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2003 SPECIAL
HONORS RECIPIENT BIOGRAPHIES
FRANK BOLDEN - LEGACY
Excerpted from “The Legendary Frank E. Bolden: Profile
of a News Warrior,” by Ervin Dyer and Monica Haynes, NABJ
Journal, Spring 2003.
Journalist Frank Bolden is a walking archive of black life in
Western Pennsylvania and beyond. His work as a former city editor
with the legendary Pittsburgh Courier, his days as a foreign
correspondent for the National Negro Publishers Association and
his time as one of the few Blacks to report on World War II has
given him millions of stories.
His ground-breaking work in journalism is flowing beyond the
Allegheny Mountains. Bolden has been the subject of a documentary,
his career as a writer in World
War II has been highlighted in an exhibit at the Newseum and he’s been
honored as an “Unsung Hero” by the Congressional Black Caucus.
Still, he thinks of himself as someone who just happened to be in the right
place at the right time and says there are plenty of people who can out-write
him. “I’m just a lucky fellow,” he says. “I was a leg
man, who tried to be a good reporter. I had a good education and [the Black
press] gave me a chance.”
Bolden turned chance into change, said Dr. Clint C. Wilson II, professor of
journalism and graduate professor of communications at Howard University. Wilson
authored the book “A History of the Black Press.” He says the role
Bolden and other Black foreign correspondents played during World War II was “quite
significant,” because the mainstream media at the time did not cover
Black troops very well.
Bolden’s coverage earned him job offers from The New York Times, Los
Angeles Times and other newspapers, but he wanted to return to the Courier,
where he knew he could immerse himself in the fight for civil rights. He worked
there for 27 years.
Bolden didn’t start out aspiring to be a writer. He wanted to study political
science, but there were no Black scholarships in that subject. So, he earned
a scholarship for Blacks to the University of Pittsburgh, majored in biology
and received straight As. And he was the first Black in Pitt’s varsity
marching band. Bolden applied to Pitt’s School of Medicine, but was denied
access because of his race.
Bolden graduated from Pitt in 1934 and considered becoming a teacher. But he
couldn’t teach in the public schools because they wouldn’t hire
Blacks.
In 1937, Bolden was asked by a friend to write some sports stories for The
Courier. “I had a fairly strong command of English, but I never really
ever thought of myself as a writer.” Little did he know that it would
become his future. He covered the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords,
Pittsburgh’s Negro League’s baseball teams, and, later, boxing.
He knew Jackie Robinson and Joe Louis.
When tensions in Europe escalated into World War II, Bolden was tapped as a
foreign correspondent for the National Negro Publishers Association. His international
datelines ran in The Courier and other Black papers across the country.
He reported on Black troops in Iran, the Middle East and the Soviet Union.
He rode a supply train into the Soviet Union but found no Black troops there
(although he shook up the U.S. War Department).
He met Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, then traveled to India, where he
spent two weeks with Mahatma Gandhi, who had just been released from prison.
He then went on to interview freedom leader Jawarharlal Nehru. According to
Bolden, the men saw him as not just an American but a Black man, a human with
social acceptance problems they could understand.
In fact, Bolden’s memories include a statement Gandhi made about the
roots of racism: “God in his infinite wisdom made the White man, but
with a majority complex. One-third of the world is White, the rest are people
of color. Therein lies the cause of all the racial problems and friction.”
When he returned to the United States, Bolden said he was befriended by Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. because of the connection with Ghandi. Today, Bolden
still has an original copy of the speech King was scheduled to deliver at the
1963 March on Washington.
After the war, Bolden returned to The Courier as a news editor. He would also
later become copy editor and city editor. The paper began having financial
reverses in 1962, leaving him and fellow employees without pensions.
For three months, Bolden worked at The New York Times on general assignment.
Then, during a strike at NBC, he with 35 others filled in writing radio news
copy. He was with “Monitor,” then moved to NBC-TV’s “Today
Show” with Hugh Downs.
In 1963, Bolden began working for the Pittsburgh Board of Education and stayed
for 17 years as associate director of information and community relations,
leaving with a pension.
Bolden also serves as a consultant to the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
and news media on the history of African-American families and their contributions
to American life and sports.
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