John Jacob Oliver was born in 1912 in Brazil, Indiana and died July 4, 2000 in Silver Springs, Maryland. He married Marge M. Thompson in 1937. They had a son, John Jr. and a daughter, Marilyn. He married Lois Haskins in 1969. She had a daughter Lois. After graduating from DePauw University in 1934, Oliver joined the staff of Afro-American Newspapers, Inc., where he worked to portray the positive image of black Americans that they were denied in the mainstream press. He served as president of Afro-American Newspapers from 1976-1983 and was elected to the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1988.