No account of Robert S. Abbott's life could be made without mention of the Chicago Defender, a weekly newspaper published by Abbott as a tool to champion the cause of black people in the United States. During the years between World War I and World War II, the heyday of the black press, the Defender was the single most influential national black newspaper in America. At its peak during that period it had a paid circulation in excess of 230,000, and most black-press researchers agree that its readership was anywhere from two to five times that number.

Abbott, through the Defender, is credited with being one of the major influences in persuading tens of thousands of blacks to migrate from the South to Chicago during the period between the world wars. Moreover, his crusading stories, bold red headlines, slashing editorials against segregation and discrimination, and innovations in creating, among...