Milholland, John Elmer (1860-1925)

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Item Relations

Mentioned in (3)
Received by (1)
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Discuss Negroes Yearly, June 2, 1909

Jane Addams to Lillian D. Wald, January 25, 1917

Liberty Defense Union List, March 7, 1918

John Dewey et al. to Andrew Carnegie et al. January 31, 1917

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Birth Date

1860-05-31

Death Date

1925-06-29

Birthplace

New York

Biographical Text

John E. Milholland was born in New York to Irish immigrants, but shortly after his birth, his family returned to Ireland after a fire. Milholland returned to the United States when he was college-aged, and attended New York University. After graduating, Milholland worked as a journalist and editor for the Ticonderoga paper. He then worked the New York Tribune. He also invested in the Batcheller Pneumatic Tube Co., eventually becoming its president. Milholland gained much wealth from his investments and used the money to fund civil rights movements; he first funded Booker T. Washington, but then shifted towards W. E. B. Du Bois. Milholland faced criticism for these actions, and the Batcheller Pneumatic Tube Co. suffered losses until Milholland was removed from the Board in 1917. Despite this, he continued to fund civil rights efforts; he also funded Mary Ovington's work with low-income and disenfranchised African Americans in New York. Milholland and Ovington worked on founding the tenements known as Phipps Houses and organizing the Constitution League, the predecessor of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The NAACP was founded in part because of Milholland's financial support of Ovington, as she used the money he gave her to travel and recruit people to answer "the Call" to create the NAACP. Milholland was the NAACP's first treasurer.

Milholland was married to Jean Torrey. They had three children together, one of which was Inez Milholland, who became a leader of the suffrage movement. Milholland died in 1925.

Occupation

Businessman

Civil rights activist

Editor

Journalist

Collection

People

Map

Rights

Public domain

1901 England Census

Find-a-Grave

Herb Boyd, "NAACP at 100 - The Founders," The Network Journal, 2009.

MILHOLLAND | John E. and the NAACP

SNAC

Citation

“Milholland, John Elmer (1860-1925),” Jane Addams Digital Edition, accessed November 25, 2020, https://digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/2588.