Jefferson-Mobile County AlArchives Biographies.....Adams, Oscar William 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 September 15, 2008, 6:36 pm

Author: Clement Richardson, Editor

OSCAR WILLIAM ADAMS

   AMONG the enterprising young men who threw their weight into making the Negro
Birmingham a success, none has fought harder or more creditably than Oscar W
Adams. On graduating from Normal A. and M. College, Normal, Ala., Mr. Adams cast
his lot with "The Birmingham Reporter," now without question the leading Negro
Newspaper of Alabama. For a number of years he lived out pretty faithfully the
advice of Horace Greeley to the young aspirants to Journalism to sleep on paper
and eat ink. But in time the paper came into Mr. Adams' possession, and the
struggle was even more bitter, if possible. Business did not hum in Brmingham
then as now and so his subscribers were few and his advertisers small, and
uncertain, and payment for both subscriptions and advertisements very slow in
coming in.

   To keep the paper alive, Mr. Adams gave up his lodgings and slept in the
office on a lounge. He ate a full meal whenever he could afford to do so.

   "But," says he, "I always paid my helpers. I didn't think it right to keep
them waiting. It was none of their affair if the paper failed." However, the
Reporter is on its feet today. It has passed through the day of test for twelve
years, and a Negro paper that survives the test that length of time can be said
to be fully established.

   Of course, Mr. Adams had been thoroughly schooled for the struggle with The
Reporter, and from this schooling one would expect nothing but victory to the
end. Mr. Adams was born in Gulf Crest, one time known as Beaver Meadow, a
community about 25 miles out of Mobile. He attended the district school to the
8th grade and then made his way to Normal, Alabama, to the A. and M. College. To
make his way through school, both in public school and for the first year in
College, Mr. Adams worked as a laborer on a turpentine farm. During his life in
College he served now as agent in the Commissary, now as the assistant
bookkeeper and finally as the Editor of the Normal Index, the official paper of
the Normal College. Going through so many experiences and coming out of each
successful, Mr. Adams built the character which has stood him in such good stead
as editor of The Reporter, as a business man, and a leader in the fraternal orders.

    Mr. Adams is most loyal, even enthusiastic fraternity man. As has already
been stated, his paper is the official organ of the Knights of Pythias, Odd
Fellows, and Masonic Order of Alabama. He holds membership also in the Masonic
Lodge, in the Elks, in the K. L. of H., and in the Mosaic Templars. He is
Secretary of the United Brothers of Friendship, as well as its spokesman in his
journal.

  Second only to his interest in his journal is Mr. Adams interest in education.
He is present at all educational gatherings he can reach and gives freely space
in his paper to the reports upon all schools and school work, both in the city
and in the state. He is very loyal to Normal, not only because this is his Alma
Mater, but because he really knows what it means for most of our boys and girls
to secure even a fair education, an education rising but little above the three
R's.

  Oscar W. Adams, though a young man, has filled some of the most important
speaking engagements of any member of his race. He is a man of rare quality in
this special line of work. He is a student of history and his delivery is easy
and pleasant. At present he is Chairman of the Four Minute Men Speakers of the
State of Alabama, directed by the United States Government, and is a member of
the State Committee on War Savings Certificates. He has, no doubt, appeared
before more audiences in the past five years than any man in the race of his age.

  Mr. Adams was married to Miss Mamie Tuggle in 1910. The happy union, happy in
sympathy and co-operation as well as in affection, for both were very hard
workers, lasted but five years, Mrs. Adams dying in 1915. He lives now for his
paper, for his school, for his lodge and for Negro enterprise in every direction.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

The National Cyclopedia of The Colored Race

Editor-in-Chief

CLEMENT RICHARDSON
President of Lincoln Institute
Jefferson City, Mo.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Dr. C. V. ROMAN,
Nashville, Tenn.
Professor of Meharry Medical College.

W. T. B. WILLIAMS, Hampton Institute, Va.
Field Agent of the Jeannes and Slater Funds.

H. M. MINTON, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa.
Board of Directors Mercy Hospital.

SILAS X. FLOYD, Augusta, Ga.
Principal of City Schools.

DR. R. E. JONES, New Orleans, La.
Editor of South Western Christian Advocate.

DR. A. F. OWENS, Selma, Ala.
Dean of Theological Dept. Selma university.

FRED MOORE, New York City.
Editor New York Age.

ADVISORY BOARD

EMMETT J. SCOTT, Chairman,
Secretary of Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.

N. B. YOUNG, Tallahassee, Fla.
President of A. and M. College.

DR. J. W. E. BOWEN, Atlanta, Ga.
Dean of Gammon Theological Seminary.

J. R. E. LEE, Kansas City, Mo.
Principal of Lincoln High School.

J. S. CLARK, Baton Route, La.
President of Southern University.

DR. M. W. DOGAN, Marshall, Texas.
President of Wiley University.

Volume One
NATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, Inc.
PUBLISHERS
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA
1919

COPYRIGHT 1919
NATIONAL PUBLISHING CO., Inc.
MONTGOMERY, ALA.


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