Today in our History – May 4, 1848 - John Quincy Adams was born to the Reverend Henry and Margaret Priscilla Adams (née Corbin).

GM – LIF – Today’s American Champion was Educator, newspaper publisher and politician he is best known as the editor of the Western Appeal/The Appeal of St. Paul, Minnesota. He held the position from 1886 to 1922.

Remember - "We know ourselves, as men, to be their equals in every respect, and we would advise them that when they wish to set a standard to judge us by in any case, to take themselves. What would not suit them would not suit us. Remove all barriers on account of race and color and, like water, we will find our level." - John Quincy Adams

Today in our History – May 4, 1848 - John Quincy Adams was born free in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 4, 1848, to the Reverend Henry and Margaret Priscilla Adams (née Corbin).

Adams was one of four children of the Reverend Henry Adams, minister of the Fifth Street Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky, and Margaret Priscilla Corbin of Chillicothe, Ohio.

He received his elementary and secondary education in private schools at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and Yellow Springs, Ohio, later graduating from Oberlin College in Ohio. After graduation, he returned to Louisville where he began teaching in his father's school and in other parts of the state.

Adams attended private academies in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and Yellow Springs, Ohio, and graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. He then moved to Arkansas where he taught in schools in Little Rock before taking a position assisting his uncle, Joseph C. Corbin, who was Arkansas’ Superintendent of Public Instruction. Between 1870 and 1876 he also was involved in Republican Party politics and served as Engrossing Clerk in the state senate and as Deputy Commissioner of Public Works.

Between 1876 and 1886 Adams lived in Louisville, Kentucky, where he taught school and was engaged in Republican Party politics at the state and national levels, serving as Ganger and Storekeeper in the United States Revenue Service. He lost that appointment with the election of Grover Cleveland in 1884. During that period, he and his brother Cyrus Field Adams published the weekly Louisville Bulletin between1879 and 1886.

In 1880 Adams was responsible for convening the first Colored National Press Convention and was elected its first president, a position that he held for two years.

In 1886 he sold the Bulletin and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he became associate editor, editor, and later owner of The Western Appeal between 1886 and 1922. Adams transformed it into a national newspaper with offices in Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Dallas, and Washington, D.C., and he changed its name to The Appeal in 1889 to reduce its identity as a Midwestern press.

The Western Appeal and the Appeal were noted in African American weekly newspapers published in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Western Appeal began in 1885 and was conceived as a source of news and information for the burgeoning educated black population in the upper Midwest.

The newspaper strived to be a source of local and national news, as well as a hub for local advertising from black-owned businesses. Though the Western Appeal had its start in St. Paul, it quickly broadened its circulation to cover Minneapolis and Chicago. In 1889, to further seek a national standing, the newspaper dropped “Western” from its title and became simply the Appeal.

The Appeal was decidedly Republican in tone, a stance that often was at odds with the views of its intended audience. Personal news of interest to African Americans in St. Paul and elsewhere appeared in both newspapers.

These items included marriages and deaths of prominent American blacks, particularly in the Midwest. There were also regular columns on the African American community in St. Louis and Chicago. Local items focused on events in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and occasionally Duluth. Advertising for African American merchants and services, such as hotels, restaurants and barbershops, was also a prominent feature of the Appeal.

Adams wrote forceful editorials for the rights of African Americans. He participated in Minnesota Republican party politics and was involved in civic life in St. Paul. But over time, as the African American community split between the followers of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, Adams’ strong support for Washington caused his reputation to suffer.

The Appeal became less relevant politically and regionally, and by 1913 its offices in Dallas, Washington, Louisville, St. Louis, and Chicago had closed, leaving only its offices in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Following Adams’ death on September 4, 1922, the Appeal memorialized Adams with excerpts from many of his bold editorials.

On January 1, 1924, the Northwestern Bulletin, another African American publication from St. Paul, announced the purchase of the Appeal. In 1925, shortly after the merger, the Northwestern Bulletin-Appeal closed its doors, bringing an end to one of the longest-running publications of its kind in the upper Midwest.

Adams’ newspaper in St. Paul became the center of political activism in the upper Midwest, challenging the “color line” that continued in Minnesota after the Civil War. He partnered with Fredrick L. McGhee, a young African American lawyer from Chicago who moved to St. Paul in 1889.

The two were instrumental in initiating legal challenges to racial discrimination in Minnesota and in passing legislation guaranteeing civil rights. He and McGhee were founders of Minnesota’s Protective and Industrial League, which affiliated with the Afro-American League in 1890 and later the Afro-American Council. His paper remained a publication of the Republican Party, even when McGhee had abandoned it.

Adams married Ella Bell Smith of St. Paul on May 4, 1892. They had four children (Adina, Margaret, Edythella, and John, Jr.). John Quincy Adams died in St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 4, 1922, when struck by an automobile when he was in the process of boarding a streetcar. Adams was one of the last post-reconstruction editors who survived into the twentieth century.

Although it hung on for many years, The Appeal closed its Dallas office in April 1901, its Washington office in January, f903, and its St. Louis and Louisville offices in October 1903, in March 1913, the Chicago Appeal ceased publication, leaving the St. Paul and Minneapolis offices as the sole remnants of a once-proud journalistic empire.

Although diminished in stature and circulation, the Appeal continued its vitriolic crusade against discrimination and injustices until shortly after the death of John Quincy Adams in September 1922. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!