Robert Thomas Teamoh (March 25, 1864 - 1912) was a newspaper reporter for The Boston Globe and state legislator in Massachusetts.[1][2][3] He was the nephew of Virginia state senator George Teamoh.[4]

Robert T. Teamoh
Massachusetts House of Representatives
In office
1894–1895
Succeeded byWilliam L. Reed
Personal details
Born(1864-03-25)March 25, 1864
Died1912(1912-00-00) (aged 47–48)
Boston, Massachusetts
Political partyRepublican
SpouseJulia Jackson
ChildrenRobert Shaw Teamoh

Personal life

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Teamoh was born in Massachusetts to parents Thomas and Margaret Patterson Teamoh and lived in Brookline.[5] In 1894 he married Julia Jackson.[6]

Career

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Teamoh was a known Freemason and worked for the Boston Globe for over 20 years.[7] He is believed to be the first African American reporter for a white newspaper in Boston.[8]

He represented Ward 9 of the 1894 Massachusetts legislature. He was part of a delegation of legislators that visited Virginia. Charles Triplett O'Ferrall, Virginia's governor, refused the meet with the delegation while Teamoh was part of it so he waited outside. This caused some outrage and protest in Massachusetts.[9] Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin criticized Teamoh in her newspaper, Woman's Era, for "servile complicity" toward O'Ferrall.[10]

He was succeeded in office by William L. Reed.[9]

References

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  1. ^ "A Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators". A.M. Bridgman. February 3, 1895 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ Senate, Massachusetts General Court (February 3, 1895). "The Journal of the Senate" – via Google Books.
  3. ^ "Robert T Teamoh, editor and reporter, buried in Portsmouth RI". June 24, 1912. p. 9 – via newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Teamoh, George. God Made Man, Man Made the Slave. Edited by F.N. Boney, Richard L. Hume and Rafia Zafar. Macon, GA: Mercer UP, 1990. 187.
  5. ^ "Robert T Teamoh funeral". June 25, 1912. p. 9 – via newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Emory Women Writers Resource Project : The Woman's Era, Volume 1 : Announcement 0". womenwriters.digitalscholarship.emory.edu.
  7. ^ "Funeral of R. T. Teamoh". The Boston Globe. June 24, 1912.
  8. ^ Hayden, Robert C. (1991). African-Americans in Boston : more than 350 years. Boston: Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Boston. p. 113. ISBN 0-89073-083-0. OCLC 25150424.
  9. ^ a b Greenidge, Kerri K. (November 19, 2019). Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter. Liveright Publishing. ISBN 9781631495359 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ Schneider, Mark R. (2019). Boston confronts Jim Crow, 1890-1920. Zebulon V. Miletsky. Boston: Northeastern University Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-55553-884-2. OCLC 1102419996.