Bolden, Frank E.

Source:

 African American National Biography

Bolden, Frank E.

(24 Dec. 1912–28 Aug. 2003),

journalist and historian, was born Franklin Eugene Bolden Jr. in Washington County, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three sons of Franklin Eugene Bolden Sr., the first black mail carrier in the city of Washington, Pennsylvania, and Mary Woods Bolden. Frank Bolden's parents instilled in him the importance of education and achievement at an early age. His father often told him, “When you're average, you are just as far from the bottom as you are from the top” (Rouvalis, Post‐Gazette). With that mentality, Bolden's life was anything but average.

Bolden attended the Washington public school system and graduated from high school in 1930. He went on to attend the University of Pittsburgh, where he was the first African American to play in the university's varsity marching and concert bands. He said in a documentary film about his life that his audition for the band was twice as hard as what was required of white members. While in college, Bolden also became one of the first three black students to perform in the Cap and Gown drama club. He joined Alpha Phi Alpha national fraternity in 1931. Bolden graduated in 1934, earning a BS with honors in Education. Bolden intended to enroll in the university's medical school, but racism kept him out. Upon visiting the school's dean, Bolden was told that his transcript was impeccable and he would be admitted that day if only he were white. At the time, the university refused to admit blacks to the medical school. Bolden instead chose to pursue his doctorate in biological studies. He was inducted into Phi Sigma, an honorary biology society, and was a member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, with publications in 1936 and 1938. Bolden, who was also the first black graduate assistant to teach in Pitt's biology department, had a teaching certificate and tried to apply for a teaching position with the Pittsburgh public schools. He was again denied entry because the system did not hire black teachers.

Bolden had no formal training in journalism, but around 1935 a friend who worked for the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the most renowned black newspapers in the country, asked him if he wanted to work part‐time as a sportswriter. He primarily covered the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays, both Negro League baseball teams, and boxing. His talent attracted the attention of editors at the paper as well as its publisher, Robert L. Vann. As his career grew, Bolden would become well known for what were later coined “Bolden‐isms,” phrases he used to describe his subjects. For instance, he referred to black soldiers serving in World War II as “Tan Yanks” because he said he was tired of calling them “Negro Soldiers” in his articles. He called numbers runners “digitarians,” and prostitutes were members of the “nocturnal sisterhood.” Bolden's career at the Courier spanned twenty‐seven years and included positions as columnist, feature writer, copy desk editor, and eventually city editor, a post he held from 1956 to 1962. In between his work at the Courier, around 1940, Bolden worked late afternoons and evenings as a bacteriologist for the county's Department of Public Health.

Pittsburgh's Hill District, which was one of the most famous African American neighborhoods in the country between the 1930s and 1950s, was Bolden's beat. He covered the neighborhood's nightlife, political, social, and cultural events. He was especially interested in stories of everyday people and their good works. This idea of spotlighting unsung heroes would continue through Bolden's tenure as city editor at the Courier. His articles would also speak out against discriminatory practices and ill treatment against blacks. He was an outspoken critic of Pittsburgh's urban renewal plans that destroyed the Hill District in the late 1950s.

During World War II Bolden was eager to unearth stories of the black troops fighting for freedom abroad. In 1942 he became one of the first two blacks accredited by the War Department as a war correspondent. His first assignments were to cover the mobilization of black troops including the Ninety‐second and Ninety‐third Infantry Divisions at Fort Huachuca, Arizona (which included the Buffalo Soldiers), and aviation training at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He went overseas to cover the China‐Burma‐India theater of operations for the National Negro Publishers Association (later called the National Newspaper Publishers Association). His goal was to counter reports in the white press that painted black soldiers as cowards who would retreat in combat. Instead, Bolden's stories showed black troops who fought with dignity and courage. He also documented the exploits of the black engineering troops who built the Ledo Road (later Stilwell Road) in Burma. The National Negro Publishers Association distributed his articles to the Courier and to other black publications around the country.

In the course of one year, beginning with the Tehran Conference in 1943, Bolden landed a bevy of interviews with several twentieth‐century world leaders. At the conference, he interviewed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Premier Joseph Stalin, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The conference was held to strengthen the cooperation of the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union in World War II. Later, Bolden traveled to India to interview Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and the Indian leaders Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. Bolden was invited to stay in the homes of both Gandhi and Nehru; he stayed fifteen days with Gandhi and twelve days with Nehru. Bolden also interviewed General and Madame Chiang Kai‐Shek in China. Bolden was the first African American journalist to set foot in India, Burma, and China.

Bolden's war reporting was cited by the War Department for Distinguished Reporting during World War II. When he returned from overseas, he was offered jobs at Life and the New York Times, but he settled back into the Courier. Bolden said he did not think he would have had as much of an influence on civil rights working at a white publication. Upon his return to the Courier, he produced an impressive series of articles that traced the complete histories of eight prominent African American families in the Pittsburgh region. In 1960 he married Nancy Travis, and the two were married forty‐three years until Bolden's death. They had no children.

Bolden left the Courier in 1962 after the paper's financial failure left him and fellow employees without pensions. He went on to work briefly at the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and at NBC News on the Huntley‐Brinkley Report. By 1963 he had returned to Pittsburgh to accept a job with the Pittsburgh Board of Education as associate director of information services and community relations. His main task was to promote the board's desegregation policy. He took a leave of absence from the board in 1964 to cover the Democratic and Republican conventions for NBC News. At the Republican National Convention he scooped other national news outlets by scoring an exclusive interview with the Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. Bolden retired from the board of education in 1978 with a pension after seventeen years of service.

While in retirement, Bolden raised prizewinning African violets and orchids and bred champion show dogs. He coauthored a book, Legacy in Bricks and Mortar: African‐American Landmarks in Allegheny County (1995), and continued to work as a lecturer, historian, consultant, and senior archivist for the Honorable K. Leroy Irvis, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Bolden was also deeply concerned with the education and welfare of young people and devoted much of his time to boards and organizations serving their needs. He received numerous honors and awards, including the prestigious George Polk Career Award in Journalism, the Legacy Award from the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Heritage Award from the Tuskegee Airmen. Bolden died in Pittsburgh at the age of ninety. The following year, in 2004, he was honored posthumously with a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker erected on the former site of the Courier office in Pittsburgh's Hill District.

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