2022-23 JOHN NEAR GRANT Recipient
“The Conscience of the South”: Atlanta Constitution Editor
Ralph McGill as an Early Champion of New Journalism in 20th-Century Georgia
Sabrina Zhu“The Conscience of the South:” Atlanta Constitution Editor Ralph McGill as an Early Champion of New Journalism in Twentieth Century Georgia
Sabrina Zhu
2023 Near Scholar
Mentors: Ms. Whitney Huang and Ms. Amy Pelman
April 12, 2023
“Let us face facts. This is a harvest. It is the crop of things sown. It is the harvest of defiance of courts and the encouragement of citizens to defy law on the parts of many Southern politicians For a long time now it has been needful for all Americans to stand up and be counted on the side of law and due process of law even when to do so goes against personal beliefs and emotions. It is late. But there is yet time.”1
These powerful, carefully crafted sentences, calling for action following the bombing of Atlanta’s Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple by a white supremacist group, illuminated the front page of The Atlanta Constitution on Monday, October 13, 1958.2 These brilliant lines were composed by editor and publisher Ralph Emerson McGill, who would subsequently be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for them.3 Nicknamed “The Conscience of the South,” admired as “a man of natural enthusiasm for people and causes” by his readership, praised as groundbreaking by younger journalists, recognized as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and despised as one of the South’s most liberal voices, McGill experienced a diverse fusion of celebration and criticism over the course of his career with The Atlanta Constitution in the midtwentieth century.4
McGill joined The Atlanta Constitution in 1929 as a sports reporter, but he quickly became recognized as a diligent journalist with a knack for political and social coverage.5 Over
1 Ralph McGill, "'A Church, A School,'" Atlanta Constitution, February 5, 1969, 1, accessed February 27, 2023.
2 McGill, 1.
3 Harold H. Martin, Ralph McGill, Reporter (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 3.
4 The Nashville Evening Tennessee, "Ralph in Batistaland," Atlanta Constitution, May 26, 1935, 29, accessed February 27, 2023; Martin, Ralph McGill, 10; Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (New York: Knopf, 2006), 370.
5 Martin, Ralph McGill, 30.
the following decades, he would rise to become editor and publisher, leading the newspaper with his liberal views.6 He is most well-known for his daily columns on political events and the Civil Rights Movement, through which he reached a large readership, both inside and outside of the Atlanta community, and which he maintained from 1938 to the final days of his career.7 As an advocate for the integration of schools, nonviolent protests, and international democracy, McGill was viewed as both a champion and an enemy of the American South and was renowned as an internationally applauded newspaper editor.8
Prior to the 1950s, there was little mainstream newspaper coverage of Black communities in the South, and topics relating to the early Civil Rights Movement were largely avoided.9 Despite the Reconstruction Era of the nineteenth century, Black populations continued to suffer from Jim Crow laws and lived in poor economic conditions.10 Even with the growth of a significant Black middle class in the early twentieth century, very few white people were educated about Black culture and society.11
This segregation was apparent in the world of journalism as well. Both Southern and Northern newsrooms restricted their staff to white reporters, which meant that coverage of Black communities, if any, was sparse and was limited to the “inside pages” of the paper.12
6 Leonard Ray Teel, Ralph Emerson McGill: Voice of the Southern Conscience (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2001), xix.
7 Teel, xix.
8 Roberts and Klibanoff, The Race, 371.
9 Roberts and Klibanoff, 5.
10 Roberts and Klibanoff, 9.
11 Roberts and Klibanoff, 6.
12 Roberts and Klibanoff, 10.
Additionally, the Black press struggled to take root and to endure; on average, Black publications would dissolve within nine years of initiation, and white readers rarely subscribed to such newspapers.13 But with the rise of circulation of publications and the increase of Black literacy, the press’s role in politics became progressively critical.14
The Atlanta Constitution was founded in 1868, and it was, and still is, one of the largest newspapers in the South.15 The paper has long had a powerful voice in the South, with a history of prominent publishers.16 In the 1880s, “Spokesman of the New South” and Reconstruction Era journalist Henry Grady worked as managing editor for the paper.17 At the same time, Joel Chandler Harris, creator of the “Uncle Remus” stories wrote for The Atlanta Constitution, serving as a supporter of Grady’s idea of racial reconciliation.18 After this period, the newspaper continued to have political and social influence, though like the vast majority of other large publications, it often strayed away from the controversial topic of race in the South.
In the final years of the Civil Rights Movement sprang an entirely separate movement, though this one took place in the literary world instead of the political sphere. New Journalism, as it came to be known, spread throughout American newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s.19 The
13 Armistead Scott Pride, "The Negro Newspaper in the United States," International Communication Gazette 2, no. 3 (1956): 179, SAGE Journals Online.
14 Roberts and Klibanoff, The Race, 10.
15 Chuck Perry, "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified January 5, 2004, accessed February 27, 2023.
16 Perry.
17 Harold E. Davis, "Henry Grady, The Atlanta Constitution, and the Politics of Farming in the 1880s," The Georgia Historical Quarterly 71, no. 4 (Winter 1987): 571.
