1922. He also served two terms as the president of the Minnesota Editorial Association. He was a graduate of the University of Michigan where he played college football as the goalkeeper for the 1879 Michigan Wolverines football team—the first football team to represent the University of Michigan.
Charles Schroeter was a United States Army soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the American Indian Wars, while serving with Company G, 8th Regiment of the United States Cavalry. A German immigrant, his military career spanned thirty-one years, from 1863 to 1894, during which he also saw action in the American Civil War. He also served a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps. After retirement from the military, he became a merchant.
Homer Gilliam Phillips was an American lawyer from Sedalia, Missouri, who later moved to St. Louis. He is notable for being an African-American Republican political figure, and a prominent advocate for civil rights. He was a co-founder of Citizen's Liberty League, a political organization in Missouri to advance the interests of African Americans in the Republican Party. In 1928, he was the president of the St. Louis chapter of the National Bar Association. In 1931, at 51 years old, Phillips was gunned down in St. Louis in an alleged dispute over legal fees owed to him. After his death, a hospital in St. Louis was named in his honor, Homer G. Phillips Hospital.
The Chicago Conservator was an American newspaper. Founded by attorney Ferdinand Barnett in 1878, it was the first African-American newspaper in Chicago.
William Elisha Hyde (1836-1898) was an American journalist, the managing editor of the Missouri Republican newspaper of St. Louis, Missouri, for nineteen years.
Daniel M. Grissom (1829-1930) was an American journalist of the 19th Century.
Rufus Logan was the editor of The Professional World, a newspaper for African Americans established in Columbia, Missouri in 1901. It was published until about 1921. Anderson Logan was his father.
The Kansas City Sun was a newspaper for the African American community in Kansas City, Missouri. A weekly, it was published from 1908 until 1924.
Plummer Bernard Young Sr., better known as P. B. Young was a newspaper editor, publisher, community leader, and founder of the Norfolk Journal and Guide. He was African American.