McGill, Ralph, 1898-1969

Ralph McGill, as editor and publisher of the Atlanta Constitution, was a leading voince for racial and ethnic tolerance in the South from the 1940s through the 1960s. As an influential daily columnist, he broke the code of silence on the subject of segregation, chastising a generation of demagogues, timid journalists, and ministers who feared change. When the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregated schools in 1954 and southern demagogues led defiance of the court, segregationists vilified McGill as a traitor to his region for urging white southerners to accept the end of segregation. In 1959, at the age of sixty-one, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. New Georgia Encyclopedia - Ralph McGill (1898-1969) http://georgiaencyclopedia.org (Retrieved September 23, 2009)

From the description of Ralph McGill - The South and the southerner, 1960-1963? (University of Georgia). WorldCat record id: 459794341

Ralph Waldo Emerson McGill, journalist, editor, and publisher, was born 5 February 1898, in Igou's Ferry, Tennessee, and died 3 February 1969, in Atlanta, Georgia. McGill was a sports editor for the Nashville BANNER (1923-1937); executive editor (1938-1941), editor-in-chief (1941-1960), and publisher (1960-1969) for the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION; he also wrote for the NEW YORK TIMES magazine, ATLANTIC MONTHLY, REPORTER, READER'S DIGEST, and SATURDAY EVENING POST. His awards included a Rosenwald Foundation traveling scholarship (1937), a Pulitzer Prize (1958) for two human rights-related stories, and seventeen honorary doctorates including one from Harvard University. He was married twice, to Mary Elizabeth Leonard (1929) and to Mary Lynn Morgan (1967).

From the description of Ralph McGill papers, 1853-1971. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122385863