Rev Stephen Douglas Russell
S.D. Russell was born in August
1858 in the state of Mississippi, the
native state of both of his parents.
His family consisted of his wife,
Hattie F., born October 1867 in
Louisiana, whom he had married 1893;
her parents were both born in Georgia.
She was the mother of 8 children, 7
of whom were living in 1910:
Steven,
born July 1883 in Texas, aged 16
Richard,
born July 1885 in Texas, aged 14
Theodore,
born May 1887 in Texas, aged 13
Hanable,
born 1889 in Texas, aged 11
Pearlie,
born June 1898 in Oklahoma, aged 6
Marcus,
born November 1895 in Oklahoma, aged 4
Etolia,
born June 1898 in Oklahoma, aged 2
(1900
Guthrie, Oklahoma census)
S.D.
Russell, editor of the Denison
Reformer, and E.H. Garland,
pastor of Hopewell Baptist Church, began
publication of the Living Age,
an illustrated monthly journal that was
devoted to the interest of the colored
people in the Texas, as well as the
southern states. The price for a
subscription was $1 per year. It was
expected that his new publication would be
as successful as the Denison
Reformer. (The Sunday
Gazetteer, August 23, 1891)
The Sunday
Gazetteer of April 3, 1892 stated
that Stephen D. Russell was editor of the
Living
Age and the Texas
Reformer, the newspapers of the
colored people of north Texas. He
had just returned from a trip to Memphis,
Tennessee in the spring of 1892. His
opinion of the Presidential race in 1892
was expressed at that the colored people
would nominated Fred Douglass in first
place and Richard K. Bruce of Mississippi
in second place on a ticket in the
Presidential election. Russell
endorsed the move by his people as a
"rebuke to the white Republicans" whom he
felt ignored the colored people when
places of salaried public offices were
needing to be filled. He believed
that such a Presidential ticket would be
unanimously supported by the colored
people. (The Sunday Gazetteer,
April 3, 1892, pg. 4)
S.D.
Russell of Langston was elected Secretary
of the Inter-Territorial Negro League for
the year of 1907 at the annual meeting of
the League in the fall of 1906.
("Territory Notes", The Denison
Daily Herald, Saturday, September
15, 1906)
In
1907 Mr. Russell was living in Oklahoma
and was editor of the Langston Age.
He was once again taking an active
and prominent roll in the politics of
Oklahoma, being at the head of a movement
of the Negroes population to the
Democratic Party of Oklahoma instead of
the Republican Party. In his
editorial for the week of October 26, Mr.
Russell stated:
"Oklahoma is
democratic by at least 30,000 majority.
Out of 21 district judges elected,
19 are Democrats and 2 are Republicans."
He went on to say that no only were
the courts run by Democrats but the
Oklahoma Supreme court and the Legislature
as well. He urged his
"brethren in black" to use common sense
and cultivate the friendship of the people
in positions of power in the government
and judicial system. (The Wichita
Daily Eagle, Wichita, Kansas,
Sunday, October 27, 1907, pg. 10)
The Muskogee
Times-Democrat noted in the
spring of 1909 that S.D. Russell was
editor of the Western Age, a Negro
paper organized in 1904 and published at
Langston, Oklahoma, which was an early
all-black town. He visited Muskogee
in preparation to taking over the
Superintendency of the Negro home for the
dear, dumb and blind at Taft, Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Legislature had
appropriated $35,000 for the maintenance
of the home for 2 years and plans were
made to erect a 3-story brick building as
soon as possible. (Muskogee
Times-Democrat, Saturday, March
20, 1909, pg. 1)
After
five years as Superintendent of the State
Negro Orphanage at Taft, the Muskogee
Time-Democrat again reported in
summer of 1914 that S. Douglass Russell,
editor and educator , had not returned to
the orphanage after being away on leave
for several weeks. During that time
a report on shortages in funds at the
orphanage were allegedly traced back to
Russell, who was expected to be place
before the State Board of Education at
Oklahoma City in the next day or two.
Dr.
F.B. Fite, a member of the State Board of
Education, was instructed by the Board to
take charge of the orphanage and appoint a
man as Superintendent. It was
expected that Dr. Fite would either close
the case against Mr. Russell or possibly
take action by Tuesday, the following day.
The
Assistant Superintendent, Mr. Johnson,
under Mr. Russell was put in charge of the
school after Mr. Russell left. He
stated that no one at the school in Taft
had heard from Mr. Russell except for one
letter to Mr. Johnson telling him that he
(Russell) had gone to Mississippi.
He had made known before he left on
his leave that he was going to Mississippi
to raise funds to make what money was
allegedly taken by him.
The
examination of the school records
conducted by Dr. Fite and representatives
of the State Auditor's office after Mr.
Russell left on his leave to Mississippi
resulted in the evidence of a shortage of
hundreds of dollars in warrants issued to
take up old bills. Several salary
warrants were alleged to have not been
delivered to the faculty and staff.
(Muskogee
Times-Democrat, Muskogee,
Oklahoma, Monday, June 15, 1914, pg.2)
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