Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard (T.R.M. Howard) (March 4, 1908 —- May 1, 1976) was an African American civil rights leader, fraternal organization leader, surgeon, and entrepreneur. He was a mentor to Medgar Evers and Charles Evers, head of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership, and played a prominent role in the investigation of the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. He was also president of the National Medical Association. March 4 is the 63rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (64th in leap years). ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1976 calendar). ... An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black), is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Civil rights or positive rights are those legal rights retained by citizens and protected by the government. ... A fraternal organization is an organization that represents the relationship between its members as akin to brotherhood. ... Surgeon may refer to: a practitioner of surgery the moniker of British electronic music producer and DJ, Anthony Child; see Surgeon (musician) This is a disambiguation page—a list of articles associated with the same title. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Medgar Wiley Evers (July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi. ... Charles Evers (b. ... The Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) was probably the leading civil rights organization in Mississippi during the early 1950s. ... Emmett Louis Bobo Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American teenager from Chicago, Illinois who was brutally murdered in a region of Mississippi known as the Mississippi Delta near the small town of Drew in Sunflower County. ... The National Medical Association describes itself as the largest and oldest national organization representing African-American physicians and their patients in the United States. ...

Picture taken in 1955. Left to Right: Two witnesses at the trial on the murder of Emmett Till, Mamie Till Mobley (Till's mother), T.R.M. Howard, Rep. Charles Diggs of Michigan, Amanda Bradley (trial witness). Credit: Press-Scimitar Collection, Special Collections, University of Memphis Libraries.

Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2746x2226, 798 KB)Left to Right: Walter Reed (grandfather of Willie Reed, trial witness), unidentified witness, Mamie (Till) Bradley, Theodore Roosevelt Mason (T.R.M) Howard, Rep. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2746x2226, 798 KB)Left to Right: Walter Reed (grandfather of Willie Reed, trial witness), unidentified witness, Mamie (Till) Bradley, Theodore Roosevelt Mason (T.R.M) Howard, Rep. ...

Life

T.R.M. Howard was born in the town of Murray, Kentucky in Calloway County. His parents were Arthur Howard, a tobacco twister and Mary Chandler Howard, a cook for Will Mason, a prominent local white doctor and member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA). Mason took note of the boy’s work habits, talent, ambition, and charm. He put him to work in his hospital and eventually paid for much of his medical education. Howard later showed his gratitude by adding Mason as one of his middle names. Murray is a city located in Calloway County, Kentucky. ... Calloway County is a county located in the state of Kentucky. ... The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Christian denomination which, as its name suggests, is most well known for its teaching that Saturday, the seventh day of the week, is the Sabbath. ...

Howard attended three SDA colleges, the all-black Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama as well the nearly all-white Union College of Lincoln, Nebraska and the College of Medical Evangelists (now Loma Linda University) in Loma Linda, California. While at Union College, he won the Anti-Saloon League of America’s national contest for best orator in 1930. Oakwood College is a college located in Huntsville, Alabama, founded in 1896. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Union College is a private, co-educational, four-year college in Lincoln, Nebraska. ... Founded in 1905, Loma Linda University (LLU) is a private, Christian, coeducational, health sciences university located in Southern California 60 miles east of Los Angeles close to San Bernardino and near beaches, mountains, and the desert. ... Loma Linda is a city located in San Bernardino County, California. ... The Anti-Saloon League was the leading organization lobbying for prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century. ...

During his years at medical school in California, Howard took part in civil rights and political causes and wrote a regular column for the California Eagle, the main black newspaper of Los Angeles. He was also the president of the California Economic, Commercial, and Political League. Through the League and his columns, he championed black business ownership, the study of black history, and opposed local efforts to introduce segregation. In 1935, he began a forty-one year marriage with prominent black socialite, Helen Nela Boyd. After a residency at City Hospital #2 in St. Louis, Missouri, Howard became the medical director of the Riverside Sanitarium, the main SDA health care institution to serve blacks. The California Eagle was a 19th and 20th century newspaper with the following platform: 1. ... This article is about the largest city in California. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Gateway City, Gateway to the West, or Mound City Location Location in the state of Missouri Coordinates , Government Country State County United States Missouri Independent City Mayor Francis G. Slay (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 66. ...

In 1942, Howard took over as the first chief surgeon at the hospital of the Knights and Daughters of Tabor, a fraternal organization, in the all-black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. While there, he founded an insurance company, restaurant, hospital, home construction firm, and a large farm where he raised cattle, quail, hunting dogs, and cotton. He also built a small zoo and a park as well as the first swimming pool for blacks in Mississippi. In 1947, he broke with the Knights and Daughters, organized the rival United Order of Friendship, and opened the Friendship Clinic. A fraternal organization is an organization that represents the relationship between its members as akin to brotherhood. ... Mound Bayou is a city located in Bolivar County, Mississippi. ...

