John Quincy Adams

John Quincy Adams (1848–1922) was an American newspaper editor and publisher, educator, civil rights activist, and politician. He served from 1887 to 1922 as the newspaper editor and later the owner of The Appeal of St. Paul, Minnesota.

Early life and education John Quincy Adams was listed as "mulatto" and born free on May 4, 1848, in Louisville, Kentucky. and Cyrus Field Adams was his brother. He attended private schools in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and Yellow Springs, Ohio. With his promotion, Adams became the driving force behind the newspaper. Adams was an influential writer and a staunch Republican, and like other editors of his day, he expressed his opinions through his paper's editorial page. The Appeal received funding directly from the Republican Party, another common practice for newspapers of the time. He transformed the paper into a national publication with newspaper offices in Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.

A young lawyer from Chicago who had recently moved to Saint Paul, Fredrick L. McGhee and Adams, worked together to challenge racial discrimination and civil rights issues in Minnesota. Together they founded the Protective and Industrial League of Minnesota, which affiliated in 1890 with the Afro-American League and later affiliated with the National Afro-American Council. Adams supported Booker T. Washington at the conventions of the National Afro-American Council in St. Paul (1902), and Louisville (1903).

Adams died when he was struck by an automobile in Saint Paul on September 4, 1922. He is buried at Oakland Cemetery in Saint Paul. A profile of him is included in the books The Afro-American Press and Its Editors (1891), and the American National Biography (1999).