Bolden, Frank E., 1912-2003

Franklin Eugene (Frank) Bolden, Jr., was born in 1914 in Washington, Pennsylvania. His family contributed several "firsts" to history. His father, Frank E. Bolden, Sr., was the first African American mail carrier in Washington. Bolden's grandfather also achieved a notable first in 1871 as the first African American in Nashville, Tennessee, to sit on a grand jury. Frank Bolden graduated from Washington High School in 1930 and enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh. Bolden planned on becoming an attorney, but found an interest in science and switched to a major in biology. While at the University of Pittsburgh, he became the first African American member of the marching band, playing the clarinet. He also joined the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. It was during this time as a student at Pitt that he wrote articles for the Pittsburgh Courier. As a "stringer," or a free-lance contributor, he wrote sports articles for extra money. Bolden graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1934 earning a Bachelor of Science degree. He then applied to Pitt's School of Medicine, but was turned down due to his race. Pitt, like many medical schools at the time, did not admit African Americans. He also applied to be a teacher with the Pittsburgh Public Schools, but at that time they did not hire African American teachers. While pursuing graduate studies at Pitt, he was hired by the Pittsburgh Courier and became a general assignment reporter and feature writer, covering the cultural and social life of Wylie Avenue in the Hill District. Bolden covered the jazz clubs and once famously quipped, "Wylie Avenue: the only street in America that begins with a church and ends with a jail" (Love). He invented a unique lexicon to give colorful descriptions of the nightlife. He referred to prostitutes as the "sisterhood of the nocturnal order." He also covered sports and wrote about the Negro Baseball League. He covered baseball legends Satchel Paige of the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Josh Gibson of the Homestead Grays. He also wrote a series that traced the complete genealogies of eight prominent African American families in Pittsburgh, tracking down all living relatives. When the United States entered World War II, the editors at the Pittsburgh Courier submitted Bolden's name as a war correspondent. He was subsequently chosen by the U.S. War Department as one of the first two accredited war correspondents. Bolden's stories were filed with the National Negro Publishers Association, and appeared in Black newspapers across the United States like Chicago's Defender, Baltimore's Afro-American, and the Pittsburgh Courier. Due to racial segregation in the military, Bolden was only permitted to cover African American units. Through his articles, which described the bravery of soldiers in the 92nd Infantry Division in Italy, he helped debunk the myth that African Americans could not handle the stress of combat. Bolden was also embedded with African American troops in Asia helping to build an air strip along the Burma Road. Many of the soldiers lost their lives in the brutal tropical conditions. Bolden also had the opportunity to interview Mahatma Gandhi, who had read Bolden's war articles. A two hour interview turned into a two week stay as a house guest. Bolden compared the Indian independence from Great Britain as similar to struggles of Blacks in the United States. Not wanting to be outdone by Gandhi, Indian leader Jawaharlal Nehru also invited Bolden to stay with him. Bolden returned to the Courier in 1945 as a features writer after declining offers from Life Magazine and the New York Times. The Pittsburgh Courier was the leading African American newspaper in the country at the time. According to his obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "[Bolden] thought he would have less impact on civil rights at a white publication than at a black publication. Plus he felt a debt of gratitude toward the Courier, a weekly paper" (Rouvalis). Bolden was promoted to city editor, a position he held from 1956 to 1960. In this position, he often traveled between Courier branch offices for extended stays in cities such as Detroit and Cleveland. In the 1960s the Pittsburgh Courier ran into financial difficulties. Many African American newspapers lost circulation during this time period as mainstream white newspapers gave coverage to the Civil Rights Movement. Bolden married Nancy Travis in 1960 and in 1962 he left for a brief stint as a reporter for the New York Times and then a position at NBC-radio and NBC-TV. In 1964 he returned to Pittsburgh to become assistant director of information and community relations for the Pittsburgh Board of Education. He retired in 1981 and spent his days as the "unofficial historian of Pittsburgh's African American community" (Brennan). Despite his attention to African American history and writing about the lives of countless others, Bolden never wrote about his own life. When asked why, he would shrug and say: "I feel like a mosquito in a nudist camp. I don't know where to begin" (Rouvalis). Bolden died on August 28, 2003 at age 90 in Pittsburgh, Pa.