Wheeler, John W.

Wheeler was born free in Lexington, KY. He moved to St. Louis in 1873 where he was a politician and the publisher of the St. Louis Palladium newspaper. A republican and follower of Booker T. Washington, he echoed Washington's message for African Americans to become more self-reliant. He also used his newspaper to speak out against discrimination toward African Americans, actively seeking to mobilize black votes for the Republican Party. For more see Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights, ed. by C. D. Lowery, J. F. Marszalek and T. A. Upchurch.