18 Perry, "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," New Georgia Encyclopedia.
19 W. G. Nicholson, "Teaching the New Journalism," The English Journal 65, no. 3 (March 1976): 55.
movement brought a shift in journalism, away from traditional factual news-reporting in favor of a more engaging, storytelling-like genre, which was believed to have augmented effectiveness.20
Atlanta Constitution editor Ralph McGill's articles surrounding international politics and the American Civil Rights Movement throughout the 1940s and 1950s represent an early example of New Journalism, and the similar techniques of his following columns allowed him to further appeal to white Southern sympathies.
Ralph McGill’s Early Years in Journalism
Ralph McGill was born in 1898 in Soddy, Tennessee and began to engage in journalism early on in his life.21 In high school, McGill served as an editor for his school newspaper, and in 1917, he began attending Vanderbilt University, where he served as a columnist on the student paper as well as the founder of a humor magazine.22 While still in college, McGill also worked for the Nashville Banner, writing sports commentaries.23 Upon graduating, McGill continued to write for the Banner, where he was seen as “a political writer who could cover with zest the pistol-toting strife of that rough-handed day [and] a sportswriter who wrote with acumen, humor and authority” until 1929, when he was hired by The Atlanta Constitution. 24
In his early years at The Atlanta Constitution, McGill was a sports reporter and covered local baseball, golf, and football games. Through his sports pieces, McGill developed a unique
20 Tom Wolfe, "The Birth of 'The New Journalism'; Eyewitness Report by Tom Wolfe," New York Magazine, February 14, 1972, accessed January 9, 2023.
21 Martin, Ralph McGill, 17.
22 Martin, 20.
23 Martin, 20.
24 Martin, 22.
relationship with his audience and became “well known to Atlanta fans.”25 As he gained support and popularity, he was soon able to take on larger pieces and to enter the world of political reporting, which he had always “loved.”26 His early projects in political journalism included his 1933 and 1935 trips to Cuba, where he covered the country’s revolutions, as well as his 1938 and 1946 tours of Europe, where he wrote about World War II.27 Following his 1938 trip, McGill was promoted to executive editor of The Atlanta Constitution, and thus began writing his daily columns.28
The Birth of New Journalism
The New Journalism movement, a revolutionary shift in American press and media, has transformed the newspapers and magazines we consume today. New Journalism is considered to have begun in the 1960s and to have completed its transformation in the 1970s, led by pioneer journalists including Tom Wolfe and Truman Capote. By adapting techniques such as in-depth descriptions, storytelling, and various other aspects that were previously predominantly limited to literary works, New Journalists unlocked a new way of conveying information and news.29
Before the rise of New Journalism, members of the press followed a “no-nonsense” approach to reporting, presenting facts in simple “who-what-where-when” formats.30 These
25 "Ralph McGill, Noted Sports Writer, Joins the Constitution," Atlanta Constitution, March 31, 1929, 1, accessed January 18, 2023.
26 Martin, Ralph McGill, 40.
27 Ralph McGill, "McGill Finds Once Gay Cuba Has Become Isle of Bitterness," Atlanta Constitution, August 5, 1933, 1, accessed February 27, 2023; "Ralph McGill Lands at Cuban Capital," Atlanta Constitution, May 12, 1935, 4, accessed February 27, 2023; Ralph McGill, "Impressions of Denmark,"Atlanta Constitution, January 26, 1938, 1], accessed February 27, 2023.
28 Martin, Ralph McGill, 69.
29 Nicholson, "Teaching the New Journalism," 55.
30 Michael J. Arlen, "Notes on the New Journalism," Atlantic, May 1972.
reports, whether of everyday events or more significant affairs, were “embedded in an official view,” in which journalists were trained throughout their college educations and careers.31 Methods of reporting that strayed away from these conventional structures were often criticized as manipulating or complicating facts.32 However, some journalists did adopt more creative and persuasive techniques, including the muckrakers of the Progressive Era, such as Ida Tarbell, who exposed the corrupt business practice of Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, or Lincoln Steffens, who investigated the profiteering relationship between big business and the St. Louis city treasury.
However, the early seeds of New Journalism are best understood to have been sown in 1933, following President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s decision to take the United States off the gold standard.33 With controversial events that had omnipresent ramifications like this transformation in the country’s financial foundation, newspapers began to realize that “public affairs” could no longer be “[confined to] the straitjacket of unelaborated fact.”34 More precisely, the rapid pace at which American politics and society was moving dictated journalists’ reporting styles and called for an increase in persuasive techniques. Reporters found that their readers rarely responded to traditional news writing, and instead, they needed to identify new methods to interest their audiences.”35 Simultaneously, the early twentieth century and post-World War I era
31 Arlen.
32 Everette Dennis, Other Voices: The New Journalism in America (Oxfordshire, England: Routledge, 2017), 8.
33 "FDR Takes United States Off Gold Standard," History, last modified November 9, 2009, accessed January 10, 2023.
