Sarratt, Reed

Alexander Reed Sarratt, Jr., was born in Charlotte, N.C., in 1917. He was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina in 1937 with a bachelor's degree in economics. During his senior year at UNC, he served as managing editor of the Daily Tar Heel . After graduation, he worked as a reporter and later city editor for the Charlotte News .

From 1946 to 1952, Sarratt was an editorial writer for the Baltimore Evening Sun . In 1952, he returned to North Carolina to begin an eight-year stint with the Winston-Salem Journal and Twin City Sentinel . At these papers, he served as editorial page editor, executive editor, and assistant to the publisher.

In 1960, Sarratt was appointed executive director of the Southern Education Reporting Service (SERS), a Ford Foundation- supported group that collected and published information on school desegregation throughout the South. From 1965 to 1968, he directed the journalism project of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) in Atlanta. During this period, he published The Ordeal of Desegregation: The First Decade (Harper & Row, 1966).

Sarratt became executive director of the 442-member Southern Newspaper Publishers' Association (SNPA) in 1973, after serving four years as the head of the Southern Newspaper Publishers' Association Foundation. It was at the 1986 mid-winter meeting of the Association board that Sarratt collapsed and died. Sarratt was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame in 1985.

Sarratt was married to Elva Ann Sarratt, also a Charlotte native. The Sarratts had three children: Alexander Reed III, John L., and Ann.

(Adapted from articles in The News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 16 March 1986; the Charlotte Observer, 17 March 1986; and the UNC Journalist, April-May 1986.)

From the guide to the Reed Sarratt Papers, 1930s-1960s, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)