[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 28 (Monday, February 28, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S959-S961]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise to offer a tribute to honor Robert
W. Bogle and the Philadelphia Tribune newspaper. Bob Bogle's family and
many of his friends are with us in Washington, DC. They traveled from
Philadelphia and other parts of our State and beyond to be with us as
we pay tribute to his leadership and his commitment to the Philadelphia
African-American community and to all the people in the city of
Philadelphia and southeast Pennsylvania. I rise as well to honor the
role the Philadelphia Tribune, as a leader in the Black press, has
played in communities throughout our State.
This is the fifth year I have come to the floor of the Senate to
honor a prominent African-American Pennsylvanian as part of the
celebration of Black History Month. Bob Bogle today joins the Reverend
Leon Sullivan, Judge Leon Higginbotham, former U.S. Transportation
Secretary Bill Coleman, and former Pennsylvania Secretary of the
Commonwealth C. Delores Tucker in being recognized this month in this
way.
Today, I will talk about Bob Bogle and the Philadelphia Tribune and,
in a larger sense, the history and the future of the Black press in
Pennsylvania and across the country.
From the time Bob was a young child, his life has been inseparable
from the Philadelphia Tribune. Bob's father John Bogle was the
advertising director at the Philadelphia Tribune. Bob still reminisces
about the playground he lived in, which was much different than the
playgrounds in which most children live. As early as age 7, Bob would
roam the Tribune building while waiting for his father to finish work.
Bertha Godfrey, employed by the Tribune since 1946 and now senior vice
president, recalls a young Bob Bogle wandering around curiously,
observing the production department and other areas of the production
of the Philadelphia Tribune newspaper.
In 1970, Bob Bogle started selling advertising for the Tribune and
quickly worked his way up, impressing his colleagues and business
associates alike. In 1973, he became advertising director, in 1976
director of marketing, and, by 1983, executive vice president and
treasurer, before becoming president and chief executive officer of the
Tribune in 1989.
Despite his early exposure to the Tribune, Bob did not initially plan
on a career in journalism. He attended Cheyney State College--now
Cheyney University--to study sociology, earning a B.A. in urban
studies. After it became clear he was going to play a role in the
management of the Tribune, he also attended the University of
Pennsylvania's Wharton School to study marketing and economics. He has
completed courses of study at Temple University and the Rochester
Institute of Technology and continues to this day to hone his newspaper
expertise by participating in annual workshops in many areas of
marketing and advertising and publishing.
Bob has become a role model for Philadelphia African Americans and
for the community at large. He served in leadership roles in a wide
range of professional, civic, and social organizations. He is chairman
of both the Hospitals and Higher Education Facilities Authority of
Philadelphia and the Council of Trustees at Cheyney University, and
serves as a commissioner of the Delaware River Port Authority. He also
serves on the executive committee of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber
of Commerce and on the boards of the Mann Music Center for the
Performing Arts, the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, the African-
American Chamber of Commerce, the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors
Bureau, and of course, The Philadelphia Tribune. In 1995 Bob became the
first African American to serve on the board of U.S.-Airways Group, one
of the Nation's largest airlines. He served two terms as president of
the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the nationwide trade
association for Black newspapers.
Some of Bob's more recent board affiliations include the Philadelphia
Museum of Art Corporate Partners Board, the Pennsylvania Newspaper
Association Foundation, the Academy of Vocal Arts, the Greater
Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation and the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania. He is also a founder and serves as a convener for the
Forum for a Better Pennsylvania, a statewide, private sector leadership
organization committed to enhanced civic and economic inclusion for
African Americans.
Bob has also been honored for his service and leadership. In 2002,
President George W. Bush appointed him to serve as a member of the
National Museum of African American History and Culture Commission. In
2000, he received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Drexel
University in Philadelphia. In addition, Bob has been a member of so
many organizations too numerous to name.
While he is recognized as a community leader in various realms, it is
Bob's role at the Tribune and with the Black press movement that stands
out as his life's work.
Today, few question that the right to a free press, as enshrined in
the Bill of Rights, applies to all. The right ensures that all
Americans can participate in a vigorous and healthy debate necessary
for a well-functioning democracy. But when our Constitution was first
ratified, as we recall, most African Americans were not recognized as
citizens and had few, if any, opportunities for participation in our
democracy. It was not until a group of courageous men living in New
York gathered some 30 years after the ratification of the Constitution
that African Americans finally found an institution where they ``could
plead their own case,'' as they said at the time.
In 1827, editors John Brown Russwurm and Samuel Eli Cornish published
Freedom's Journal, the first Black newspaper in America. The newspaper
provided African Americans with a public square of their own, where
they could participate in discussions and advocate for African
Americans.