34 Dennis, Other Voices, 5.
35 Nicholson, "Teaching the New Journalism," 55.
saw the Modernist Literary Movement, in which authors like Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald explored deeper societal and moral themes.36 As a result of both of these pressures, New Journalism found its early roots in the mid-twentieth century, though it did not significantly increase in popularity until the 1960s. It was this decade, troubled with the Civil Rights Movement, the rise of sexual liberation, and a growing counterculture community, that truly pushed reporters to reconsider their writing techniques and to start implementing elements of New Journalism.37
New Journalism provided newspapers’ readership with the “subjective or emotional life of the characters.”38 As Tom Wolfe, Washington Post reporter and widely regarded New Journalism founder, writes:
It was the discovery that it was possible in non-fiction, in journalism, to use any literary device, from the traditional dialogisms of the essay to stream-of-consciousness, and to use many different kinds simultaneously, or within a relatively short space…to excite the reader both intellectually and emotionally.39
Instead of presenting facts in the traditional, who-what-where-when structure, New Journalists incorporated elements of literature, such as exclamation points and question marks, onomatopoeia, and dialogue into their articles.40 New Journalists often wrote their articles as
36 Rachel Potter, Modernist Literature (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ Press, 2012).
37 Nicholson, "Teaching the New Journalism," 55.
38 Wolfe, "The Birth.”
39 Wolfe.
40 Wolfe.
stories, with strong inspiration from modern society and culture and drawing upon universal sentiments and challenges, in order to further appeal to their readers.
For example, an early piece of New Journalism writing, “Joe Louis: The King as a Middle-Aged Man” by Gay Talese, written for Esquire in 1962 and which served as a large inspiration for Wolfe’s own writing, opens with a conversation between boxer Joe Louis and his wife and dives into the private life of the athlete.41 Instead of simply presenting details about Louis’ career, Talese uses techniques often found in literature to reveal new, and possibly more interesting, aspects about Louis.42 Comparably, Truman Capote, who was considered more of a novelist than a journalist and who worked for the New Yorker throughout the 1940s, utilized an analogous approach in introducing actor Marlon Brando for his earlier 1957 piece titled “The Duke in His Domain.”43 Choosing not to focus on the already well-known aspects of Brando, Capote begins the article by painting a story about his own interactions with the actor.44 The more conversational, casual, and narrative styles of Talese and Capote demonstrate key characteristics of New Journalism.
Similarly, in his article “The Last American Hero,” published in Esquire and later within his larger work The Purple Decades: A Reader, Tom Wolfe illustrated the American South with a romanticized tone; Wolfe began the article by painting the visual appearance of the city he is
41 Gay Talese, "Joe Louis: The King as a Middle-Aged Man," Esquire, June 1, 1962, accessed January 10, 2023.
42 Talese.
43 Truman Capote, "The Duke in His Domain," New Yorker, November 9, 1957, accessed February 10, 2023.
44 Capote.
in, with “millions of cars, pastel cars, aqua green, aqua blue, aqua beige, aqua buff.”45 Wolfe used a “heavily mannered style and rhetoric,” characteristic of New Journalism writing in the introduction of this piece, and later portrays the everyday lifestyles of American Southerners.46 Interestingly, Wolfe’s characterization of the South is comparable to the articles of McGill, who wrote about Southern daily life at great lengths, including similar descriptive narration and “mannered style.”47
Much like Wolfe’s other writings, “The Last American Hero” incorporates great lengths of imagery and narration, as well as significant portions of conversational dialogue. Made apparent through his many works and his drive to bring New Journalism to popularity, Wolfe saw the movement as replacing both traditional methods of news reporting, as well as overtaking novels.48
However, beyond providing journalists with new techniques of conveying facts and stories, with New Journalism, reporters could finally write with their own voices.49 Freedom from the rigid structure of traditional news writing gave them the opportunity to develop their voices and to curate more personal relationships with their readers.50
45 Tom Wolfe, The Purple Decades: A Reader (New York, NY: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982), accessed February 10, 2023; Tom Wolfe, "The Last American Hero Is Junior Johnson. Yes!," Esquire, March 1, 1965, accessed April 11, 2023, https://classic.esquire.com/article/share/0162ac6c-ece8-4d24-aeb20046fb1a4655.
46 John Hellmann, "Fables of Fact: New Journalism Reconsidered," The Centennial Review 21, no. 4 (Fall 1977): 420.
47 Hellmann, 420; Ralph McGill, "The Small-Town Life," Atlanta Constitution, July 17, 1968, 1, accessed January 19, 2023.
