A. B. Bell

A. B. Bell, Sr., Dallas, Texas professional photographer and newspaperman, was born in 1914 in Tyler, Texas. He was raised there and attended Emmett Scott High School. Bell moved to Dallas, Texas about 1946 and worked at Sears, Roebuck and Co. and attended the Sears trade school in photography. Bell spent most of his career working for African American-owned newspapers. He began as a photographer and circulation employee for the Dallas Express about 1950 and joined the Dallas Star-Post, renamed the Dallas Post Tribune, in 1952. He also worked for seven years as a district manager for the Dallas Morning News. In addition to his newspaper work he did freelance photography in South Dallas’s African American community for over 30 years. A. B. Bell died June 2, 1989. A. B. Bell was married to Cathryn Chism in 1946 and they had four children. He was a member of St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Dallas and was a Master Mason with the Paul Drayton Lodge, Prince Hall Masons. Examples of his work appear in Portraits of Community: African American Photography in Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996).