On This Date in Minnesota History: September 4

September 4, 1922 – John Quincy Adams, African American educator, newspaper publisher and politician, best known as the editor of the Western Appeal/The Appeal of St. Paul, Minn., died on this date in St. Paul after being struck by an automobile while in the process of boarding a streetcar.

“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 (see Feb. 1, 2014 blog), 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 was a consistent supporter of Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Model at the conventions of the Afro-American Council held in St. Paul in 1902 and in Louisville in 1903. That support damaged Adams’ reputation within that group allying itself to the Niagara Movement and later the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).”

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/adams-john-quincy-j-q-adams-1848-1922

John Quincy Adam
http://www.blackpast.org/aah/adams-john-quincy-j-q-adams-1848-1922