48 Hellmann, "Fables of Fact," 415-16.
49 Dennis, Other Voices, 17.
50 Wolfe, "The Birth.”
Despite its increasing prevalence, New Journalism faced consistent pushback and controversy throughout its evolution. Namely some, calling the style parajournalism, feared that the movement “[exploited] the factual authority of journalism” and created articles that were disproportionately centered around entertainment and enjoyment.51 Critics feared that the new techniques would distract and confuse readers, impeding their ability to extract information from the pieces, or that New Journalists would simply merge “fact and opinion.”52 Additionally, many believed that with New Journalism, the reporters’ voices were too clear and direct and prevented readers from developing opinions on their own. Instead of just presenting objective facts, the reporters would bring their audience into their reality, which caused the “classic distance between author and subject” to diminish.53 Finally, supporters of traditional literature opposed the movement, apprehensive that journalists would displace writers or novelists.54
However, despite such pushback, New Journalism continued to thrive, and its characteristics are still prevalent today, leading to New Journalistic magazines such as Rolling Stone and even pushing popular newspapers like The New York Times to include more “peopleoriented stories.”55
Even though New Journalism did not truly emerge until the 1960s, The Atlanta Constitution writer and reporter McGill was an early champion of the movement. As McGill
51 Dennis, Other Voices, 6.
52 Dennis, 16.
53 Nicholson, "Teaching the New Journalism," 55.
54 Dennis, Other Voices, 16.
55 Nicholson, "Teaching the New Journalism," 56.
ascended in the ranks of the newspaper, from sports reporter to editor and daily columnist, he utilized techniques now classified as belonging to New Journalism: these, alongside his consistent and well-crafted appeal to his Southern readership, shaped him into one of the most prominent journalists of the twentieth century.
Occurrences of New Journalism in McGill’s Early Writing
Prior to writing his columns, McGill employed New Journalism techniques, which can be seen as enhancing his early news reporting. In his first few years at The Atlanta Constitution, McGill had sparse opportunities to expand beyond his sphere of sports coverage. Although almost all his published pieces as a sports editor manifested in recaps of games or news of player trades, McGill did have some opportunities to begin developing New Journalism-akin techniques. In 1933, just four years after joining The Atlanta Constitution, McGill authored an article titled “Spiller’s New Golf Course Opens Today at Austell,” which detailed the grand opening of a local Georgian course.56 Instead of solely reporting the facts of the event, McGill covered the news story with narration and imagery, two common characteristics of New Journalism:
“There was a large man galloping about the place when we got there. He was running to a barbecue pit and from there to his large lithia spring (which cures the rheumatiz) and from there to his golf course where the greens were being cut. He was properly identified as Rell Jackson Spiller.”57
56 Ralph McGill, "Spiller's New Golf Course Opens Today at Austell," Atlanta Constitution, May 11, 1933, 8., accessed February 28, 2023.
57 McGill, 8.
However, throughout the early days of McGill’s career, articles like this were uncommon, likely because of the general disapproval of such reporting. McGill adhered to traditional journalistic styles. Nonetheless, this sports piece, alongside others, demonstrates McGill’s initial implementation of New Journalism-related strategies in non-political news writing. In same year, McGill embarked on one of his first political projects, which opened new doors for him.58 The first week of August, McGill traveled to Havana, Cuba to report on the country’s fragile condition and “internal strife.”59 With this trip, the journalist had his first taste of what it meant to write as a columnist. Although, because McGill’s stories in Cuba took form more as columns, it is difficult to apply the lens of New Journalism, which is focused on newswriting. In these columns, however, New Journalism techniques were widely prevalent; in particular, McGill was drawn to portrayals of everyday life and lengthy imagery-filled descriptions:
“Outside the iron gates of the president’s palace the noise of Havana rushed by. There were the cries of the street vendors, the sound of ships from the harbor, the rattle of traffic … Havana is filled with beggars. There were always beggars there. But now they have grown to small armies of mendicants, large and small, old and young, male and female.”60
McGill may have decided to employ such techniques in his Havana coverage in order to transform a complex political conflict into an event that was more digestible and engaging to the
58 Martin, Ralph McGill, 45.
59 McGill, "McGill Finds," 1.
60 McGill, 1.
average reader, as was the main intention of New Journalism.61 But because McGill continued to serve on The Atlantic Constitution as a sports editor, upon traveling back to Georgia, he immediately carried on with his previous sports coverage; the journalist would not return to columnist-style writing until years later.
Within this period of the 1930s, McGill maintained his sports coverage, gaining significant popularity and support. For example, his 1934 story on the Primo Carnera-Max Baer championship fight elicited positive responses from readers; one such reader wrote to The Atlanta Constitution praising the article as deserving the Pulitzer Prize.62 Through his consistent and well-received performance as sports editor, McGill garnered remarkable approval, which would later prove to be critical as he transitioned to political coverage.
Some additional examples of McGill’s implementation of New Journalism techniques prior to his promotion to editor and columnist include his 1935 article centered on the meeting of political figure Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. with author Caroline Miller.63 Introducing the event, McGill wrote that the pair “might have come from the ends of the earth, so different were their beginnings. Yesterday their paths crossed.”64 This poetic language served to draw the reader more effectively into a news article. Similarly, in 1937, McGill wrote “‘Whirlwind Book’
Pleases Veterans of Confederacy” in which he recounted the reactions of veteran soldiers to the
61 Nicholson, "Teaching the New Journalism," 55.
62 "McGill's Fight Story Praised, Neely Suggests Pulitzer Award," Atlanta Constitution, June 16, 1934, 4, accessed February 28, 2023.
63 Ralph McGill, "Cornelius Vanderbilt Meets Caroline Miller at Luncheon," Atlanta Constitution, March 10, 1935, 11, accessed February 28, 2023.
