Robert A. Pelham Jr.

Newspaper Editor, Activist, Career Census Supervisor

The U.S. Census Bureau is proud of its history of continually evolving to 

ensure an accurate count of the people of the United States. To 

accomplish this, the Census Bureau has long embraced the hiring of a 

diverse workforce representative of local communities and the people 

who were a part of the neighborhoods that they counted. For this reason, 

census work was often one of the few government jobs open to 

minorities. Beginning with the 1870 Census (the first after the abolition of 

slavery), the Census Bureau began hiring African Americans as 

enumerators and data processors. With the creation of a permanent 

Census Bureau in 1902, Black workers and statisticians found an 

environment with an inclusiveness far greater than many contemporary 

institutions.

Robert A. Pelham Jr. was born on January 4, 1859, in Petersburg, 

Virginia, into a family of free African Americans. His father, Robert Sr., 

managed the family’s farm and worked as a masonry contractor. 

Frances, Robert’s mother, managed a household that eventually 

consisted of her husband, three daughters, and four sons. Shortly 

after Robert’s birth, his parents moved the family north and settled in 

Detroit, Michigan. There, Robert attended the city’s public schools 

and, beginning in 1871, started working for the Daily Post newspaper.

Upon completing his public education three years ahead of schedule, 

Robert’s professional career skyrocketed. Throughout the 1880s, 

Robert climbed the professional ranks of the Daily Post until leaving 

the paper in 1891. Furthermore, Robert, his younger brother 

Benjamin, and two of their associates founded and edited The Detroit 

Plaindealer in 1883. As an editor, Robert used his newspaper as a tool 

for highlighting the voices of African American leaders, such as Ida B. Wells

and William E. Matthews as they championed the idea of creating a national 

Civil Rights organization. By providing readers with interesting content from 

prominent African American activists and other relevant stories, The Detroit 

Plaindealer became one of the most widely read weekly newspapers among 

Southeast Michigan’s African American community between 1883 and 1893.

In addition to his newspaper career, Robert also began his civil service career

while living in Michigan. From 1887 to 1891, he served as a deputy oil 

inspector for the state. Following this, he worked as an inspector in Detroit’s 

Water Department (c. 1893-1898) and as a special agent for the U.S. Land 

Office (c. 1892-1899). On April 5, 1895, Robert married Gabriella Lewis, a 29-

year musician from Ohio. The young couple lived in Michigan for five years

before they and oldest daughter, Dorothy, moved to Washington, D.C. 

William J. Simmons and Henry McNeal 

Turner, Men of Eminent, Progressive,

and Rising (1887).

Robert is listed as "At School" on 

the family’s 1870 census.

Robert (above), 

Benjamin, and two of 

their business partners 

founded The Detroit 

Plaindealer in 1883.

The New York Age

(New York, New York) February 14, 

1907.
Arriving in Washington, D.C. in July 1900, Robert began his 

impressive 29-year-career at the U.S. Census Bureau. Like many 

Census employees, he started as a clerk, but quickly rose through 

agency’s ranks. Two years after arriving at the Bureau, Robert 

tabulated 1,150 industry census schedules in one day, shattering 

the previous record set by a census clerk named W.A. Bolinger and 

the average daily tabulation count of 591 census schedules. 

Additionally, he invented and patented a pasting apparatus in 1905 

and a new tallying machine in 1913. Robert also attended night 

school and received his law degree from Howard University in 

1904. 

Among his many important accomplishments, he, along with 

Charles E. Hall and William Jennifer, also authored a special census 

report entitled “Negro Population: 1790-1915.” Published in 1918, 

this report provided policymakers and academics with a detailed 

history of the African American population up to that point in time. 

More importantly, the report served as one of the first official 

reports to provide evidence of the “Great Northward Migration” 

and potential causes. When Robert retired from the Census 

Bureau in 1929, he had earned promotions up to the head of a 

division of special statistics. 

In addition to his work with the Census Bureau, Robert continued to serve his local community and 

promote civil rights. In 1919, he was elected to the American Negro Academy (ANA), which served 

as the nation’s first African American organization dedicated to supporting African American 

scholarship. Eventually, Robert won election as the ANA’s executive secretary for the remainder of 

the organization’s existence. He also served as a member of the Spingarn Medal Commission from 

1940 to 1942, which awarded medals from the National Association for the Advancement of 

Colored People to African Americans of outstanding achievement.

After he retired from civil service and his civil rights activities, Robert returned to his journalistic 

roots. Between 1939 and 1941, Robert took over and managed the 

Washington Tribune, a prominent African American newspaper. He 

also founded Capital News Services, Inc., which furnished “syndicated 

news to a hundred or more weekly newspapers throughout the 

country.” 

Ultimately, Robert passed away in his Washington, D.C. home, on June 

12, 1943, at the age of 84. His wife, Gabriella, four children, and four 

grandsons all survived him and built upon his legacy of service to the 

African American community and nation. His older daughter Dorothy 

Pelham Beckley served as the second national president of Delta 

Sigma Theta sorority from 1923 to 1926. His other daughter, Sara 

Pelham Speaks followed in her father’s footsteps and became a lawyer 

and activist and entered public service when she ran as the first 

African American woman candidate for a major political party during 

the 1944 U.S. Congressional election cycle. We are grateful to Robert 

A. Pelham for his extensive service to U.S. Census Bureau and for his 

and his family’s service to their communities and nation.

Robert's pasting apparatus

(pictured above) saved the 

Census Bureau more than 

$3,000.00. 

Image Courtesy of the U.S. Patent and Trademark 

Office.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black 

Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and 

Reference Division, The New York Public 

Library. "Robert A. Pelham." The New York 

Public Library Digital Collections. 1913.

https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d4

7df-aa96-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99.

HB-22-0005