Howard rose to prominence as a civil rights leader after founding the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) in 1951. His compatriots in the League included Medgar Evers, who Howard had hired as an agent for his Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Company and Aaron Henry, a future leader in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The RCNL mounted a successful boycott against service stations that denied restrooms to blacks and distributed twenty thousand bumper stickers with the slogan, "Don't Buy Gas Where You Can't Use the Restroom." The Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) was probably the leading civil rights organization in Mississippi during the early 1950s. ... Medgar Wiley Evers (July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi. ... Aaron Henry (1922-1997) was a civil rights leader, politician, and head of the NAACP. He was born in Dublin, Mississippi to Ed and Mattie Henry who were sharecroppers. ... The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was an American political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the civil rights movement. ...

The RCNL organized yearly rallies in Mound Bayou for civil rights. Sometimes as many as ten thousand attended including such future activists as Fannie Lou Hamer and Amzie Moore. Some of the speakers were Rep. William Levi Dawson of Chicago, Alderman Archibald Carey of Chicago, Rep. Charles Diggs of Michigan, and NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall. One of the entertainers was Mahalia Jackson. Fannie Lou Hamer speaks at the 1964 Democratic National Convention Fannie Lou Hamer (born Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting rights activist and civil rights leader. ... Amzie Moore (September 23, 1911 —- ) was an African American, civil rights leader, and entrepreneur in the Mississippi Delta. ... William Levi Dawson was the name of the following men: William Levi Dawson (1886 - 1970), a member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois. ... Charles Coles Diggs, Jr. ... Official language(s) None (English, de-facto) Capital Lansing Largest city Detroit Area  Ranked 11th  - Total 97,990 sq mi (253,793 km²)  - Width 239 miles (385 km)  - Length 491 miles (790 km)  - % water 41. ... Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American jurist and the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. ... Mahalia Jackson Mahalia Jackson (October 26, 1911–January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer, widely regarded as the best in the history of the genre. ...

In 1954, Howard hatched a plan to fight a credit squeeze by the White Citizens Councils against civil rights activists in Mississippi. At his suggestion, the NAACP under Roy Wilkins encouraged businesses, churches, and voluntary associations to transfer their accounts to the black-owned Tri-State Bank of Memphis. The funds were made available for loans to victims of the squeeze. The White Citizens Council (WCC) movement was a U.S. movement against racial desegregation. ... Roy Wilkins as the Executive Secretary of the NAACP in 1963 Roy Wilkins (August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981) was a prominent civil rights activist in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. ...

Howard moved into the national limelight as never before after the murder of Emmett Till in August 1955 and the trial of his killers, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant in September. He was heavily involved in the search for evidence and gave over his home to be a “black command center” for witnesses and journalists. Visitors noticed the high level of security, including armed guards and a plethora of weapons. He also evaded Mississippi’s discriminatory gun control laws by hiding a pistol in a secret compartment of his car. Mamie Bradley (Emmett’s mother) stayed at his home when she came to testify as did Charles Diggs. Like many black journalists and political leaders, Howard alleged that more than two people took part in the crime. Emmett Louis Bobo Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American teenager from Chicago, Illinois who was brutally murdered in a region of Mississippi known as the Mississippi Delta near the small town of Drew in Sunflower County. ... Another editor has suggested that this article might be improved by more material on its significance. ... Another editor has suggested that this article might be improved by more material on its significance. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Gun politics. ...

After an all-white jury acquitted Milam and Bryant, Howard gave dozens of speeches around the country on the Till killing and other violence in Mississippi, typically to crowds of several thousand. One of them was to an overflow crowd on November 27 in Montgomery, Alabama, at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. His host for the event was Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks was in the audience. Many years later, she singled out Howard’s appearance as the “first mass meeting that we had in Montgomery” following Till’s death. Only four days after his speech, Parks made history by refusing to give her seat on a city bus to a white man in violation of a segregation ordinance. Montgomery skyline from the banks of the Alabama River Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama. ... Exterior of the church Dexter Avenue Baptist Church is a Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, USA. Martin Luther King, Jr. ... Martin Luther King Jr. ... Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African American seamstress and civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress dubbed the Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement. Parks is famous for her refusal on December 1, 1955 to obey a bus drivers...

Howard's speaking tour culminated in rally for twenty thousand at Madison Square Garden where he was the featured speaker. He shared the stage with Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., A. Philip Randolph, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Autherine Lucy. Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG, known colloquially simply as The Garden, has been the name of four arenas in New York City, United States. ... Adam Clayton Powell (left) with Martin Luther King: both were prominent civil rights leaders. ... Asa Philip Randolph (April 15, 1889 – May 16, 1979) was a socialist in the labor movement and the US civil rights movement. ... Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American political leader who used her stature as First Lady of the United States, from 1933 to 1945 to promote the New Deal of her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as Civil Rights. ... Autherine Juanita Lucy was the first black student to attend the University of Alabama in 1956. ...