64 McGill, 11.
reading of a novel.65 Aiming to communicate the veterans’ experiences in the Civil War, McGill painted a picture for his readers, using various imageries in his description of the war camps as having “the odors of cooking food, the feel of feet on muddy, never-ending roads, the feel of the saddle and the whine of the hidden death in the air.”66 McGill’s inclusion of such stark detail and his goal of providing his audience with a glimpse of the every-day lives of Civil War soldiers likely captured readers’ attention better than a traditional reporting style’s opening would.
In May 1937, McGill also received the Rosenwald Fellowship, which funded his 1938 trip to Europe.67 McGill visited Germany, France, Scandinavia, Austria, and other countries, witnessed Hitler’s invasion of foreign territories, and began to cover the progression of events.68
While in Europe, McGill once again published daily stories on his observations and started to explore his voice as a columnist. Initially writing about the Danish agricultural system and later covering the roots of war in Europe, McGill spoke with many local individuals, and he incorporated these dialogues in a conversational manner in his articles.69 This technique, which became more popularized following the rise of New Journalism, made McGill’s columns more accessible by the average Atlanta Constitution reader.
It was at this point that McGill’s philosophy on journalistic writing experienced a large shift. Unlike other reporters of the era, McGill found strength in bringing his own voice into his
65 Ralph McGill, "'Whirlwind Book' Pleases Veterans of Confederacy," Atlanta Constitution, February 26, 1937, 1, accessed February 28, 2023.
66 McGill, 1.
67 Martin, Ralph McGill, 58.
68 Martin, 58.
69 Ralph McGill, "War Fears in Europe," Atlanta Constitution, March 23, 1938, 7, accessed February 10, 2023.
pieces: more precisely, he strove to maintain fairness but “did not see the point of purely objective news presentations if that meant the truth got lost in the process.”70 And upon returning from Europe, McGill was promoted to executive editor for the newspaper and started writing daily columns on political topics.71
Ralph McGill’s Writing Relating to Race Conflicts and the Civil Rights Movement
Starting in the 1940s, Ralph McGill began to engage more with issues relating to race and eventually the Civil Rights Movement. Having already built up a robust audience due to his status as a trusted and diligent sports reporter, McGill’s shift to writing columns was smooth and encouraged by his superiors at The Atlanta Constitution. Primarily, McGill used his newfound platform to communicate his thoughts and opinions surrounding the Civil Rights Movement. Despite growing up in the South, surrounded by the tense racial conflicts of the early twentieth century, McGill entered his position as editor for The Atlanta Constitution with a heavily liberal political stance; it is believed that this shift in opinion resulted from his trip to Germany, where he witnessed and was repelled by the mass racism brought by the rise of the Nazi Party.72 After returning from the trip, in fact, he led The Atlanta Constitution to becoming one of the first newspapers to capitalize the word “Negro” in all articles.73 Additionally, as his career progressed, McGill only evolved to be more liberal; by 1964, he publicly described the Civil
70 Roberts and Klibanoff, The Race, 98.
71 Martin, Ralph McGill, 69.
72 Roberts and Klibanoff, The Race, 29.
73 Roberts and Klibanoff, 30.
Rights Act as “an emancipation proclamation for the South” and frequently spoke out against school segregation and police violence.74 However, with a white audience, McGill aimed to present his information and opinions in a certain manner, and he carefully crafted his columns with specific techniques to appeal to his Southern readership. With these strategies, McGill was able to gain support for his liberally toned columns.75 Some of these techniques that are most prominent in his daily columns include his portrayal of the American South as a long-existing tragedy and his argument in favor of personal pride and the virtuosity of Southerners, his belief that other regions of the country and world cannot sympathize with the South, his opposition against federal legislation, and his use of the passive voice in his calls to action.
The Tragedy of the South
McGill often argued the twentieth century American South had its fate decided early on; because the region had always been so intertwined with slavery, race issues were inevitable. In his 1946 article titled “July 4, From 1863 to 1947,” McGill described the South as a “long Greek tragedy” that had been “doomed from the start,” with the ramifications of the long-existing race conflicts escalating significantly in recent years.76 With this argument, McGill took the blame off of the Southerners of the twentieth century, who he contended had no role in exacerbating these conflicts and who had little power to dethrone a social structure that had been so ingrained in their lives.77 In the same article, McGill wrote that Southern communities “were needled into
74 Roberts and Klibanoff, 372.
75 Martin, 132.
76 Ralph McGill, "July 4, From 1863 to 1947," Atlanta Constitution, July 4, 1947, 8, accessed January 19, 2023.
77 McGill, 8.
defending and justifying slavery,” suggesting that contemporary Southerners did not genuinely support the antebellum system.78 McGill also argued that his readers did not support ongoing race discrimination In his 1950 column “Heads Butt; Reason Flees” McGill stated that Black people had been “met with discrimination in employment. No honest man denies it. Nor does an honest one condone it.”79 McGill, understanding that most of his readership was the average American, would argue that Southerners often wanted to enact change in race relations, but just were not able to.
