Curtis Wilkie

Last updated
Curtis Wilkie
Curtis Wilkie by David Levine (1980).jpg
Pencil drawing of Curtis Wilkie by David Levine (1980)
Born (1940-09-20) September 20, 1940 (age 83)
Greenville, Mississippi, U.S.
Education University of Mississippi
Occupation(s)former reporter for the Boston Globe, retired professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi
ChildrenCarter, Leighton McCool, Stuart (deceased)

Curtis Wilkie (born September 20, 1940) is a retired newspaper reporter, college professor and historian of the American South. He is the author of numerous books including When Evil Lived in Laurel: The White Knights and the Murder of Vernon Dahmer, and Dixie: A Personal Odyssey Through Events That Shaped the Modern South. Historian Douglas Brinkley wrote that, "Over the past four decades no reporter has critiqued the American South with such evocative sensitivity and bedrock honesty as Curtis Wilkie." [1]

Contents

Early life

Wilkie was born in Greenville, Mississippi in 1940, to parents whose families had settled Lafayette County, Mississippi and Yalobusha County in 1837. During World War II, he lived at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where his parents worked as civilians in the Manhattan Project.

After his father died in a fire in 1947, he spent the majority of his childhood in Summit, Mississippi, where his mother was a schoolteacher and his stepfather was the town's Presbyterian minister. His parents advocated for the racial integration of their church in 1971, at a time when many white Christians in Mississippi were leaving mainline Protestant denominations and public school systems due to avoid integration. He graduated from Corinth High School in 1958 and from the University of Mississippi in 1963 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

Career

While at the University of Mississippi, Wilkie witnessed the discrimination against the first African-American students to enroll, and thereafter became involved in liberal political causes. From 1963 to 1969, at a time when the civil rights movement was at its height in the Mississippi Delta, he worked as a reporter and editor at the Clarksdale Press Register . In 1968, he was a member of the first racially integrated delegation to represent Mississippi at a Democratic National Convention, unseating segregationist state party leaders disqualified for violation of party rules. The insurgent delegation of "Loyal Democrats of Mississippi" was co-chaired by his friends Aaron Henry, head of the NAACP in Mississippi, and journalist Hodding Carter III.

In 1969, Wilkie received a Congressional Fellowship from the American Political Science Association to work in Washington, D.C. as an aide to Sen. Walter F. Mondale (D-Minn.) and Rep. John Brademas (D-Ind,) from 1969 to 1971. [1] In 1972, as a reporter at The News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware, he covered the first of eight presidential campaigns he would follow during his career.

He was featured in The Boys on the Bus , Timothy Crouse's account of the journalists who covered the 1972 election battle between Richard Nixon and George McGovern. Upon moving to Delaware and discovering a racially restrictive covenant on the house he was purchasing, he worked with the neighborhood association's president to remove the covenants from Wilmington's Wawaset Park neighborhood.

He joined The Boston Globe in 1975 and served as a national and foreign correspondent for the paper for the next 26 years. He was the Globe's White House correspondent from 1977 to 1982 and also served for a time as its Washington bureau chief. In the mid 1980s, he served as Middle East bureau chief for the Globe and covered the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the 1983 bombing of the US Marines barracks in Beirut, the first Palestinian intifada, and the first Gulf War. On Christmas Day 1989, he was with a small group of journalists who came under fire in Timișoara, Romania, while covering fighting between revolutionaries and forces loyal to Nicolae Ceausescu, the deposed president. In 1993, Wilkie established the Globe’s Southern bureau in New Orleans, where he lived in the French Quarter. He retired from the Globe in 2001.

