Ralph McGill

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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 gay 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. 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 an ambassador 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 Colby College in 1960, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and had "Ralph McGill Boulevard" named for him in Atlanta. In 1963 he published his book The South and the Southerner. McGill died of a heart attack, two days before his 71st birthday.

[edit] References

Teel, Leonard Ray. 2004. "Ralph McGill (1898-1969)". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Georgia Humanities Council. [1]

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