Additionally, McGill fed on his audience’s sense of personal pride, a tactic that he also often utilized in his verbal speeches, such as his Blazer Hall speech at the University of Kentucky.80 He claimed that the people of the South are inherently good and virtuous, characterizing them as “noble people, hard-working, great Americans.”81 By portraying his readers as such, McGill was able to build a positive relationship with them, and as a result, could more easily share his liberal views. Therefore, by writing in his columns that the American South’s tragic fate with civil rights and race relations conflicts was inevitable and that his readers were a virtuous but unfortunately powerless population, McGill was able to augment his appeal within the Atlanta community.
78 McGill, 8.
79 Ralph McGill, "Heads Butt Reason Flees," Atlanta Constitution, May 7, 1950, 23, accessed January 19, 2023.
80 Calvin Mcleod Logue, "A Rhetorical Analysis of the Speech Theory and Practice of Ralph McGill." (PhD diss., Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College, 1967), 199, accessed February 28, 2023.
81 McGill, "Heads Butt," 23.
The South’s Isolation
McGill contended that other regions of the world, and especially the Northern United States, could not understand the plight of the South, and he used this idea to unite his readers. As such, he portrayed Northern states as antagonistic and aggressive, as well as supporters of racial discrimination. For example, in his 1946 article “Life Is Real, Life Is Earnest,” McGill wrote that we, as in Southerners, “play into [non-Southerners’] hands,” and “get so resentful about criticism that we are led off into fantastic positions. We are led to defend things we don’t really believe in ourselves. We don’t believe in lynchings.” 82 Like his belief in the virtuous Southerner, McGill portrayed his readers as having respectable intentions, but in this article, he goes one step further to accuse others of exacerbating the race conflicts within the South. Additionally, in the same article, McGill claimed that there existed “more mass ill-will toward” Black people “outside the South than in it.”83 However, McGill provided little support for this argument, suggesting that he included this line to boost the morale of his readers and to strengthen his persuasive voice. Through this technique, McGill adopted a tone of unity and advocated for patriotism within the South, which he would also utilize in his speeches.84 His assertion that the rest of the nation and the world were targeting the region can be seen as a strategy to appeal to his readers and to make his largely liberal takes more digestible.85
82 Ralph McGill, "Life Is Real, Life Is Earnest," Atlanta Constitution, August 4, 1946, 32, accessed January 19, 2023.
83 McGill, 32.
84 Logue, "A Rhetorical," 199.
85 Ralph McGill, "The Criticisms Coming to South," 1946, in The Best of Ralph McGill, comp. Michael Strickland, Harry Davis, and Jeff Strickland (Atlanta, GA: Cherokee Publishing Company, 1980), 97.
Opposition to Legislation
Ralph McGill opposed the government, arguing that legislation in the face of race relations conflicts oftentimes was weak and ineffective. With this claim, McGill placed more of the blame on the South’s legislators, politicians, and other figures of powers such as lawyers and religious leaders and relinquished responsibility from the average Southern citizen.86 He believed that much of the time, initiatives introduced by the government, including the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC), which was enacted by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941 to eliminate racial discrimination in the workforce, and similar federal laws against poll taxes and lynching, were not feasible, and more importantly, simply ineffective and unproductive.87 McGill believed that minds and belief systems could not be changed with “fiats” and that “brotherhood[s]” between peoples of different races and backgrounds cannot be “[created] by law.”88 With this argument, McGill relieved his readers of blame, and he presented to his audience the idea that they could enact change by individually and independently altering their mindsets.
Use of Passive Voice
McGill employed the passive voice throughout his columns, which allowed him to lay out his politically liberal sentiments in a manner that was more approachable and socially acceptable. When addressing shortcomings of the South, the passive voice served to call for change without directly targeting his readers. In “Southern Voices Have a Word to Say,”
86 McGill, "Life Is Real," 32.
87 "Executive Order 8802: Prohibition of Discrimination in the Defense Industry (1941)," National Archives, accessed April 2023.; Logue, "A Rhetorical," 178.
88 McGill, "Life Is Real," 32; Ralph McGill, "Heads Butt Reason Flees," Atlanta Constitution, May 7, 1950, 23, accessed January 19, 2023.
McGill’s 1948 article, he wrote that “let us admit that, with a few exceptions, we restrict [Black] employment to the least rewarding fields of work.”89 Similarly, in “July 4, From 1863 to 1947,” McGill wrote that “we were needled into defending and justifying slavery.”90 By using passive voice, McGill highlights a tone of helplessness, reinforcing the idea that the everyday Southerner cannot be to blame for the racial plight of the region. The tense also allows McGill to include additional first-person plural pronouns like “we” and “us,” which augment the sentiment of unity.
