- Ira B. Harkey Jr.
Ira B. Harkey Jr. (
January 15 ,1918 –October 8 ,2006 ) was an author of books, professor of journalism, and editor and publisher of thePascagoula, Mississippi Chronicle-Star from 1951 to 1963. Harkey was awarded thePulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 1963 for his anti-segregation editorials during the civil rights crisis surrounding the admission ofJames Meredith , a black man, to theUniversity of Mississippi atOxford, Mississippi in 1962.His life
Ira Harkey was born in
New Orleans, Louisiana , son of a wealthy businessman. He graduated fromTulane University with an undergraduate degree injournalism in 1941 and then served aboard the aircraft carrierUSS Hancock (CV-19) in thePacific theater duringWorld War II . After the war Harkey worked as a reporter for the New OrleansTimes-Picayune newspaper.Harkey purchased the Chronicle-Star in 1949. He immediately began making changes to how the paper wrote about the people who lived in
Jackson County, Mississippi . At the time it was newspaper style convention to refer to white men and women with the "Mr." or "Mrs." honorific but this courtesy was never extended to blacks. Harkey eliminated the honorific entirely. He also eliminated what was then common practice in Southern newspapers to identify the subjects of an article, if they were black, with the term "colored". Under Harkey's direction a subject's race was only ever mentioned when it was material to the news, such as a physical description of a fugitive. These were subtle but revolutionary changes which inflamed the local community with scandal and controversy.During the course of his ownership of the Chronicle-Star, Harkey's home was subject to a burning cross on the lawn of his home, and a shot was fired at the Chronicle-Star office. His autobiographical account of his experience owning the paper, The Smell of Burning Crosses, takes its name from that event.
Works
*"" (1967)
*"" (1974)External links
* [http://www.iraharkey.org/ Ira B. Harkey Film Documentary Project]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/obituaries/11harkey.html The New York Times obituary]
* [http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/obituaries/15778139.htm The Los Angeles Times obituary]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6256069&ft=1&f=1021 NPR All Things Considered radio obituary]
* [http://www2.tulane.edu/article_news_details.cfm?ArticleID=5324 Tulane University alumni magazine feature article]
* [http://www.usshancockcv19.com/ira_harkey/ Pier #3 - USS Hancock CV/CVA-19 Memorial Brow] tribute to Harkey
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