Ralph McGill

"For the football player of the same name see Ralph McGill (football player)."

Ralph Emerson McGill (February 5, 1898 – February 3, 1969), American journalist, was best known as the anti-segregationist editor and publisher of the "Atlanta Constitution" newspaper. He won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1959.

McGill was born near Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee and attended school at the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, but did not graduate because he was suspended his senior year for writing an article in the student newspaper critical of the school's administration. He got a job working for the sports department of the "Nashville Banner" and soon worked his way up to sports editor. In 1929, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia to become the assistant sports editor of the "The Atlanta Constitution". Wanting to move from sports to more serious news, he got an assignment to cover the first Cuban Revolt in 1933 and covered the Nazi takeover of Austria in 1938. These articles earned him a spot as editor of the editorial page in the "Constitution", which he used to highlight the effects of segregation. In response, many angry readers sent threats and letters to McGill. Some acted on the threats and burned crosses at night on his front lawn, fired bullets into the windows of his home and left crude bombs in his mailbox. In the late 1950s, McGill became a syndicated columnist, reaching a national audience. He became friends with Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, acting as a civil rights advisor and behind the scenes envoy to several African nations. In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, he received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from dozens of universities and colleges, including Harvard, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. In 1963 he published his book "The South and the Southerner" as well as several anthologies of his newspaper articles. McGill died of a heart attack, two days before his 71st birthday. After his death "Ralph McGill Boulevard" and Ralph McGill Middle School named were named for him in Atlanta. In his honor, The McGill Lecture is held annually at The Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia, featuring a; nationally recognized jornalist.

His personal papers were donated to Emory University and are available at the Special Collections area of Emory University Library

References

Teel, Leonard Ray. 2004. "Ralph McGill (1898-1969)". "New Georgia Encyclopedia". Georgia Humanities Council. [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2769]

External links

* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10763735 Photos]
* Lippman, Theo, [http://www.vqronline.org/articles/2003/autumn/lippman-mcgill-patterson/ "McGill and Patterson: Journalists for Justice"] , "Virginia Quarterly Review", Autumn, 2003.