Tom Sellers (journalist)

Last updated
Tom Sellers
Born November 1, 1922
Died February 18, 2006
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Occupation Journalist
Notable credit(s) Columbus Ledger

Thomas J. Sellers, Jr. (November 1, 1922 – February 18, 2006) was an American newspaper reporter, primarily for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer and Sunday Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Georgia (1950–1968). The Ledger-Enquirer received the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for exposing the corrupt government of Phenix City, Alabama. [1] [2] Sellers was among the first to report on events from Phenix City.

Columbus, Georgia Consolidated city-county in Georgia, United States

Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Located on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama, Columbus is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it officially merged in 1970. Columbus is the third-largest city in Georgia and the fourth-largest metropolitan area. According to the 2017 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, Columbus has a population of 194,058 residents, with 303,811 in the Columbus metropolitan area. The metro area joins the nearby Alabama cities of Auburn and Opelika to form the Columbus–Auburn–Opelika Combined Statistical Area, which has a 2017 estimated population of 499,128.

<i>Ledger-Enquirer</i> newspaper headquartered in downtown Columbus, Georgia, in the United States

The Ledger-Enquirer is a newspaper headquartered in downtown Columbus, Georgia, in the United States. It was founded in 1828 as the Columbus Enquirer by Mirabeau B. Lamar who later played a pivotal role in the founding of the Republic of Texas and served as its third President. The newspaper is a two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1955.

Contents

Biography

Sellers was raised in Alabama, attending Lee County High School in Auburn, Alabama. Sellers' first newspaper jobs were in the 1940s with the Associated Press and the Montgomery Advertiser . In 1950, he joined the staff of the Columbus Ledger, where he was assigned the Phenix City beat, covering news of Phenix City, a suburb of Columbus across the Chattahoochee River in Alabama. [2]

Auburn High School (Alabama)

Auburn High School is a public high school in Auburn, Alabama. It is the only high school in the Auburn City School District. Auburn High offers technical, academic, and International Baccalaureate programs, as well as joint enrollment with Southern Union State Community College and Auburn University. Auburn High School is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Auburn, Alabama City in Alabama, United States

Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama with a 2016 population of 63,118. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area. The Auburn-Opelika, AL MSA with a population of 158,991, along with the Columbus, GA-AL MSA and Tuskegee, Alabama, comprises the greater Columbus-Auburn-Opelika, GA-AL CSA, a region home to 501,649 residents.

Associated Press American multinational nonprofit news agency

The Associated Press (AP) is a U.S.-based not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. The AP is owned by its contributing newspapers and radio and television stations in the United States, all of which contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists. Its Statement of News Values and Principles spells out its standards and practices.

Phenix City had long been controlled by a corrupt city government tied to gambling interests. Starting in 1950, Sellers reported on the Phenix City government, collecting evidence of corruption and reporting it in the Ledger. In 1952, Sellers was attacked while covering a contested city election. By 1954, the evidence collected in Sellers articles led a Phenix City lawyer, Albert Patterson, to run for Alabama attorney general on a platform of cleaning up Phenix City. When Patterson won the election, the local sheriff, acting under orders of the mayor of Phenix City, assassinated the attorney general-elect. Sellers continued to report on the city leaders' actions and attempts to stonewall the investigation, finally leading to Governor Gordon Persons declaring "martial rule", a modified form of martial law, in the city. Sellers and his staff created an "Extra" edition of the Ledger and were the first to report on the events from Phenix City. Sellers later reported as the military forces of the Alabama National Guard dismantled the gambling establishment and city government. [3]

Albert Patterson American politician

Albert Patterson was an attorney in Phenix City, Alabama. He was assassinated outside his law office shortly after he won the Democratic nomination for Alabama Attorney General on a platform of reforming the rife corruption and vice in Phenix City.

Gordon Persons American politician

Seth Gordon Persons was an American Democratic politician who was the 43rd Governor of Alabama from 1951 to 1955. He was born and died in Montgomery, Alabama. The Dauphin Island Bridge south of Mobile is formally named for him. The Gordon Persons Building is a six floor, 60,000 square foot state government office building in Montgomery.

Martial law temporary state of government wherein curfews, the suspension of civil law, civil rights, and habeas corpus are suspended, and the application of military law is extended to civilians

Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civilian functions of government, especially in response to a temporary emergency such as invasion or major disaster, or in an occupied territory.

For covering, or uncovering, the problems in Phenix City, the Ledger won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service: [1]

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes

The Pulitzer Prize for Public Service is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It recognizes a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper or news site through the use of its journalistic resources, which may include editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics, video and other online material, and may be presented in print or online or both.