As these two distinguished leaders wrote in their first editorial,
``Too long have others spoken for us. Too long has the public been
deceived by misrepresentations. . . . ''
While the Freedom's Journal was short-lived, it began what was no
less than a revolution. Other Black newspapers arose and began to
explore subjects that were previously off-limits in the press of the
day. New Black newspapers delved into previously unmentionable
hardships in crafting a new identity for free and enslaved African
Americans. Topics such as slavery and
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menial labor were examined by African Americans for African Americans.
For the first time in the history of our country, African Americans
were able to speak freely through a press of their own. In addition,
African Americans could start announcing to the world some of their
most precious moments in life, such as births, anniversaries, deaths,
and other family news. The Black Press helped establish a new extended
community of African Americans all across the United States.
The Black Press expanded in the years prior to the Civil War, as over
40 publications across the Nation provided African Americans with
viewpoints on issues such as immigration to Africa, emancipation in the
South of the United States, and, of course, abolition and freedom.
Frederick Douglass was one of the many who published a Black
newspaper in which he, like many others, urged African-American men in
the North to enlist in the Union Army.
The post-Civil War era saw a period of rapid growth for the Black
Press. The first daily newspaper, the New Orleans Tribune, was
published in 1864, and newspapers continued to open across the country
as African Americans migrated from the South.
By the 1880s, it became obvious that the growing African-American
population in Philadelphia, PA, needed a newspaper. Christopher J.
Perry filled the void. Following graduation from high school, Mr. Perry
moved to Philadelphia to start a newspaper because, he said:
For my people to make progress, they must have a newspaper
in which they can speak and speak out against injustice.
Mr. Perry's newspaper, the Philadelphia Tribune, often told a
different story from a perspective other than that of the city's
traditional newspapers. Mr. Perry and the Philadelphia Tribune quickly
established themselves as leaders of the growing African-American
community in Philadelphia. The Tribune published stories highlighting
Black institutions across Philadelphia that were not reported by the
mainstream papers. Mr. Perry championed the causes of the African-
American community, from covering important events to offering articles
about champions of social and racial equality. Additionally, he
provided a forum for African Americans to report on job openings,
musical performances, and other happenings within the African-American
society.
After Mr. Perry passed away in May of 1921, his children continued
the traditions he began in the pages of the Philadelphia Tribune. The
second generation of Perrys continued to fight for equality for African
Americans. Eugene Washington Rhodes, Mr. Perry's son-in-law, succeeded
him as editor. As Dorothy Anderson wrote in a tribute in 1958, ``In no
year since The Philadelphia Tribune first burst upon the Philadelphia
scene was there a single edition which did not press for equal rights,
equal opportunities and equal privileges'' for the African-American
community.
Eugene Rhodes continued to spotlight social issues around the city of
Philadelphia and around the country by focusing on the northern
migration during the 1920s and dangerous housing conditions for African
Americans in Philadelphia during the 1930s. In addition, he provided
much needed support for some of the first African-American politicians
in the city of Philadelphia, such as John Asbury and Andrew Stevens,
the first African Americans elected to the Pennsylvania House of
Representatives. Perhaps most importantly, the Tribune led the fight
against segregation in the Philadelphia School District by creating its
own legal defense fund and publishing many editorials championing the
equality of African Americans.
In 1940, the publisher of the Chicago Defender called a meeting of
the major publications which made up the Black Press. He proposed that
newspapers form an advocacy group to ensure the long-term survival of
the Black Press. The Philadelphia Tribune was one of the newspapers
invited to take part, and out of this first conference grew the
National Newspaper Publishers Association. Over 200 newspapers are
members today, and the association provides vital services to the Black
Press so that its members can continue to report on African-American
communities and society.
As the current president and CEO of the Philadelphia Tribune, Bob
Bogle has continued the tradition of Christopher Perry, while leading
the African-American community of Philadelphia into and beyond the 21st
century. The Philadelphia Tribune is now the longest operating African-
American newspaper in the Nation.
Recognizing Bob's leadership, the National Newspaper Publishers
Association has honored the Tribune five times with the Russwurm Award,
the association's highest honor for ``Best Newspaper in America.'' The
award is named for John B. Russwurm, cofounder, as I mentioned before,
of Freedom's Journal in the 1800s.
Recognized as a leading member of the Black Press, Bob Bogle has
served two terms as president of the National Newspaper Publishers
Association and is credited with increasing awareness of African-
American issues, values, and lifestyles. He is also a founding member
and president of the African American News and Information Consortium,
a group of premier Black newspapers in some of the largest markets in
the United States of America.
Finally, Bob continues in his role as ambassador for the city of
Philadelphia. He sees race as a leading issue still plaguing our
Nation, but he remains relentlessly optimistic. I am quoting Bob here:
I am deeply engaged in the community. I believe that
Philadelphia, as the birthplace of America, is the best city
in America--it is diverse, it has great size; and our success
will come from our collective understanding of who we are.