McGill and New Journalism in the Context of Civil Rights
At the same time, Ralph McGill continued to include techniques of what would come to be known as New Journalism, namely by implementing imagery and narrative description, visuals of people’s everyday lives, and conversational dialogue. Though it is difficult to relate New Journalism to McGill’s column-style writing, since a column entirely depends on the viewpoint of the writer, previous scholarship has applied the techniques of New Journalism to opinions and editorials. For example, Marion Suzanne Stotesbury analyzed the works of Hunter S. Thompson, who wrote for the National Observer and other newspapers and magazines in the mid-twentieth century, and how he led the gonzo journalism movement, which is rooted in a stance opposing the blind objectivity of news writing, in the context of New Journalism.91 In particular, the gonzo movement, believed to be driven by the rise of New Journalism in the
89 Ralph McGill, "Southern Voices Have a Word to Say," Atlanta Constitution, February 9, 1948, 6, accessed January 19, 2023.
90 McGill, “July 4, From,” 8.
91 James E. Carson, "Hunter S. Thompson's 'Gonzo' Journalism and the Tall Tale Tradition i n America," Studies in Popular Culture 8, no. 1 (1985): 6, JSTOR; Marion Suzanne Stotesbury, "The 'Most Accurate, Least Factual' Writer: Hunter S. Thompson, Journalist" (Master's Thesis, East Carolina University, 2010), 1, accessed March 29, 2023.
literary world and the increasing counterculture in the socio-political sphere, highlighted a dramatic rhetorical style. Stotesbury argues that Thomson’s use of imagery and other fictional elements contributed to the growth of gonzo writing as a subcategory of New Journalism.92
Comparably, Sam G. Riley explored the connections between New Journalism and Langston Hughes’ “From Here to Yonder” column, which ran in The Chicago Defender from 1942 to 1962, around the same time that McGill published his daily columns.93 Based on this scholarship and because of McGill’s previous history with utilizing New Journalism techniques, an analysis of his extended employment of New Journalism writing is warranted. McGill utilized an extensive amount of imagery and description, typical of the New Journalism movement. Primarily, such instances of imagery would often provide readers with more information surrounding the historical context, physical location, or personalities highlighted in McGill’s columns. For example, in his 1962 article “Cry, Beloved Country,” McGill recounts the aftermath of violence during the Civil Rights Movement:
Near him were the smoking ruins of two churches destroyed because there had been voter registration meetings held in them. Down the road were houses riddled with gunshots because the occupants had been working at bringing frightened, uncertain, rural farm Negroes to the registration books.94
This column followed just a few days after the burning of two churches in Terrell County, Georgia. These churches, specifically the Mt. Olive Baptist Church and the Mt. Mary Baptist
92 Stotesbury.
93 Sam G. Riley, "Langston Hughes's Jesse B. Semple Columns as Literary Journalism," American Periodicals 10 (2000): 64, JSTOR.
94 Ralph McGill, "Cry, Beloved Country," Atlanta Constitution, September 12, 1962, 1, accessed January 19, 2023.
Church, were associated with desegregation in the southwest region of the state and helped establish Black voting polls. As a result, they were targeted in an act of racial violence by prosegregationists.95 In the passage, McGill uses narrative imagery, painting a picture of the Southern town following the arson attacks. The inclusion of imagery allowed readers to visualize the gravity of the situation without having to have witnessed the burnings, and the columnist’s unique ability to convert an intense and difficult-to-absorb event into a digestible and wellreceived piece was often praised. Similarly, McGill employed imagery in his April 11, 1950, column “The Yellow Rats of Unadilla,” writing96: Easter was a beautiful day. It was beautiful too, in Unadilla, Ga., but there was an ugly shadow on the town. It is a good town with fine people. It has fine homes and churches. It has a real man, too, in the Rev. M. W. Flanders of the Methodist Church A few yellow rats had cast their shadow over that of the cross and its meaning.97
Beyond the imagery of the town’s people, the symbolism of a “shadow,” representing the impact of racial segregation on the religion and well-being of a community, augments McGill’s message. These devices, traditionally reserved for only literary works, were seen to have gained popularity in journalistic writings with the rise of New Journalism, supporting McGill’s position as an early proponent of the movement.
Ralph McGill also continued to incorporate the storytelling aspects of New Journalism into his columns in the years of the Civil Rights Movement. By doing such, McGill was able to
95 Bill Shipp, "Rebuilding of Churches Starting Today at Sasser," Atlanta Constitution, September 12, 1962, 1, accessed March 29, 2023.
96 Ralph McGill, "The Yellow Rats of Unadilla," Atlanta Constitution, April 11, 1950, 12, accessed March 29, 2023.
97 McGill, 12.
make difficult events seem more relatable to his audience, thus providing him a stronger foundation from which he could discuss his liberal perspective.98 For example, McGill’s 1965 article “A Southerner Remembers,” which illustrates the agricultural history and economic troubles of the South, reads “A Southerner remembers seeing the desperate efforts by small farmers to hold on. Down the rows of a patch of cotton he watched many a family go Grandma in her old dress and her poke bonnet; the mother and father, worn and gaunt.”99 Here, McGill applies the New Journalism technique to present his information and argument in an easily acceptable manner.