Sellers remained at the Ledger until 1968, when he left to become a science editor and information officer at Emory University. In 1986, he compiled his front-page newspaper columns from 1958 to 1968 as a book, Valley Echoes (Atlanta: Davicone; ISBN   0-9370-8903-6). [4] Sellers died of a heart attack on February 18, 2006, at his home in Atlanta Georgia. [2]

Emory University private research university in Druid Hills, Georgia, United States

Emory University is a private research university in the Druid Hills neighborhood of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia, by the Methodist Episcopal Church and was named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. In 1915, Emory College moved to its present location in Druid Hills and was rechartered as Emory University. Emory maintained a presence in Oxford that eventually became Oxford College, a residential liberal arts college for the first two years of the Emory baccalaureate degree. The university is the second-oldest private institution of higher education in Georgia and among the fifty oldest private universities in the United States.

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

Related Research Articles

Phenix City, Alabama City in Alabama, United States

Phenix City is a city in Lee and Russell counties in the State of Alabama, and the county seat of Russell County. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 32,822.

Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting

The Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting has been awarded since 1953, under one name or another, for a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series in print journalism. The Pulitzer Prize is only given to journalists whose works have appeared in US newspapers, drastically limiting the number of journalists and scope of investigative reporting that may be awarded. It is administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.

<i>The Atlanta Journal-Constitution</i> Daily newspaper in Atlanta, Georgia

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the result of the merger between The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution. The two staffs were combined in 1982. Separate publication of the morning Constitution and afternoon Journal ended in 2001 in favor of a single morning paper under the Journal-Constitution name.

The Sun Herald is a U.S. newspaper based in Biloxi, Mississippi, that serves readers along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The paper's current headquarters is in the city of Gulfport. It is owned by The McClatchy Company, one of the largest newspaper publishers in the United States.

The Phenix City Story is a 1955 American film noir crime film directed by Phil Karlson for Allied Artists, written by Daniel Mainwaring and Crane Wilbur and starring John McIntire, Richard Kiley and Kathryn Grant. It had an unusual "triple premiere" held on July 19, 1955 in Phenix City, Columbus and Chicago.

WLTZ NBC television affiliate in Columbus, Georgia, United States

WLTZ is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Columbus, Georgia, United States and serving the Chattahoochee Valley of west-central Georgia and east-central Alabama. Owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 from a transmitter co-located with its studios on NBC 38 Drive in the Vista Terrace section of East Columbus.

The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1959.

WHTY (FM) urban contemporary radio station in Phenix City, Alabama, United States

WHTY is a radio station licensed to serve Phenix City, Alabama, United States. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and licensed to CC Licenses. Its studios are in Columbus east of downtown, and its transmitter is in Phenix City.

WGSY Radio station in Alabama

WGSY is a radio station licensed to serve Phenix City, Alabama, United States. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and licensed to CC Licenses, LLC. Its studios are in Columbus east of downtown, and its transmitter is southeast of downtown.

WBOJ

WBOJ is a radio station licensed to Columbus, Georgia, serving the Columbus area. The station is currently owned by PMB Broadcasting.

Below is a list of the media in the Columbus Metro Area in Columbus, Georgia.

Chattahoochee Valley Community College is a community college in Phenix City, Alabama, United States. It serves residents of Russell County and parts of Bullock, Lee, Macon, and Barbour Counties, as well as the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area. Since 1975 it has shared its campus with Troy University's Phenix City Campus.

Teresa Tomlinson American politician

Teresa Pike Tomlinson served as the 69th Mayor of Columbus, Georgia and was elected on November 30, 2010 with 68% of the vote. On January 3, 2011, she was sworn in as the city's first female mayor.

The Fred Ward Memorial Show was an annual professional wrestling memorial event produced by the Georgia Championship Wrestling (GCW) promotion, which was held from 2004 to 2009. The show was held in honor of Fred Ward, a pioneering wrestling promoter who controlled the central Georgia wrestling territory for over 30 years, who died on May 7, 1992. It was originally held in Columbus, Georgia by GCW until Jerry Oates' retirement in 2006, whereupon the new owners Bill and Diane Hewes relocated the promotion, renamed Great Championship Wrestling, to Phenix City, Alabama. Its third annual memorial show, the last-ever show held at the GCW Arena, "drew the biggest crowd [at the venue] in over a year".

Hugh A. Bentley (1909–1984) is known for launching a cleanup drive to get rid of crime and corruption in Phenix City, Alabama, in the early 1950s. He was beaten, and survived an assassination attempt with a dynamite bomb.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Columbus, Georgia, US.

References

  1. 1 2 "Public Service". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-10-31.
  2. 1 2 3 "Won Pulitzer for uncovering corruption in Alabama", Chicago Sun-Times, February 28, 2006.
  3. ↑ Millard B. Grimes, The Last Linotype : The Story of Georgia and its Newspapers Since World War II (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1985), pp. 228–33.
  4. ↑ "Valley echoes". Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 2013-10-31.
Library of Congress (de facto) national library of the United States of America

The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. The Library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.; it also maintains the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia. The Library's functions are overseen by the Librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the Architect of the Capitol. The Library of Congress has claims to be the largest library in the world. Its "collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 450 languages."

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