In 2004, Wilkie's friend since childhood, attorney James P. "Butch" Cothren of Jackson, convinced him to return to his home state and teach journalism at the University of Mississippi. The Fellowship of Southern Writers presented Wilkie with its Special Award for Excellence in Non-Fiction Writing in 2005. From 2007 until his retirement in 2020, Wilkie was a professor and Fellow at the Overby Center for Journalism & Politics. [1] In 2013, Cothren endowed a scholarship for Ole Miss journalism students in Wilkie's name. [2]

From 2008 to 2010, Wilkie spent two years researching court records and conducting some 200 personal interviews [3] for his book, The Fall of the House of Zeus: The Rise and Ruin of America's Most Powerful Trial Lawyer, his portrayal of Richard F. "Dickie" Scruggs, the famed trial lawyer and brother-in-law of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. In the 1990s, Scruggs was a lead attorney in the tobacco litigation which was settled for $248 billion. He was portrayed by actor Colm Feore in the movie The Insider . Scruggs also successfully sued the asbestos industry, the makers of Ritalin, and insurers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Wilkie frequently appears on panel discussions related to Southern politics, journalism, and the Civil Rights struggle in Mississippi. He is known for his distinctive bullfrog voice —a deep, slow Mississippi drawl, which has been described as "the sound of marbles rolling around in a bucket of Delta mud." [4]

Books

Other writings by Curtis Wilkie

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trent Lott</span> American politician (born 1941)

Chester Trent Lott Sr. is an American lobbyist, lawyer, author, and politician who represented Mississippi in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1989 and in the United States Senate from 1989 to 2007. Lott served in numerous leadership positions in both chambers of Congress as one of the first of a wave of Republicans winning seats in Southern states that had been solidly Democratic. Later in his career, he served twice as Senate Majority Leader, and also, alternately, Senate Minority Leader. In 2003, he stepped down from the position after controversy due to his praising of Senator Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist Dixiecrat presidential bid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Hood</span> American politician

James Matthew Hood is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 39th Attorney General of Mississippi from 2004 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Moore (American politician)</span> American attorney and politician

Michael Cameron Moore is an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the Attorney General of Mississippi from 1988 to 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Scruggs</span> American lawyer

Richard F. "Dickie" Scruggs is an American former naval aviator and disbarred trial lawyer. He is the brother-in-law of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Scruggs first came to the public eye after successfully suing the asbestos industry on behalf of ill shipyard workers. He later represented the state of Mississippi in the tobacco litigation of the 1990s. He also represented hundreds of homeowners in lawsuits against insurance companies following Hurricane Katrina, and a national class action of patients against HMOs in the early 2000s.

Homer William Bigart was an American reporter who worked for the New York Herald Tribune from 1929 to 1955 and for The New York Times from 1955 to his retirement in 1972. He was considered a "reporter's reporter" and an "enduring role model." He won two Pulitzer Prizes as a war correspondent, as well as most of the other major journalism awards.

Clinton Bernard LeSueur is an American journalist and political aide. He has worked in Mississippi and Washington, D.C., and was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Mississippi's 2nd congressional district in 2002 and 2004.

Mary Dawson Cain was an American newspaper editor, political activist, and gubernatorial candidate in Mississippi. A Democrat, she advocated for conservative causes and is particularly remembered for her campaigns against the Social Security tax. She ran for Governor of Mississippi in 1951 and 1955, the first woman to do so.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vernon Dahmer</span> American civil rights activist (1908–1966)

Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer Sr. was an American civil rights movement leader and president of the Forrest County chapter of the NAACP in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was murdered by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for his work on recruiting Black Americans to vote.

"Go, Mississippi" is the regional anthem of Mississippi, adopted as the official state song on May 17, 1962.

Raylawni Branch is a black Mississippi pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement, a professional nursing educator and US Air Force Reserve officer. She is best known for her leading role in the integration of the University of Southern Mississippi (Hattiesburg) in 1965, which was peaceful as opposed to the violent riot triggered by white racism after the enrollment of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi (Oxford) in 1962.

Leon Daniel was a reporter, manager, and senior editor of United Press International (UPI). He was considered to be the "gold standard" in wire service reporting.

