Chester A. Franklin

Chester Arthur Franklin (1880–1955) was the founder and publisher of The Kansas City Call, the Black weekly newspaper he launched in May 1919 and led for 36 years until his death.¹² Trained in the newspaper trade by his family’s papers in Omaha and Denver, Franklin built The Call from a four-page sheet with a print run of 2,000 into one of the six largest African-American weeklies in the country, operating from the 18th-and-vine district.¹³ He mentored two nationally significant figures — roy-wilkins, later executive director of the NAACP, and lucile-bluford, his eventual successor — and his widow, Ada Crogman Franklin, ran the paper as publisher after his death.¹³

Biography

Family and the newspaper trade (1880–1913)

Franklin was born June 7, 1880, in Denison, Texas, the only child of George F. Franklin, a barber, and Clara Belle (Williams) Franklin, a teacher.¹⁴ The family moved to Omaha, Nebraska, where his father founded the Omaha Enterprise in 1891; Franklin attended high school in Omaha and studied at the University of Nebraska for two years before returning home to help run the paper.¹⁴

In 1898 the Franklins relocated to Denver, Colorado, and bought a local Black newspaper, which they renamed The Star.¹⁴ After George Franklin’s death in 1901, Chester and his mother Clara operated The Star for roughly a dozen years, building it into an influential statewide voice for Colorado’s African-American readers.¹⁴

Founding The Call (1919)

Franklin moved to Kansas City looking for a larger African-American readership than Denver could supply.¹⁴ He founded The Kansas City Call in May 1919 at 1311 East 18th Street; the first edition ran four pages with a press run of 2,000 copies.¹⁵ The printers’ union barred experienced white workers from assisting a Black publisher, so Franklin taught himself to operate the Linotype machine, and his mother — known in the community as “Mother” Franklin — sold subscriptions door to door in the evenings.³⁴ In 1922 the paper moved to 1715–17 East 18th Street, in the heart of the 18th-and-vine district, where it installed a 32-page Goss press by 1928.¹⁵

The Call grew from a circulation of about 2,000 in 1919 to 16,737 in 1927, and to roughly 20,000 weekly by 1940 — a substantial share of a Kansas City African-American population then numbering around 70,000.¹³ It became one of the six largest African-American weeklies in the United States and was one of 22 Black newspapers launched in Kansas City in the early twentieth century, the only one to survive past 1943.³⁵

Editorial stance and civic work

A committed Republican, Franklin used the paper to campaign against segregation, lynching, the Ku Klux Klan, and police brutality, and to press for better housing, employment, and schooling for Black Kansas Citians.¹⁵ He favored “constructive” community coverage over sensationalized crime reporting, though when readers objected to crime stories he answered that “the press is to publish, not suppress news.”³⁵ Outside the newsroom he supported the Paseo YMCA fundraising campaign and helped establish Wheatley-Provident Hospital, serving as chairman of its board.⁴

The Call’s newsroom: Wilkins and Bluford

roy-wilkins worked at The Call as a reporter and managing editor from 1923 to 1931 before going on to lead the NAACP.³ lucile-bluford joined the paper in the early 1930s under Franklin and spent roughly seven decades there, eventually becoming editor and publisher.³

Marriage and death

Franklin married Ada Crogman — an actress and the daughter of Clark University’s president — in Philadelphia in 1925; she is credited with moderating the paper’s more sensational coverage.¹⁴ Franklin suffered a heart attack on May 2, 1955, and died on May 7, 1955, having led The Call for 36 years.¹⁴ Ada Crogman Franklin served as the paper’s president and publisher from 1955 to 1983, with Bluford as part-owner and eventual successor.³

Significance to Kansas City

Franklin gave Black Kansas City a durable institutional voice. The Call outlasted every other Black paper founded in the city in its era, and at its height was described as the largest Black-owned business in the Midwest.⁵ Its offices on East 18th Street helped anchor the commercial life of 18th-and-vine, and its newsroom trained journalists — most notably roy-wilkins and lucile-bluford — who carried Kansas City’s civil-rights reporting to a national stage.¹³ The paper Franklin founded remains in publication.¹

Sources

Footnotes

1. The Pendergast Years (Kansas City Public Library) — “Chester Arthur Franklin.” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶

2. The Pendergast Years (Kansas City Public Library) — “Franklin, Chester A.” ↩

3. Wikipedia — “The Call (Kansas City).” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

4. African American Registry — “Chester Franklin, Journalist and Publisher born.” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹

5. African American Heritage Trail of Kansas City — “Kansas City Call.” ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