Donald M. Suggs
President & Publisher
St. Louis American Newspaper
Laureate 2006
Born in East Chicago, a smoky steel mill community outside Chicago, Donald M. Suggs was the eldest of three siblings. He was the first member of the family to graduate from high school. Donald’s father worked for Inland Steel Company, a major employer in this multiracial community. Both of his parents were strong advocates of education, hard work and social responsibility. His father, who had a third grade education, was a person of great intelligence, curiosity and a self-taught, lifelong student of math, physics and astronomy. Donald’s mother was a deeply caring and religiously devout woman who had huge ambitions for her son and encouraged him to excel in school and seek leadership roles in school organizations. Despite the de facto racial separation of the time, he made diverse friends and benefited from the special interest in him from some of his teachers, none of whom were African American, who insisted he pursue his interest in higher education. From an early age, Donald spent his summers with his grandmother, who lived in a vibrant, middle class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side near the University of Chicago, where he whet his appetite for the cultural amenities that were unavailable in his blue collar hometown. From the public schools in East Chicago to undergraduate and dental school at Indiana University, he lived in a racially integrated environment. At Indiana University, Donald pursued his interest in campus politics, intramural athletics, and the arts. These activities helped to inform his later pursuits in the arts, politics, and business. He started his career as an oral surgeon, but changed paths in order to steward a failing black weekly newspaper. Subsequently, that newspaper, The St. Louis American, has become a nationally recognized standard for excellence in community newspapers in print and online.
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