The United States was suffering from the effects of the Great Depression, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt had just been elected president.

It also marked the first time a Democrat was elected with the support of a formidable African American political organization: The Co-operative Civic Association led by Jordan Chambers.

In 1949, while serving as Postmaster of St. Louis, Dickmann married Beulah Pat Herrington, the Postmistress of Mount Olive, Mississippi.

In 1959, Mayor Raymond Tucker appointed Dickmann as director of the city's newly established Department of Welfare, and he served in that position for two years.

The Poplar Street Bridge crossing the Mississippi River at St. Louis was formerly named in his honor.