After she graduated, Mitchell's neighbors and friends gave her money to earn an education degree at Tuskegee Institute in 1904.
Mitchell was a chamber-maid along with her sister-in-law Mattie, and her brother-in-law was a house-man, all working at a large hotel for tourists coming to the fair.
Joseph, William, Benjamin W. James, and Lewis E. Hawkins incorporated the paper as a business on March 27, 1916, with the four sharing the board of directors between them.
[1] The two Mitchell brothers had divided much of the paper's management between them, with William responsible for printing and publishing, and Joseph for writing and advertisement.
However, they needed to increase readership, at a time when larger newspapers began writing stories for Black audiences, threatening their hold on readers.
[9] The Argus, like the Afro American and Defender, had started cooking schools during the Great Depression to connect with their communities.
The Argus's school went on hiatus during World War II, but Nannie and Frank Sr. brought it back during the 1950s as a marketing device.
[10] Throughout the 1950s they expanded it to include beauty courses, pageant and choral competitions, with musical acts and large corporate sponsors.
[11] Mitchell began a regular column for the Argus for the paper's fiftieth anniversary, using "mother wit" to discuss current events, whether they related to civil rights or sports.
Mitchell believed that changes should be made respectably, while following the law, and often weighed in on city racial politics with those views of moderation in mind.
[15] In 1952, she received the inaugural Good Neighbor Award from the KSTL radio station, for her service work with church and club groups.
[14] The paper steadily declined in readership for the next few decades, but in 2001, Eddie Hasan bought the Argus, hired two reporters, and advertisements and circulation had increased within a year.
You could count on her support, her deeds and her graciousness.Frank L. Stanley Jr., head of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, called Mitchell the "first Lady of Journalism.