Mississippi Freelance was a liberal monthly newspaper, with the stated mission of "reporting the otherwise unreported." The paper was edited by Lew Powell and Ed Williams, who were working at the time as reporters for the Greenville, Mississippi Delta Democrat Times and articles were written by volunteer reporters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1956 Cotton Bowl Classic</span> College football game

The 1956 Cotton Bowl Classic was the twentieth edition of the college football bowl game, played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas, on Monday, January 2. Part of the 1955–56 bowl game season, it matched the sixth-ranked TCU Horned Frogs of the Southwest Conference (SWC) and the #10 Ole Miss Rebels of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Underdog Ole Miss rallied to win by a point, 14–13.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sollie Cohen</span> American football player (1907–1966)

Sollie Herman "Jew" Cohen was a college football player and later a businessman of Lake Providence, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph S. Clark's and Robert F. Kennedy's tour of the Mississippi Delta</span> United States Senators investigative tour of the Mississippi Delta

United States Senators Joseph S. Clark and Robert F. Kennedy toured the Mississippi Delta on April 10, 1967. At the behest of civil rights lawyer Marian Wright, Clark and Kennedy, together with two other senators, traveled to Mississippi to investigate reports of extreme poverty and starvation. Following a field hearing, they drove from Greenville to Clarksdale, stopping and touring impoverished communities as they went. Deeply disturbed by what they saw, the senators returned to Washington, D.C., and began pushing for a series of reforms to alleviate the situation. Extensive media coverage of the event exposed the American public to real instances of malnutrition and starvation. The country was shocked and hunger became an important topic nationwide as people began looking for solutions. Efforts by the government and political action groups ultimately resulted in the problem being largely reduced by the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1995 Mississippi gubernatorial election</span>

The 1995 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 1995 to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Republican Kirk Fordice won reelection to a second term. This is the last time that a gubernatorial nominee and a lieutenant gubernatorial nominee of different political parties were elected governor and lieutenant governor in Mississippi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1983 Mississippi gubernatorial election</span> Election for the governorship of the U.S. state of Mississippi

The 1983 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 1983, in order to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Democrat William Winter was term-limited, and could not run for reelection to a second term. As of 2023, this is the last time that Hinds County has voted for the Republican candidate. Many also consider this election the last time that Democrats won a substantial victory in a Mississippi gubernatorial election. As of 2024, this is the last Mississippi gubernatorial election and the most recent Mississippi gubernatorial election to feature major party nominees who are now both deceased.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1967 Mississippi gubernatorial election</span> Election for the governorship of the U.S. state of Mississippi

The 1967 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 1967, in order to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Democrat Paul B. Johnson Jr. was term-limited, and could not run for reelection to a second term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1959 Mississippi gubernatorial election</span> Election for the governorship of the U.S. state of Mississippi

The 1959 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 3, 1959, in order to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Democrat James P. Coleman was term-limited, and could not run for reelection to a second term. As was common at the time, the Democratic candidate ran unopposed in the general election so therefore the Democratic primary was the real contest, and winning the primary was considered tantamount to election.

Lew Powell is an American journalist, author, and newspaper editor. He began his career by founding and editing the independent liberal monthly newspaper Mississippi Freelance. He reported and edited for TheCharlotte Observer for thirty-four years and has written several books about North Carolina.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Profile of Curtis Wilkie". Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics. University of Mississippi.
  2. ↑ Hahn, Tina. "Cothrens Celebrate Curtis Wilkie with Major Gift to Create Ole Miss Journalism Scholarship: Legacy of 60-year friendship expands with educational opportunities". UMFoundation.com. University of Mississippi Foundation. Archived from the original on 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2014-08-07.
  3. ↑ Lynch, Adam (October 13, 2010). "Q&A: Curtis Wilkie on the Wrong Crowd". Jackson Free Press.
  4. ↑ Stephen Smith, "Press: A Tale of Two Conventions, How a newspaperman and TV reporter covered the Democrats," TIME, August 25, 1980.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.