Puzzlers Charles Randolph Uncles and Charles S. Sauvinet, Jr.

The Amateur AdvanceMany professional and amateur papers had "puzzling" sections featuring riddles and word puzzles submitted by young contributors. These would have provided an ideal venue for would-be amateur journalists of color as puzzling contributions did not require immediate access to a printing press (a major expense), and it was an accepted practice that many if not most contributors used a pseudonym, thus sheltering their actual names and knowledge of their racial identity from the potential insults cast by white journalists coming of age in an America where racism was at least tolerated and frequently endorsed as a matter of fact. Herbert Clark started his journalism career as a puzzler, and at least two other puzzlers of color were active in the 1870s and 1880s, Charles Randolph Uncles (1859-1933) and Charles S. Sauvinet, Jr. (1860-1878).