Frederick Madison Roberts
Encyclopedia
Frederick Madison Roberts (September 14, 1879–July 19, 1952) was an American newspaper owner and editor, educator and business owner who was the first known man of African American
descent elected to the California State Assembly
. He served there for 16 years and was known as "dean of the assembly." He has been honored as the first person of African American descent to be elected to public office among the states on the West Coast
. He was the great-grandson of Sally Hemings
and is widely believed to be the great-grandson of President Thomas Jefferson
.
, the son of Andrew Jackson Roberts (1852 - 1927), a graduate of Oberlin College
, and Ellen Wayles Hemings (1856 - 1940), who was a granddaughter of Sally Hemings
and Thomas Jefferson. The daughter of Madison Hemings
, Ellen was 5'10" with blue eyes. (When the Jefferson biographer Fawn Brodie saw a family photo of Ellen, she said she could see the strong resemblance to Thomas Jefferson.)
When Frederick was six, his family moved to Los Angeles
, where his father established the first black-owned mortuary. The Roberts had a second son, William Giles Roberts. The Roberts and their descendants became prominent in the Los Angeles area, with a strong tradition of college education, and working in public service. Frederick Roberts attended Los Angeles High School
and became its first known graduate of African-American descent.
Roberts attended college at the University of Southern California
(USC) where he majored in pre-law. He continued at Colorado College
, where he graduated. He also attended the Barnes-Worsham School of Embalming and Mortuary Science.
. While in Colorado, he also served as deputy assessor for El Paso County
. He went to Mississippi
where he served some years as principal of Mound Bayou Normal and Industrial Institute, one of a number of schools founded for African Americans.
In 1912 Roberts returned to Los Angeles, where he founded The New Age Dispatch newspaper (later called New Age), which he edited until 1948. When he partnered with his father in the mortuary business, they named it A.J. Roberts & Son. Eventually he took it over.
As a newspaper editor and business owner, Roberts became a prominent leader in the growing African-American community of Los Angeles, as people arrived in the Great Migration
from the South
. He belonged to a Methodist church. He also became a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) and the Urban League, associations established in the early 20th century to work for political and civil rights for blacks.
from the 62nd District as a Republican
in a hard-fought campaign, during which his chief rival issued racial slurs against him. While in office, Roberts sponsored legislation to establish the University of California at Los Angeles and improve public education, and proposed several civil rights
and anti-lynching
measures. In June 1922, he welcomed Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey
to Los Angeles and rode in his parade car.
He was re-elected repeatedly and served a continuous total of 16 years, becoming known as the "dean of the assembly". He was a friend of Earl Warren
, governor of California who became Chief Justice
of the US Supreme Court. In 1934 after the election of Democrat
Franklin Delano Roosevelt as president, Roberts was defeated by another African-American candidate, Democrat Augustus F. Hawkins
. Following his defeat, Roberts twice ran unsuccessfully to represent California in Congress. No African American had yet been elected representative from California.
Beginning in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the second wave of the Great Migration
brought tens of thousands of African Americans from the South
to the Los Angeles area for jobs in the growing defense industries. In 1946 Roberts campaigned for the 14th Congressional District against incumbent Helen Gahagan Douglas. A few years later, Douglas lost a hotly contested U.S. Senate race to Republican Richard M. Nixon.
On the evening of July 18, 1952, a few days after attending the 1952 Republican National Convention
, Roberts sustained serious injuries when the car he was driving was struck by another vehicle near his Los Angeles home. He died the following afternoon at Los Angeles County General Hospital. He is interred at Evergreen Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
descent elected to the California State Assembly
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...
. He served there for 16 years and was known as "dean of the assembly." He has been honored as the first person of African American descent to be elected to public office among the states on the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
. He was the great-grandson of Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings
Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a mixed-race slave owned by President Thomas Jefferson through inheritance from his wife. She was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson by their father John Wayles...
and is widely believed to be the great-grandson of President Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
.
Early life and education
Roberts was born on September 14, 1879 in Chillicothe, OhioChillicothe, Ohio
Chillicothe is a city in and the county seat of Ross County, Ohio, United States.Chillicothe was the first and third capital of Ohio and is located in southern Ohio along the Scioto River. The name comes from the Shawnee name Chalahgawtha, meaning "principal town", as it was a major settlement of...
, the son of Andrew Jackson Roberts (1852 - 1927), a graduate of Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, and Ellen Wayles Hemings (1856 - 1940), who was a granddaughter of Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings
Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a mixed-race slave owned by President Thomas Jefferson through inheritance from his wife. She was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson by their father John Wayles...
and Thomas Jefferson. The daughter of Madison Hemings
Madison Hemings
Madison Hemings, born James Madison Hemings , was born into slavery as the son of the mixed-race slave Sally Hemings; he was freed after the death of his master Thomas Jefferson. Based on historical evidence, most historians believe that Jefferson, United States president, was his father...
, Ellen was 5'10" with blue eyes. (When the Jefferson biographer Fawn Brodie saw a family photo of Ellen, she said she could see the strong resemblance to Thomas Jefferson.)
