[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 3, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H3248-H3249]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO JOHN SENGSTACKE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gibbons). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Davis] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
great American who recently passed away, one whose life has flowed and 
influence has flowed from his office on the near south side of Chicago 
to points across America and throughout the world, Mr. John H. 
Sengstacke. He spent 50 years as publisher of the Chicago Daily 
Defender newspaper, which was founded by Robert Abbott in 1905 and sold 
as many as 200,000 copies a week during World War II, when it 
championed desegregation of the Armed Forces and paved the way for 
Jackie Robinson to become the first black to play major league 
baseball.
  John Sengstacke was born in Savannah, GA, educated at Hampton 
Institute in Virginia, and spent the rest of his life working for and 
building the Chicago Defender newspaper, a paper which under the 
leadership of Mr. Abbott had acquired a readership far beyond Chicago 
by being an early champion of the great migration beginning in World 
War I.
  Mr. Abbott preached in his editorials that the destiny of blacks was 
in the north, where factories were desperate for workers. Pullman car 
porters acted as unofficial circulation agents by picking up copies in 
Chicago and dropping them off at barber shops and churches along their 
southern runs.
  In the 1940's Mr. Sengstacke founded the Negro Newspaper Publishers 
Association, now known as the National Newspaper Publishers 
Association, which has more than 200 members. He also acquired the new 
Pittsburgh Courier, the Detroit-based Michigan Chronicle, and the Tri-
State Defender published in Memphis, TN. Out of the Defender has 
emerged a Chicago institution, the Bud Billiken parade. As an activity 
of the Defender charities, the Bud Billiken parade has grown to be one 
of the largest community celebrations in the Nation. Mayors, Governors, 
Senators and even Presidents have marched or ridden in this parade, 
which traditionally draws more than a

[[Page H3249]]

million active viewers and participants each year.
  The Chicago Daily Defender newspaper has been a haven and inspiration 
for renowned journalists and publishers such as Lu Palmer, Vernon, 
Jarret, Faith Christmas, John H. Johnson, and Chinta Strasburg, to name 
a few.
  John Henry Herman Sengstacke was an adviser to Presidents Truman, 
Kennedy and Johnson. Through his influence with President Franklin 
Delano Roosevelt, Mr. Sengstacke arranged for the first African-
American correspondent in White House history, Mr. Harry McAlpin. He 
also figured prominently in influencing President Roosevelt to hire 
African-Americans to work for the U.S. Postal Service. He received 10 
Presidential appointments, including his selection by President Truman 
to serve on the committee on equality of treatment and opportunity in 
the Armed Forces, which resulted in desegregation of the military.
  In the 1940's Paul Robeson and John Sengstacke arranged a meeting 
with Jim Landis, commissioner of baseball, and Branch Rickey, manager 
of the Brooklyn Dodgers, which led to the hiring of Jackie Robinson to 
play major league baseball. He served as chairman of the board of 
Provident Hospital and Training School Association which rebuilt the 
Provident Medical Center which enabled the legendary hospital in which 
the world's first open heart surgery was performed by Dr. Danial Hale 
Williams, to continue its services to African-Americans and others who 
live in its area.
  Mr. Speaker, I express condolences to the Sengstacke family, friends 
and employees of the Defender newspapers on the occasion of his death.
  John Sengstacke worked diligently to end racism, sexism, and anti-
semitism. He fought for open housing, to educate children, to provide 
charitable services to humanity, to defend the U.S. Constitution, and 
to protect the rights of people throughout the world. John Henry Herman 
Sengstacke, a man who knew how to use a newspaper to become an 
influential and powerful American.

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