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Revision as of 02:45, 16 January 2017 by Drmies (talk | contribs) (haha, Wayne Greenhaw--again)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Southern Courier was a weekly newspaper published in Montgomery, Alabama, from 1965 to 1968, during the Civil Rights Movement. The paper was a multiracial effort, and its reporters were asked to integrate into the areas they covered as much as possible, without being either unattached "drive-by" journalists or involved community activists. Michael S. Lottman was its editor in 1965, and again from 1967-68.
The paper was started by students from Harvard University, who went to Alabama in 1965 "to report stories that the local and national press wouldn't touch"--most importantly, stories about the black communities in Montgomery and its surroundings. The paper was started with $30,000 of seed money and reporters were paid $20 a week. The plan was to have separate papers for individual states, and initially it was based in Atlanta, where the six-page paper was printed; later it moved to Montgomery, Alabama being the focus of much attention since the Selma to Montgomery marches. Its president was Robert Ellis Smith, a Harvard grad who had worked at the Detroit Free Press and had become anxious about the state of the country after a Southern racist killed John F. Kennedy, Jr; he called up Michael Lottman, a Harvard grad who was born in Buffalo, New York, but raised in the Midwest. He had edited The Harvard Crimson while in college, and had gotten a job at the Chicago Daily News; he was vacationing in Florida when the Selma to Montgomery marches took place, and got a call from Smith, inviting him to work on the Courier.
One of the Courier's staff photographers was Jim Peppler. The photos he took for the paper are archived at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
References
- "A Brief History". The Southern Courier. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- Fee, Stephen M. (April 12, 2006). "Hope Alongside Hatred". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
- Greenhaw 195-96.
Bibliography
- Greenhaw, Wayne (2011). Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. Chicago Review Press.
{{cite book}}: Text "9781569768259" ignored (help)