John Wesley Dobbs

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John Wesley Dobbs
BornMarch 26, 1882
Atlanta, Georgia
DiedAugust 30, 1961 (79 years old)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMorehouse College
Occupation(s)Civil and political leader
OrganizationAtlanta Negro Voters League
Known forInvolvement in the Civil Rights Movement
Political partyRepublican[1]
Children6, including Mattiwilda Dobbs

John Wesley Dobbs (March 26, 1882 – August 30, 1961) was an

Atlanta, Georgia. He was often referred to as the unofficial "mayor" of Auburn Avenue
, the spine of the black community in the city.

Dobbs co-founded the

A.T. Walden
, leading voter registration efforts that registered 20,000 African Americans in Atlanta from 1936 to 1946. This new political power helped gain the hiring in 1948 of the first eight African-American police officers in Atlanta, the same year that the federal government began to integrate the armed services. In 1949 the city finally installed lighting along Auburn Avenue, the main retail street of the African-American community.

Early life and education

Dobbs was born and grew up in Atlanta, where he attended segregated public schools. An African-American, he also had European ancestry, as his maternal grandfather was a white slave-owner who enslaved his maternal grandmother, and his paternal great-grandfather was a white slave-owner who enslaved his paternal great-grandmother. He was a voracious reader and studied at Morehouse College. He attended for two years but never graduated because he had family obligations to care for his mother. He passed a civil service exam and became a railway mail clerk for the Post Office in 1903, a position he held for 32 years.

Family

Dobbs married Irene Ophelia Thompson in 1906. They had six daughters together, all of whom graduated from

Josephine Ophelia Dobbs Clement was later elected to the city board of education in Durham, North Carolina (she led integration and discussions about race), and Irene Dobbs Jackson
was a professor of French at Spelman and integrated Atlanta's public libraries.

Career

Dobbs became a member of the

Auburn Avenue
, the spine of the black retail district.

In 1948, when Dobbs was 66, he accompanied

Jim Crow. Dobbs' role was not revealed to the general public until 1998 by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff writer Bill Steigerwald.[2]
The story of Dobbs' collaboration with Sprigle is told in detail in Steigerwald's 2017 history book "30 Days a Black Man".

John Wesley Dobbs died on August 30, 1961, aged 79, the same week that the Atlanta city schools were desegregated.

Legacy and honors

References

  1. ^ From John Wesley Dobbs
  2. ^ Bill Steigerwald, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, Introduction: "Sprigle's secret journey" Archived 2018-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, Undercover: I Was a Negro in the South for 30 Days, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  3. Atlanta Journal-Constitution
    . Retrieved 2010-02-26.
  4. ^ "Ralph Helmick's silicon and bronze "Through His Eyes" monument in Atlanta, Georgia, pays tribute to Georgia civil-rights leader John Wesley Dobbs". Library of Congress. October 30, 2017. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  5. ^ "Our School / About Us /About Mr. John Wesley Dobbs". Dobbs Elementary School. Atlanta Public Schools. Retrieved June 10, 2020.

Sources

External links

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