Robert Pelham’s story of civil and public service in the late 1800s and early 1900s is an inspiring slice of life for Black History Month.
Pelham was born in Petersburg, Virginia, in 1859, but his family moved to Detroit shortly after his birth. His parents sought educational opportunities for their children beyond those allowed by antebellum Virginia’s strict literacy laws for African Americans.
Pelham began his career as a journalist, and he and his brother were founders of the Detroit Plain Dealer, one of the city’s first successful newspapers serving the black community.
Pelham entered the civil service in the late 1880s, first as a petroleum inspector for the state of Michigan and later in various state positions.
He worked for the U.S. Census Bureau for 37 years. During this period, in 1905, he invented and patented a device for applying adhesive to strips of paper.
Before the use of pasting equipment in Pelham, census department clerks had to manually paste the tally sheets onto the forms and organize them. It’s messy and requires multiple employees. Pelham’s invention automated this process.
Pelham was involved in the civil rights movement and held leadership positions in the Academic Association of Black Intellectuals.