When Frederick was six, his family moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where his father established the first black-owned mortuary. The Roberts had a second son, William Giles Roberts. The Roberts and their descendants became prominent in the Los Angeles area, with a strong tradition of college education, and working in public service. Frederick Roberts attended Los Angeles High School
Los Angeles High School
Los Angeles High School is the oldest public high school in the Southern California Region and in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Its colors are blue and white and the teams are called the Romans....
and became its first known graduate of African-American descent.
Roberts attended college at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
(USC) where he majored in pre-law. He continued at Colorado College
Colorado College
The Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell...
, where he graduated. He also attended the Barnes-Worsham School of Embalming and Mortuary Science.
Career and civic life
In 1908 Roberts started editing the Colorado Springs Light newspaperNewspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
. While in Colorado, he also served as deputy assessor for El Paso County
El Paso County, Colorado
El Paso County is the most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States, now more populous than Denver County. The United States Census Bureau concluded that the county population was 622,371 in 2010. In recent years, the population had come closer to that of Denver...
. He went to Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
where he served some years as principal of Mound Bayou Normal and Industrial Institute, one of a number of schools founded for African Americans.
In 1912 Roberts returned to Los Angeles, where he founded The New Age Dispatch newspaper (later called New Age), which he edited until 1948. When he partnered with his father in the mortuary business, they named it A.J. Roberts & Son. Eventually he took it over.
As a newspaper editor and business owner, Roberts became a prominent leader in the growing African-American community of Los Angeles, as people arrived in the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
from the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
. He belonged to a Methodist church. He also became a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
(NAACP) and the Urban League, associations established in the early 20th century to work for political and civil rights for blacks.
Marriage and family
In 1921 Roberts married Pearl Hinds, who had studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music. They had a daughter Gloria, who became a professional classical pianist. In addition to Gloria, they also had another daughter, Patricia, who also lived in Los Angeles.Political career
In 1918 Roberts was elected to the California State AssemblyCalifornia State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...
from the 62nd District as a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
in a hard-fought campaign, during which his chief rival issued racial slurs against him. While in office, Roberts sponsored legislation to establish the University of California at Los Angeles and improve public education, and proposed several civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
and anti-lynching
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
measures. In June 1922, he welcomed Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH was a Jamaican publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, to which end he founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League...
to Los Angeles and rode in his parade car.
He was re-elected repeatedly and served a continuous total of 16 years, becoming known as the "dean of the assembly". He was a friend of Earl Warren
Earl Warren
Earl Warren was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States.He is known for the sweeping decisions of the Warren Court, which ended school segregation and transformed many areas of American law, especially regarding the rights of the accused, ending public-school-sponsored prayer, and requiring...
, governor of California who became Chief Justice
Chief Justice
The Chief Justice in many countries is the name for the presiding member of a Supreme Court in Commonwealth or other countries with an Anglo-Saxon justice system based on English common law, such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the Court of Final Appeal of...
of the US Supreme Court. In 1934 after the election of Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Franklin Delano Roosevelt as president, Roberts was defeated by another African-American candidate, Democrat Augustus F. Hawkins
Augustus F. Hawkins
Augustus Freeman "Gus" Hawkins was a prominent African American Democratic Party politician and a figure in the history of Civil Rights and organized labor. He served as the first African American from California in the United States Congress, where he sponsored the Humphrey-Hawkins Full...
. Following his defeat, Roberts twice ran unsuccessfully to represent California in Congress. No African American had yet been elected representative from California.
Beginning in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the second wave of the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
brought tens of thousands of African Americans from the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
to the Los Angeles area for jobs in the growing defense industries. In 1946 Roberts campaigned for the 14th Congressional District against incumbent Helen Gahagan Douglas. A few years later, Douglas lost a hotly contested U.S. Senate race to Republican Richard M. Nixon.
On the evening of July 18, 1952, a few days after attending the 1952 Republican National Convention
1952 Republican National Convention
The 1952 Republican National Convention was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois from July 7 to July 11, 1952 and nominated the popular general and war hero Dwight D...
, Roberts sustained serious injuries when the car he was driving was struck by another vehicle near his Los Angeles home. He died the following afternoon at Los Angeles County General Hospital. He is interred at Evergreen Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.
Legacy
- 1957 - The city of Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
dedicated Frederick M. Roberts Park, 4700 Honduras St., in his memory.
- February 25, 2002 - The California State SenateCalifornia State SenateThe California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...
honored Frederick Madison Roberts for his contributions and service to the State of California, with a unanimous vote for Senate Resolution 26, authored by Senator Ray Haynes (R-Riverside).
- February 2006 - The Hon. Mervyn M. Dymally (D) of the California State Legislature featured the biography of Frederick M. Roberts on his website to honor early political leaders as part of Black History Month.
External links
Additional reading
- Delilah L. Beasley, Negro Trail Blazers of California, Los Angeles: 1919, pp. 137, 215-16. (An early picture of Roberts appears on p. 40.)
- Fawn M. Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1974
- Annette Gordon-Reed, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1998
- Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008
- Shannon Lanier and Jane Feldman, Jefferson's Children: The Story of One American Family New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2000 (with photos of Jefferson descendants on both sides)