Charles E. Hall

{{Short description|American government statitician}}

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Charles Edward Hall (May 22, 1868 – September 29, 1952) was a government official in the United States and an expert statistician.

He was born in Batavia, Illinois the son of Reverend Abraham Thompson Hall, the first licensed African to preach in Chicago, and Joanna Huss Hall, a community activist. He had 11 siblings. He attended public schools and then business college in Spokane, Ohio and at Wilberforce University in Ohio.{{cite web |title=Charles E. Hall |url=https://www.census.gov/library/fact-sheets/1900/adcom/charles-hall.html |website=Census.gov |access-date=2 January 2025 |language=en}}

Hall was the first non white to be appointed to be a senate committee clerk in the Illinois Senate.{{cite news |title=Charles E. Hall - Statistical Bulletin Census Bulletin 129 04 Nov 1917 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-press-charles-e-hall-s/16379352/ |access-date=16 February 2025 |work=The Pittsburgh Press |date=4 November 1917 |pages=24}} {{Open access}} He worked as the managing editor of the Illinois Record from 1897 to 1898, and in 1900 was appointed as a clerk in the United States Census Bureau. He worked in the United States Department of Commerce and Labor for the census bureau for a period and was known as a expert statistician. In 1935 he was promoted to a new position of Specialist in Negro Statistics that was created for him.{{cite news |title=Charles E. Hall, Specialist in Negro Statistics |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-black-dispatch-charles-e-hall-spec/162095189/ |access-date=2 January 2025 |work=The Black Dispatch |date=6 June 1935 |pages=4}} {{Open access}}{{cite news |title=Tribute to Charles Hall, Census Specialist, and Robert Pelham |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-afro-american-tribute-to-charles-hal/162095394/ |access-date=16 February 2025 |work=The Afro-American |date=8 June 1935 |pages=10}} {{Open access}} By 1938 he had worked for 38 years in the bureau and was described as an essential part of Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal.{{cite news |title=Rienzi B. Lemus Claims Specialist on Negro Statistics in Census Bereau Is No. 1... |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-call-rienzi-b-lemus-claims-speciali/162095562/ |access-date=16 February 2025 |work=The Call |date=7 January 1938 |pages=11}} {{Open access}}

Hall authored The Negro In the United States in 1930, and Negroes in the United States, 1920-1932 published in 1969.{{cite web |title=Negroes in the United States, 1920-1932 / |url=https://libcat.simmons.edu/Record/b1020529?sid=5191270 |publisher=Arno Press |access-date=2 January 2025 |date=1969}} He also wrote a 165 page pamphlet in 1905 called "Pottery and the Clay Products of the United States".

He died September 29, 1952 at the home of Dr. Lloyd A. Hall, his nephew, in Chicago.{{cite news |title=Obituary for Charles E. Hall |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-star-obituary-for-charles-e-hal/162097067/ |access-date=2 January 2025 |work=Evening star |date=30 September 1952 |pages=12}} {{Open access}}{{cite news |title=Charles Hall, Statistics Expert, Dies In Chicago |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-afro-american-charles-hall-statisti/162096010/ |access-date=2 January 2025 |work=The Afro-American |date=11 October 1952 |pages=22}} {{Open access}}