William Roberson (c. 1836-1878) was an American barber, proprietor of a bathing and shaving saloon with Turkish bath, and civil rights activist in St. Louis, Missouri. He advocated to have African-American teachers. He was a Republican.

Before the American Civil War, he and his brother Francis Jefferson Roberson established a barber shop at the Barnum's St. Louis Hotel. He married Lucy Jefferson, a relative of Thomas Jefferson. He established a branch of the Prince Hall masons (Prince Hall Freemasonry),[1] named for Prince Hall.

His establishment at 410 Market Street[2] was luxurious.[3] Léon A. Clamorgan worked for him.[4] William Taggert also worked for him.[5]

In 1867 Frederick Douglass stayed with him, after being refused hotel accommodations in St. Louis, when Douglass was in the city for his speech at the St. Louis Turn Halle.[6][7] Roberson helped support James A. Johnson's St. Louis Blue Stockings baseball team.[8][9]

A St. Louis periodical published an image of his brother cutting hair.[10] Francis Jefferson Roberson's son Francis Rassieur Roberson (1898-1979) became an architect.[11]

His son Frank Roberson studied at Oberlin and the University of Karlsruhe. He became an art teacher.[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Nicolai, Julie (July 10, 2023). Enslavement and the Underground Railroad in Missouri and Illinois. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781467154833 – via Google Books.
  2. ↑ Douglass, Frederick (September 12, 2023). The Frederick Douglass Papers: Series Three: Correspondence: 1866-1880. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300257922 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ Bristol, Douglas Walter (November 10, 2009). Knights of the Razor: Black Barbers in Slavery and Freedom. JHU Press. ISBN 9780801892837 – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ Winch, Julie (May 24, 2011). "The Clamorgans: One Family's History of Race in America". Farrar, Straus and Giroux – via Google Books.
  5. ↑ Clamorgan, Cyprian (July 30, 1999). "The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis". University of Missouri Press – via Google Books.
  6. ↑ "'Purely a human contrivance'". June 19, 2023.
  7. ↑ Douglass, Frederick (September 12, 2023). "The Frederick Douglass Papers: Series Three: Correspondence: 1866-1880". Yale University Press – via Google Books.
  8. ↑ Brunson III, James E. (September 12, 2009). "The Early Image of Black Baseball: Race and Representation in the Popular Press, 1871-1890". McFarland – via Google Books.
  9. ↑ III, James E. Brunson (2009-09-12). The Early Image of Black Baseball: Race and Representation in the Popular Press, 1871-1890. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-5425-9.
  10. ↑ "Francis Roberson cutting hair". STLtoday.com. 2018-01-09. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  11. ↑ Wilson, Dreck Spurlock. African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-95629-5.
  12. ↑ Garry, Vanessa; Isaac-Savage, E. Paulette; Williams, Sha-Lai L. (September 1, 2023). "Black Cultural Capital: Activism That Spurred African American High Schools". IAP – via Google Books.


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