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Biography of Ralph Emerson McGillName: Ralph Emerson McGillBirth Date: February 3, 1898 Death Date: February 5, 1969 Place of Birth: Soddy, Tennessee, United States Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: journalist Ralph Emerson McGill The American journalist Ralph Emerson McGill (1898-1969) was the 1959 Pulitzer prize winner for his editorials on race, desegregation, and Southern politics--views that made him and the Atlanta Constitution major symbols of Southern liberalism.Ralph McGill was born on February 3, 1898, on a farm in eastern Tennessee. When he was six the family moved to Chattanooga and lived on a farm bequeathed by his grandfather. McGill's father, who influenced his son with a passion for learning and who had changed his own name from Benjamin Wallace to Benjamin Franklin McGill, took a job as a salesman for a small heating and roofing company. The son's middle name came in honor of a friend who was a devotee of Ralph Waldo Emerson. McGill always had happy memories of his childhood and of his family, including his mother, Mary Lou Skillern McGill.The region of his boyhood undoubtedly influenced McGill's later views. McGill recalled …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…McGill died February 5, 1969. Associated Works Atlanta Constitution (Newspaper) Further Reading Much has been written about McGill, but one may best begin with his own partly autobiographical account, The South and the Southerner (1969), a prize-winning book that contains many reflections on Southern life and history. Southern Encounters: Southerners of Note in Ralph McGill's South (1983), edited by Calvin M. Logue, has McGill essays on a variety of people from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Lester Maddox. Another biography to try is Leonard Ray Teel, Ralph Emerson McGill: Voice of the Southern Conscience (2001). Some of the best of McGill's essays appeared in Saturday Review, including "The Case for the Southern Progressive" (June 13, 1964), "The Decade of Slow, Painful Progress" (May 16, 1964), and "Race: Results Instead of Reasons" (January 9, 1965). A comprehensive biography, with details of McGill's professional and private life, is Harold H. Martin's Ralph McGill, Reporter (1973). Also useful is Logue, Ralph McGill: Editor and Publisher (1969). |