Nannie Mitchell

Nannie Mitchell (1887–1975) was an American newspaper publisher, writer, and founder of the St. Louis Argus, a newspaper that advocated for the Black community in St. Louis, Missouri.

Early life Nannie Flowers Ross was born in 1887 in Alexander City, Alabama. However, she chose to marry William E. Mitchell, who had already graduated college, and they moved to St. Louis.

Career The 1904 World's Fair was held in St. Louis, and the Mitchells and William's brother, Joseph E. Mitchell, traveled there via mule-drawn wagon to find work. Mitchell was a chambermaid along with her sister-in-law, Mattie, and her brother-in-law was a houseman, all working at a large hotel for tourists coming to the fair. By the 1940s, the paper was successful again and the Mitchells would pass out refreshments to customers as they waited to get copies. They paid her $15 a column, and this gave her a larger audience, with more white readership, than she had at the Argus. She never syndicated her column, wanting to focus on local issues, and her column ran for 14 years and earned her national recognition. The Argus is Missouri's oldest continually Black-owned business.

Ina Boon, the regional NAACP director, praised Mitchell after her death, saying:

Frank L. Stanley Jr., head of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, called Mitchell the "first Lady of Journalism." The same association labeled her "First Lady of the Black Press."