In the final months of 1955, Howard and his family were increasingly subjected to death threats and economic pressure. He sold most of his property and moved permanently in Chicago, Illinois. His national reputation as a civil rights leader still seemed secure. He also had a highly visible public dispute with J. Edgar Hoover who he accused of slowness to find the killers of blacks in the South. In early 1956, the Chicago Defender gave Howard the top spot on its annual national honor role. He founded the profitable Howard Medical Center on the South Side and served for one year as president of the National Medical Association, the black counterpart of the AMA. Howard also became medical director of S.B. Fuller Products Company. Samuel B. Fuller was probably the richest black man in the country. Flag Seal Nickname: The Windy City Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location Location in Chicagoland and northern Illinois Coordinates , Government Country State Counties United States Illinois Cook, DuPage Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 606. ... Hoover in 1961 John Edgar Hoover KBE (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was the founder of the FBI in its present form and its director from May 10, 1924 until his death in 1972. ... The Chicago Defender announces President Harry S. Trumans order in 1948 desegregating the United States Armed Forces. ... The National Medical Association describes itself as the largest and oldest national organization representing African-American physicians and their patients in the United States. ...

In 1958, Howard ran for Congress as a Republican against the powerful incumbent black Democrat, Rep. William Levi Dawson, a close ally of Mayor Richard J. Daley. Although he received much favorable media publicity, and support from leading black opponents of the Daley machine, Dawson overwhelmed him at the polls. Howard was unable to counter Dawson's efficient political organization and rising voter discontent from the economic recession and the slowness of President Dwight D. Eisenhower to back civil rights in the South. 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... William Levi Dawson was the name of the following men: William Levi Dawson (1886 - 1970), a member of the United States House of Representatives from Illinois. ... Richard J. Daley was Chicagos longest-serving mayor and held office from 1955 to his death in 1976 Richard Joseph Daley (May 15, 1902 – December 20, 1976) was the longest-serving mayor of Chicago. ... Dwight David Ike Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American soldier and politician. ...

Shortly before the election, Howard helped to found the Chicago League of Negro Voters. The League generally opposed the Daley organization and promoted the election of black candidates in both parties. It nurtured the black independent movement of the 1960s and 1970s which eventually propelled four of Howard’s friends to higher office: Ralph Metcalfe, Charles Hayes, and Gus Savage to Congress and Harold Washington as mayor. Ralph Harold Metcalfe (May 30, 1910 - October 10, 1978) was an American athlete who jointly held the world record for the 100 metre sprint. ... Gus Savage (born October 30, 1925) is a politician from the state of Illinois. ... Harold Lee Washington (April 15, 1922 – November 25, 1987) was a lawyer, legislator and the first African American Mayor of Chicago, Illinois serving from 1983 until his death in 1987. ...

In the two decades after the election, Howard had little role as a national leader but he remained important locally. He chaired a Chicago committee in 1965 to raise money for the children of the recently assassinated leader, Malcolm X. Later, he was a founder of, and major donor to, Operation PUSH led by Jesse Jackson. Malcolm X, (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little, also known as Detroit Red, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, and Omowale, was a Muslim Minister and National Spokesman for the Nation of Islam. ... To push something is to move it by the application of force. ... Jesse Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson (born October 8, 1941) is an American politician, civil rights activist, and Baptist minister. ...

During his years in Chicago, Howard attention increasingly focused on big game hunting, and made several trips to Africa for this purpose. His Chicago mansion included a “safari room” filled with trophies that was often made available for public tours. His New Year’s parties, co-hosted by Helen Howard, were a regular stop for the Chicago’s black social set. He also became well-known as a leading abortion provider and was arrested in 1964 and 1965 but never convicted. Howard regarded this work as complementary to his earlier civil rights activism.

In 1972, Howard founded the multimillion dollar Friendship Medical Center on the South Side, the largest privately owned black clinic in Chicago. The staff of about one hundred and sixty included twenty-seven doctors in such fields as pediatrics, dental care, a pharmacy, ear, nose, and throat, and psychological and drug counseling. He died in Chicago after many years of deteriorating health.

References

• David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, T.R.M. Howard: Pragmatism over Strict Integrationist Ideology in the Mississippi Delta, 1942-1954 in Glenn Feldman, ed., Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South (2004 book), 68-95.
• David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito. T.R.M. Howard M.D.: A Mississippi Doctor in Chicago Civil Rights, A.M.E. Church Review (July-September 2001), 50-59.
• David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, Why It's Unlikely the Emmett Till Murder Will Ever Be Solved, History News Network
• David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, *Why the '60 Minutes' Story on Emmett Till Was a Disappointment, History News Network
• John Dittmer, Local People: the Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi (1994 book).
• Charles M. Payne, I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle (1995 book).

Fraternal and Service Organizations A fraternity is an organization that represents the relationship between its members as akin to brotherhood. ...