Hauke, Kathleen A.

Ted Poston was the first full-time African-American reporter for the "New York Post," where he worked from 1936 covering many major black-oriented news stories, until his retirement in 1972. Prior to being hired by the Post, Poston wrote for the "Pittsburgh Courier," "Amsterdam News," and the "New York Contender." He was also on the staff of the Federal Writers' Project, and from 1940-1945 he was a member of the "Black Cabinet," an informal network of African Americans serving in or advising the Roosevelt administration. Poston was head of the Negro News Desk in the Office of War Information and was responsible for relations with the Negro press. "The Dark Side of Hopkinsville," a book of his short stories, was published posthumously in 1991.

Hauke was born in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1935 and received a B.A. in journalism from the University of Michigan. While in college she became especially interested in Catholicism and race relations. She married Richard L. Hauke, a botanist. They had two daughters and adopted two sons, one from Costa Rica and one of African-American heritage. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Rhode Island, where her husband was on the faculty. She has taught at various institutions, including Morris Brown College and Georgia State University in Atlanta, and in 1993 was at work on a biography of African-American journalist Ted Poston.

The Roxborough family was a prominent one in Detroit politics, sports and theater. John Roxborough, a Detroit insurance executive, discovered and managed the Alabama-born amateur boxer Joe Louis. His nephew, John Roxborough II, was the son of Michigan's first African-American State Senator, Charles A. Roxborough Jr., and grandson of attorney Charles A. Roxborough. John Jr. also became an attorney and he was involved with the Detroit Branch of the NAACP in the 1930's. John Jr.'s sister Elsie graduated from the University of Michigan in 1937 with a degree in Journalism. She became a successful playwright, with her plays presented at theaters in Detroit and movie scripts in Hollywood. She was linked romantically with poet Langston Hughes and boxer Joe Louis. John and Elsie's mother was Cassandra Pease. Genealogical material on both the Roxborough and Pease families are also included.