William Anderson Pledger (c. 1852 - 1904) was a lawyer, newspaper publisher, and politician in Georgia. He is credited as the first African American lawyer in Atlanta and his political roles and efforts led the way for many who followed.
Pledger was born near Jonesboro in about 1852. His mother was a slave and he had a white father. He studied at Atlanta University and then taught in Athens, Georgia. Early in his career he worked on a railroad with Monroe Morton. Members of the Democratic Party closed the school he worked at in 1872. A staunch Republican Party supporter, Pledger gave stump speeches and became a party delegate.
He started a series of newspapers. He owned and edited the Athens Blade with William Henry Heard. He moved it to Atlanta and renamed it the Atlanta Defiant before returning it to Athens.
Henry Lincoln Johnson was his law partner and succeeded him in office.
Pledger actively backed Thomas Reed in the 1896 election cycle, although he was ultimately unsuccessful as William McKinley won the presidency and the Republican nomination.
Pledger was buried in the Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens, Georgia.
References
- ^ Mason, Herman Skip (2000). Politics, Civil Rights, and Law in Black Atlanta, 1870-1970. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738582269.
- Thurmond, Michael L.; Sparer, Dorothy (1978). A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History, Clarke County School District. OL 21912464M.
The Athens Blade was a short-lived newspaper. Only one year after it was founded, Pledger changed its name to the Atlanta Defiant and moved it to Atlanta. He brought the paper back to Athens two years later, but it lasted only a year or two more. Heard and his "radical pen" moved to South Carolina in 1883, and the following year the Blade disappeared from the scene.
- Morris, Emmeline E. E. (2007). Gospel Pilgrim's Progress: Rehabilitating an African American Cemetery for the Public (master's thesis). University of Georgia. p. 71. Retrieved 15 January 2023.