Simmons, Roscoe Conkling, 1881-1951
Dates
- Existence: 1878 - 1951
Biographical note
Roscoe Conkling Simmons (born 1878 or 1881, died 1951) was an African-American orator, civic leader, journalist and politician. He graduated from Tuskegee Institute in 1899. He served as head of the Colored Division of the Speakers' Bureau of the Republican National Committee in 1920, 1924, and 1928. He was an advisor to three American presidents. He worked for the Chicago Defender from 1916 through the mid-1930s, and for the Chicago Tribune from the late 1940's until his death in 1951.
Footnote on birth date
The date of his birth is uncertain. Obituaries state his age in 1951 as anywhere between Simmons' own assertion that he was sixty-three and his oldest friends' statements that place his age nearer to seventy-five. A birth date of June 20,1878 in Greenview Mississippi is listed in the earliest inventories of his papers produced by the Harvard University Archives. A passport appliction holds a 1918 certification of birth signed by his parents that state the year and place of his birth as 1881 in Macon, Mississippi. See Kaye, Andrew M. Roscoe Conkling Simmons and the Mechanics of Black Leaderhisp, 1899-1951 (Thesis, doctoral--University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2002), p. 23 for a full note on the evidence for various dates and places of birth.
Found in 88 Collections and/or Records:
Colonel Roscoe Colkins [sic] Simmons : America's foremost orator, 1930
Mapping the campaign to win young colored voters for Governor Landon and Colonel Knox, 1936
Publicity photograph and attached press release for the campaign to elect Kansas Governor Alf Landon, Republican Party nominee in the 1936 presidential election. Pictured, from left to right: Roscoe Simmons, Sidney Jones, Robert Kratky, Myrtle Stryker, and Cornelius R. Richardson.
Mapping the campaign to win young colored voters for Governor Landon and Colonel Knox, 1936
Publicity photograph and attached press release for the campaign to elect Kansas Governor Alf Landon, Republican Party nominee in the 1936 presidential election. Pictured, from left to right: Roscoe Simmons, Sidney Jones, Robert Kratky, Myrtle Stryker, and Cornelius R. Richardson.
Publicity photograph of Roscoe Simmons holding a trowel, possibly at a cornerstone laying ceremony, 1940s?
Roscoe Conkling Simmons, 1915
Studio portrait.
Roscoe Simmons (center) meeting in Los Angeles with Dr. J.T. Smith (left) of Lincoln Motion Picture Co. and J.B. Loving, probably 1919
Inscribed on back: Compliments of Clarence Brooks, Secty of Lincoln Motion Picture Co., Los Angeles.
Roscoe Simmons (center) posing in front of a statue with four unidentified men, 1940s
Roscoe Simmons (center) standing with two unidentified men, 1930s?
Inscribed on back: Recopyed [sic] by Patricia Cummings.
Roscoe Simmons (center) standing with two unidentified men, 1930s?
Inscribed on back: Copyed [sic] by [Patricia] Cummings.
Roscoe Simmons (center) standing with two unidentified men and a boy dressed in uniform and possibly Clifton F. Richardson Sr., publisher of the Houston Defender, 1930s?
Roscoe Simmons (center) standing with two unidentified men and a boy dressed in uniform and possibly Clifton F. Richardson Sr., publisher of the Houston Defender, 1930s?
Roscoe Simmons (center) talking with two unidentified men, 1940
Roscoe Simmons (far left) standing with other members of the IBPOEW, 1930s?
Roscoe Simmons (front row, center) posing with six unidentified men, 1912
Studio portrait.
Roscoe Simmons (front row, center) posing with six unidentified men, 1912
Studio portrait.
Roscoe Simmons (front row, second from left) with Cornelius R. Richardson (front row, third from left) and members of the Republican National Committee, Colored Division, Young People's Department, 1936
Publicity photograph and attached press release for the campaign to elect Kansas Governor Alf Landon, Republican Party nominee in the 1936 presidential election, with corresponding copy negative.
Roscoe Simmons (front row, second from left) with Cornelius R. Richardson (front row, third from left) and members of the Republican National Committee, Colored Division, Young People's Department, 1936
Publicity photograph and attached press release for the campaign to elect Kansas Governor Alf Landon, Republican Party nominee in the 1936 presidential election.
Roscoe Simmons (front row, third from right) with Perry W. Howard (front row, far left), Walter L. Cohen (front row, second from left), and other unidentified men, 1925
Unidentified men were possibly employees of People's Industrial Life Insurance Company of Louisiana or members of the Colored Order of the Knights of Pythias of Louisiana.
Roscoe Simmons, full-length portrait, sitting in wicker chair, facing left, 1915
Studio portrait.
Roscoe Simmons, full-length portrait, sitting in wicker chair, turned to the left, 1915
Studio portrait.
Roscoe Simmons, full-length portrait, sitting in wicker chair, turned to the right, 1915
Studio portrait.
Roscoe Simmons, full-length portrait, standing with walking stick, 1920s?
Roscoe Simmons, half-length portrait, facing right, wearing pince-nez, 1920?
Studio portrait. Inscribed on front: To Dr. & Mrs. J.J. Wendell, from their friend, Roscoe Simmons.
Roscoe Simmons, half-length portrait, facing right, wearing pince-nez, 1920?
Studio portrait. Inscribed on front: To my dear friend Mr. Gilchrist Stewart, Roscoe Simmons.
Roscoe Simmons, half-length portrait, facing right, wearing pince-nez, 1920?
Studio portrait. Inscribed on front: This--In affectionate admiration to Mr. Wendell P. Dabney, Of mind elevated above his times, superior to his world! Roscoe!
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