The Philadelphia Tribune, though it is dedicated to covering
the black community, also honors diversity. We have non-
African Americans in every area of our business.
Of course, Bob has been not just a leader in the African-American
community but a leader in the Philadelphia community at large for many
years and especially active in the advancement of young African
Americans who live in Philadelphia and the region. He describes his
essential philosophy this way:
To be responsible for what you do and be the best at it. We
need to account for what we do. Accountability means
responsibility and taking pride in your work and doing the
best you can.
So says Bob Bogle, and those are good words to live by. They are
words we can take to heart and strive every day in our own lives to
live by.
So I am honored to be able to offer this tribute today to Bob Bogle,
to his team at the Philadelphia Tribune and in a larger sense the
history and, most importantly, the future of the African-American
press--so-called the Black Press--in the United States. So please join
me today in honoring a man of strength, a man of character,
accomplishment, and service--Robert W. Bogle of Philadelphia, PA.
Christian A. Fleetwood
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to a man of
extraordinary strength, moral character, and courage, to end National
Black History Month on a high note. Every year, National Black History
Month is given a theme; this year's focus rests on the American Civil
War, the most divisive and destructive conflict ever witnessed in our
great Nation. While many think of the Civil War as a conflict between
Whites fought over the condition of African Americans, Blacks fought on
both sides of the conflict as well. After Emancipation, the Union
Armies fielded dozens of corps of the U.S. Colored Troops, making up
approximately 10 percent of the total fighting force fielded by the
North, at roughly 180,000 troops. One of those men was named Christian
Abraham Fleetwood. His picture rests beside me today.
In many aspects before the war, Fleetwood was already a rare man.
Christian A. Fleetwood was born in Baltimore to two free persons of
color, Charles and Anna Marie Fleetwood, on July 21, 1840. He was lucky
enough to be educated by a wealthy sugar merchant, free of charge, and
continued his education with the Maryland Colonization Society, before
graduating from the Ashmun Institute, which would later become Lincoln
University.
Broadening his education, he travelled to Sierra Leone and Liberia,
before returning to the United States to join the Union Army to fight
for the freedom of the enslaved. Because of his education, Fleetwood
was promoted to
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sergeant upon enlisting, and sergeant major just a few days later. As
part of the 4th Regiment United States Colored Infantry, he would see
action in the Virginia and North Carolina campaigns in the 10th, 18th
and 25th Army Corps, and would distinguish himself valorously at
Chaffin's Farm, on the outskirts of Richmond, VA, on September 29,
1864.
At the age of 24, SGM Christian Fleetwood stood a mere 5 feet, 4.5
inches tall. Nonetheless, while marching on Confederate fortifications
he witnessed Alfred B. Hilton, a fellow soldier, fall wounded while
carrying the American flag and the Regimental Standard, which Hilton
himself had retrieved from a wounded comrade. Rushing forward under
withering fire, Fleetwood and another soldier named Charles Veale
caught both banners before they brushed the ground. Now bearing the
American flag, Fleetwood carried the attack forward, but retreated once
it became clear that the unit did not have sufficient strength to
penetrate the defenses. Returning through enemy fire to the reserve
line, Fleetwood used his standard to rally a determined group of men
and renewed the attack on the battlements.
In a fight where the 4th and 6th Regiments of U.S. Colored Troops
sustained casualties reaching 50 percent, Fleetwood refused to give up.
For these actions and their contribution to victory at Chaffin's Farm,
Fleetwood, along with Veale and Hilton, were awarded the Medal of
Honor. Fleetwood's official Medal of Honor citation reads simply:
``Seized the colors, after 2 color bearers had been shot down, and bore
them nobly through the fight.'' Every officer in Fleetwood's regiment,
all white men, submitted a petition to the War Department to have him
commissioned an officer, a sure sign of the respect felt by all who
witnessed his gallantry.
The medal is now part of the collection of the Smithsonian's National
Museum of American History, and appears in the exhibit entitled ``The
Price of Freedom.'' The medal's inclusion in the Smithsonian exhibit is
also unique. Fleetwood's daughter Edith Fleetwood donated his medal to
the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum in 1948. The Smithsonian
accepted the medal, making Christian Fleetwood the first African-
American veteran to be so honored.
The Civil War did not call an end to Christian Fleetwood's service,
though he was discharged honorably on May 4, 1866. Fleetwood would go
on to organize a battalion of the D.C. National Guardsmen, and, in the
1880s, formed Washington, DC's Colored High School Cadet Corps, which
counted among its graduates Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., the Nation's first
African-American general, and Wesley A. Brown, the first African-
American graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.
Christian Fleetwood embodied everything Americans revere. His actions
in the 4th Regiment from Baltimore, MD, earned him the military's
highest honor. He was selfless, brave, a fierce fighter for the
abolition of slavery, and chose to dedicate his free life to service of
his country and his community.
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