Hazel Brannon Smith

Hazel Brannon Smith

Hazel Freeman Brannon Smith (February 4, 1914, Alabama City, Alabama - May 15, 1994, Cleveland, Tennessee), the owner and editor of four weekly newspapers in rural Mississippi, was the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.

A life-long Baptist, she described herself as "just a little editor in a little spot. A lot of other little editors in a lot of little spots is what helps make this country. It's either going to help protect that freedom that we have, or else it's going to let that freedom slip away by default."

In 1930, she graduated from high school in Gadsen, Alabama at the age of 16. Graduating from the University of Alabama in 1935 with a B.A. in Journalism, she went to Durant, Mississippi and bought the failing "Durant News", making it such a success by 1943 that she purchased the "Lexington Advertiser" in the neighboring town of Lexington, Mississippi. She edited and published the "Lexington Advertiser" from 1943 to 1983. In 1956, she acquired the "Banner County Outlook" (Flora, Mississippi) in 1956 and the "Northside Reporter" (Jackson, Mississippi) in 1956.

Pulitzer Prize

Smith's editorials and her column ("Through Hazel's Eyes") focused on unpopular causes, political corruption and social injustice in Mississippi. Her opposition to the White Citizens' Council brought her the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1964 for her "steadfast adherence to her editorial duty in the face of great pressure and opposition."

She also received awards from the National Federation of Press Women (1946, 1955), the Herrick Award for Editorial Writing (1956), the Mississippi Press Association (1957) and the National Federation of Press Women. She was president of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors in 1981-82.

Films

She was one of the subjects in the documentary film "An Independent Voice" (1973) about smalltown newspaper editors, and her life was dramatized in the TV movie "A Passion for Justice: The Hazel Brannon Smith Story" (1994) with Jane Seymour in the title role.

She died in Cleveland, Tennessee on May 15, 1994. Her 1945-1976 papers are available to researchers at the Special Collections department of the Mississippi State University Library. John A. Whalen wrote her biography, "Maverick Among the Magnolias: The Hazel Brannon Smith Story", published by Xlibris in 2001.

External links

* [http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF0702/Smith/Smith.html Memoir by Hazel Brannon Smith: "Bombed, Burned and Boycotted"]
* [http://www.freedomforum.org/publications/msj/courage.summer2000/y09.html "This Female Crusading Scalawag" by Bernard L. Stein]
* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~mssunflo/newpage1.htm Mississippi Newspapers on Microfilm]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Smith, Hazel Brannon — ▪ 1995       U.S. publisher and editor (b. 1914?, Gadsden, Ala. d. May 14, 1994, Cleveland, Tenn.), courageously crusaded for social reform and consistently promoted unpopular causes as the editor of four Mississippi newspapers the Durant News,… …   Universalium

  • Jane Seymour — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Seymour. Jane Seymour …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Борьба за справедливость (фильм) — Борьба за справедливость Quest For Justice Жанр драма Режиссёр Джеймс Кич …   Википедия

  • Борьба за справедливость — Quest For Justice Жанр драма Режиссёр Джеймс Кич …   Википедия

  • Jackson Free Press — Infobox Newspaper name = type = Weekly newspaper format = Tabloid foundation = 2002 price = Free circulation = 17,000 readership = 64,332 owners = Donna Ladd, Todd Stauffer headquarters = Jackson, Mississippi editor = Donna Ladd publisher = Todd… …   Wikipedia

  • James Keach — est un acteur, réalisateur, producteur et occasionnellement scénariste américain. Sommaire 1 Biographie 2 Filmographie 2.1 En tant qu acteur 2.2 En tant que réalisateur …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Джейн Сеймур (актриса) — Джейн Сеймур Jane Seymour …   Википедия

  • Джойс Франкенберг — Джейн Сеймур Jane Seymour Джейн Сеймур (1994) Имя при рождении: Джойс Пенелопа Вильгельмина Франкенберг Дата рождения …   Википедия

  • Сеймур, Джейн (актриса) — Джейн Сеймур Jane Seymour Джейн Сеймур (1994) Имя при рождении: Джойс Пенелопа Вильгельмина Франкенберг Дата рождения …   Википедия

  • 1964 Pulitzer Prize — The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1964.Journalism Awards*Public Service: **The St. Petersburg Times , for its aggressive investigation of the Florida Turnpike Authority which disclosed widespread illegal acts and resulted in a major… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”