Bud Billiken is a fictional character created in 1923 by Abbott, who had been considering adding a youth section to the "Chicago Defender" newspaper. While dining at a Chinese restaurant he noticed a Billiken. Some of the early Billiken columns were written by Willard Motley, who later became a prominent novelist. During the early 1930s, names of international youth were listed in the "Bud Billiken" section of the newspaper every week. Between 1930 and 1934, approximately 10,000 names appeared and were archived in the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library of the Chicago Public Library.