The first African American millionaire in the United States, Robert Sengstacke Abbot, began life in Georgia, the child of emancipated slaves from the Gullah community. Today, February 19, 2024, Lyles Station Historic School and Museum applauds his accomplishments in life and legacy of combatting racial injustice.
Leukemia claimed his father’s life when Robert was still a baby; his mother remarried John Sengstacke who raised the boy as his own and added his name to Robert’s. Sengstacke, a missionary and teacher, instilled the love of learning and push for racial equality in Robert. He was also a newspaper publisher who wrote, "There is but one church, and all who are born of God are members of it. God made a church, man made denominations. God gave us a Holy Bible, disputing men made different kinds of disciples.” He inspired Abbott in many ways.
Young Abbott worked as an errand boy and sold newspapers on the street, going on to complete his law degree in Chicago in 1898. Racial discrimination kept him from practicing, but the printing experience he had gained from his step-father paid off. With his educational background and a $25 investment, he founded the Chicago Defender Newspaper in 1905, going door to door to sign up subscribers and advertisers. With his landlady’s encouragement, he started printing in a room at his boardinghouse. In appreciation, he later purchased an eight-room house for her.
Abbott’s early efforts were not encouraged by his friends. As he explained,
"My friends made fun of me. They thought it was foolish of me to anticipate success in a field in which so many men before me had failed...but I went on fighting the opposition of my adversaries and the indifferences of my friends. I emerged victorious but battle-scarred."
At its economic height in the 1920s, Abbott’s paper established itself as a financial success with a readership of over 500,000 each week, the highest circulation of any black owned newspaper in the country.
The Defender highlighted the racial injustice that African Americans experienced in the South and advocated what was called the “Great Northern Drive” in 1917. Not surprisingly, many Southern cities banned the Defender, but Abbott relied on railroad porters who circulated his paper in the South. He included articles and editorials encouraging Southern African Americans to move north and even provided them with train schedules and listings for job opportunities in the North. During the “Great Northern Migration,” over one million blacks moved north, with approximately 100,000 relocating in Chicago.
The Defender provided the opportunity for such literary greats as Gwendolyn Brooks and Langston Hughes as they began their career as authors and featured work by Richard Wright.
Abbott also established the Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic in 1929, named after a character he created for his paper, celebrating African American life in Chicago. It is the second largest parade in the United States.
Abbott battled racial prejudice and injustice throughout his life. Bright’s Disease, affecting the kidneys, claimed his life in 1940 at the age of 69. He left control of his newspaper to his nephew. It is still in print and available online today, with Abbott’s legacy living on.
His home in Chicago was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

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