Ralph McGill

For the American football player, see Ralph McGill (American football).

Ralph McGill
Ralph McGill portrait by Robert Templeton, 1984
Peabody Award Board of Jurors
In office
1945–1968
Personal details
Born(1898-02-05)February 5, 1898
near, Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedFebruary 3, 1969(1969-02-03) (aged 70)
Resting placeWestview Cemetery
Military service
Branch/service United States Marine Corps
Battles/warsWorld War I

Ralph Emerson McGill (February 5, 1898 – February 3, 1969) was an American journalist and editorialist. An anti-segregationist editor, he published the Atlanta Constitution newspaper despite receiving threats and intimidation such as crosses burned on his lawn from white supremacists terror groups. Martin Luther King Jr. named him in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. He was also one of the first critics of Joseph McCarthy. He won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1959 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. Since his death, he was inducted in the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame and has had a school and a road named after him in Atlanta.

Early life and education

McGill was born February 5, 1898, near Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee. He attended school at The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where he played guard on the football team. He did not graduate from Vanderbilt because he was suspended his senior year for writing an article in the student newspaper critical of the school's administration. McGill served in the Marine Corps during World War I.[1][2]

Career in journalism

After the war, McGill 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 Atlanta Constitution.[2] Wanting to move from sports to more serious news, he got an assignment to cover the first Cuban Revolt in 1933. He also applied for and was granted a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1938, which allowed him to cover the Nazi takeover of Austria in 1938.[3] These articles earned him a spot as executive editor of the Constitution, where he used his daily front-page column to highlight the effects of segregation.[3][2] 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.[4][2] He also served as an adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who vacationed in Warm Springs, Georgia, as well as presidents Truman and Eisenhower.[2]

Syndicated columnist

In the late 1950s, McGill became a syndicated columnist, reaching a national audience as his columns were reprinted in over 100 papers.[2] He was also promoted from editor to publisher.[2] In 1960, McGill was the only editor of a major white southern paper to cover the passive resistance tactics used by the students involved in the Greensboro sit-ins, although eventually other papers followed his lead.[3] He was also one of the first editors of a major paper to criticize Joseph McCarthy.[5] 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.

He was also a member of the Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards, serving from 1945 to 1968.[6]

Final years and legacy

In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing in 1959,[7] McGill 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.[1] 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. McGill's funeral was held at his parish, All Saints' Episcopal Church, and is buried in Atlanta's historic Westview Cemetery.[8] A bomb threat was made at his funeral but no bomb was found.[5]

After his death Ralph McGill Boulevard (previously Forrest Boulevard[3]) and Ralph McGill Middle School 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 journalist. In 1970 McGill was inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame.[9][10]

His personal papers were donated to Emory University and are available at the Manuscripts and Rare Book Library (MARBL) at Emory University Library. Ralph McGill is mentioned by name by Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from Birmingham Jail as one of the "few enlightened white persons" to understand and sympathize with the civil rights movement at the time of the letter (April 1963).[11] McGill's role in the campaign against segregation is depicted in Michael Braz's opera, A Scholar Under Siege, composed for the centenary of Georgia Southern University and premiered in 2007.[12] A National Public Broadcasting prime time special, Dawn's Early Light: Ralph McGill and the Segregated South (1988), documented his impact. Burt Lancaster voiced McGill and prominent figures appear such as Julian Bond, Tom Brokaw, Jimmy Carter, John Lewis, Vernon Jordan, Herman Talmadge, Sander Vanocur, Andrew Young, and Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Harry Ashmore, Eugene Patterson and Claude Sitton.[13][14]

Works

  • McGill, Ralph (1980). The Best of Ralph McGill: Selected Columns. Selected by Michael Strickland, Harry Davis, and Jeff Strickland. Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing. ISBN 0877970521.
  • —————— (2009). The Fleas Come With the Dog. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 9781104847272.
  • —————— (1984). No Place to Hide: the South and Human Rights, vol. I. Edited with an introduction by Calvin M. Logue. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. ISBN 9780865541085.
  • —————— (1984). No Place to Hide: the South and Human Rights, vol. II. Edited with an introduction by Calvin M. Logue. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. ISBN 9780865541092.
  • —————— (1992). The South and the Southerner. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 0820314439.
  • —————— (1983). Southern Encounters: Southerners of Note in Ralph McGill's South. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. ISBN 9780865540507.

References

  1. ^ a b Elizabeth A. Brennan and Elizabeth C. Clarage (1999). Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners. Oryx Press. p. 178. ISBN 1-57356-111-8. (available on Google books)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Howland, William S. (September 1972). "Unforgettable Ralph McGill" (PDF). NiemanReports. XXVI (3): 2, 26–27.
  3. ^ a b c d Roberts, Gene and Hank Klibanoff (2006). The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-40381-7.
  4. ^ Lippman, Theo (2003). "McGill and Patterson: Journalists for Justice". Virginia Quarterly Review (Autumn).
  5. ^ a b Martin, Harold H. (1973). Ralph McGill, reporter. An Atlantic monthly press book. An Atlantic Monthly Press Book. Boston Toronto: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 148, 321. ISBN 978-0-316-54772-7.
  6. ^ "George Foster Peabody Awards Board Members". Peabody Awards. Archived from the original on May 10, 2019. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  7. ^ "Atlanta History Center preserves legacy of award-winning civil rights editor Ralph McGill - CBS Atlanta". www.cbsnews.com. February 26, 2026. Retrieved February 26, 2026.
  8. ^ Teel, Leonard R. (2001). Ralph Emerson McGill: voice of the southern conscience (1st ed.). Knoxville, [Tenn.]: University of Tennessee Press. pp. 427, 470–471. ISBN 978-1-57233-135-8.
  9. ^ "Ralph McGill, John Hicks Honored by Press Group". Atlanta Constitution. February 21, 1970. p. 14A. Retrieved July 2, 2020 – via newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Ralph Emerson McGill". Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Retrieved February 3, 2026.
  11. ^ King, Martin Luther (April 16, 1963). "Letter from Birmingham Jail". Bates College. Retrieved August 29, 2011.
  12. ^ BYNUM, RUSS (April 19, 2007). "Opera Tells How Georgia Racism Backfired". ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved February 3, 2026.
  13. ^ "Dawn's Early Light: Ralph McGill and the Segregated South (1988)". IMDb. Center for Contemporary Media. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
  14. ^ Goodman, Walter (August 17, 1989). "Review/Television; A Southern Journalist and Civil Rights". The New York Times. Retrieved September 26, 2017.

Further reading

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