Lewis Ossie Swingler (August 28, 1906 – September 25, 1962) was a pioneering African-American journalist, editor, and newspaper publisher from Crittenden County, Arkansas. He was editor of the ''

Memphis World ''Memphis World'' was an African-American newspaper founded in Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. ...

'' and editor in chief and copublisher of the '' Tri-State Defender''.

Early life

Swingler was born in Crittenden County in 1905. He was raised in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, where he attended Booker T. Washington High School. Swingler went on to attend the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...

(UNL), where he graduated with a degree in journalism. While in college, Swingler helped organize the first chapter of

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...

at UNL and edited the ''Sphinx'', a publication of that fraternity.

Career

Directly after graduating, Swingler moved to

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, where he was a pivotal figure in the establishment of the ''Memphis World''. He served as its editor from its founding in 1931 until he left in 1951 to start the ''Tri-State Defender'' with

John H. Sengstacke John Herman Henry Sengstacke (November 25, 1912 – May 28, 1997) was an American newspaper publisher and owner of the largest chain of African-American oriented newspapers in the United States. Sengstacke was also a civil rights activist and wor ...

. During this period Swingler also taught journalism at LeMoyne College. Swingler used his position in Memphis's black community to advocate for civil rights. For instance, in 1948 Swingler and a number of other prominent black citizens of Memphis pressed the police department to hire African American officers as a way of reducing police brutality. This effort was ultimately successful. Swingler also joined an early voter registration group, Joseph Edison Walker's ''Non-Partisan Voters Committee'', in 1951. In 1956, during the Montgomery bus boycott, Swingler was the southern vice president of Alpha Phi Alpha. After fellow Alpha Martin Luther King Jr. was indicted in Montgomery, Swingler was among a delegation which travelled there to support King. Swingler died on September 25, 1962, in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, of a heart attack.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swingler, Lewis Ossie African-American journalists 20th-century American journalists American male journalists People from Crittenden County, Arkansas 1900s births 1962 deaths People from Memphis, Tennessee Alpha Phi Alpha members LeMoyne–Owen College faculty University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers Journalists from Tennessee People from Mound Bayou, Mississippi 20th-century American male writers 20th-century African-American people