The final New Journalism characteristic that McGill included extensively in his columns with The Atlanta Constitution about the Civil Rights Movement was instances of conversational dialogue. Dialogue between relevant people within an article as a journalistic technique popularized with the movement, according to Tom Wolfe, though McGill had long been utilizing it before the official start of New Journalism.100 For example, in his April 1953 column “One Day It Will Be Monday” which he centered on the ongoing events that eventually culminated in Brown v. Board of Education. McGill reported that white people of the Southern community would often say “‘Let’s don’t talk about it. If people wouldn’t talk about these things, they would solve themselves.’”101 In this quotation, McGill was referring to race relations and conflicts as “it.” The conversational dialogue not only serves as a tactic to capture readers’ attention, but it
98 Ralph McGill, "A Southerner Remembers," Atlanta Constitution, May 26, 1965, 1, accessed January 19, 2023.
99 McGill, 1.
100 Wolfe, "The Birth.”
101 Ralph McGill, "One Day It Will Be Monday," Atlanta Constitution, April 9, 1953, 1, accessed January 19, 2023.
also could have sparked reflection from his audience if they had heard similar discussions in their actual lives.102 Comparably, a decade later, McGill wrote the column “They Mourned Lost Rights” in 1967, in which he recounted a conversation he had overheard between two white women: “The plumper of the two women ahead of me, sitting next to the window, said to the other, in a well-modulated voice: ‘We certainly don’t have any rights any-more.’ ‘None,’ said the other, nodding affirmatively. ‘They have all the rights now.’”103 Instead of simply paraphrasing the conversation, McGill decided to add the actual speech of the women, who likely served as a symbol for the greater white population in Atlanta.104 His choice to do this likely had roots in persuasive writing and a belief that such narration would be more readily acceptable. McGill’s utilization of these techniques as methods of more effectively communicating with his readership demonstrate that roots of New Journalism existed early on and that McGill was one of the first proponents of the transition, despite the formal beginning of the movement occurring in the later twentieth century.
Despite his incorporation of New Journalism, McGill’s columns carried a strong voice, and he continued to push his liberal viewpoint of the Civil Rights Movement to his readership. McGill always criticized violent protests, arguing that “there is no reason for violence, whatever the decision. Leadership everywhere in the South must talk about this and make it clear. Anger and violence solve nothing.”105 He also persisted in his use of a tone of unity to build a sense of
102 McGill, 1; Dennis, Other Voices, 5.
103 Ralph McGill, "They Mourned Lost Rights," Atlanta Constitution, February 28, 1967, 1, accessed January 19, 2023.
104 McGill, 1.
105 McGill, "One Day It Will," 1.
community amongst his audience as well as the emphasis on his belief that individual Southerners have a moral duty, and these techniques contributed to his recognition as a respected journalist.
McGill’s Public Reception and Legacy
Throughout the fifty years he served working at The Atlanta Constitution, McGill received both positive feedback and negative backlash for his work as reporter and columnist. Because he was writing for one of the South’s largest newspapers, he was able to reach a large readership. Additionally, as he gained respect, McGill’s writings were syndicated by other publications, and he ultimately “reached millions of readers in three hundred papers.”
106 McGill was recognized publicly for his dedication to journalism and the Civil Rights Movement, receiving the Pulitzer Prize in 1959, followed by the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964.107 He was also awarded various other recognitions, including one from the Atlanta Jewish Times, Atlanta’s local Jewish newspaper. (see fig. 1) Colleges, universities, and other educational institutions around the South frequently invited McGill to speak to students, and he was oftentimes treated as an ambassador figure for the United States because of his history with international politics.108 An extremely well-respected journalist, Southern reporters with liberal views admired him for his courage and boldness.
106 Roberts and Klibanoff, The Race, 372.
107 "The 1959 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Editorial Writing," The Pulitzer Prizes, accessed February 28, 2023; "Remarks at the Presentation of the 1964 Presidential Medal of Freedom Awards.," The American Presidency Project, last modified September 14, 1964, accessed February 28, 2023.
108 Martin, Ralph McGill, 10.
109 Additionally, McGill came to be extremely popular with the Atlanta community and the broader community of the South. One reader wrote to The Atlanta Constitution, saying:
It is inspiring to read the articles in Ralph McGill’s column. They have depth, understanding and carry weight and are singularly free of pettiness, envy and malice. In my estimation Ralph McGill’s articles rank with those of Winston Churchill. He is a source of strength so sorely needed in these trying times.110
However, responses to McGill were not always so positive. His liberal views and his position as a powerful Southern journalist fueled the hatred of many. This hatred came most directly from
109 Dave Schechter, "The Southern Israelite and the Holocaust," Atlanta Jewish Times, last modified September 14, 2022, accessed February 28, 2023, https://www.atlantajewishtimes.com/the-southernisraelite-and-the-holocaust/.
110 "The Pulse," 10.
conservative Southerners disagreeing with McGill’s views, and they would “[deluge] him with letters, [make] threats, and [harass] him at home with phone calls that almost always began with the same question: “Is this Rastus McGill?”111 Ultimately, though, McGill remained confident in the face of criticism and threats. Ralph McGill left behind a deep legacy of courage and respect and has long been seen as one of the people most supportive of the Civil Rights Movement in the South. His careful writing techniques and his strategies to appeal to his readership allowed him to convey messages daily in his column with The Atlanta Constitution.
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