The Press and Race: Mississippi Journalists Confront the Movement

Jimmy Ward and the Jackson Daily News

JimmyWard and theJacksonDaily News David R. Davies & Judy Smith The ColumbiaJournalism Review, looking back on the civil rights era in summer 1967, concluded that the Mississippi capital's two daily newspapers had performed terribly in covering the social upheaval of desegregation . Jackson's Clarion-Ledger and the Daily News, the Review concluded, were "quite possibly the worst metropolitan newspapers in the United States." Similarly, a 1967 critique described both the Clarion-Ledger and the Daily News as ardent segregationist journals that had misrepresented the civil rights movement at every turn. "[T]he Daily News freely paints Negroes as baboons and apish clowns, sees communists in every anti-poverty program not controlled bythe local white power structure, and 'exposes ' Northern white liberalismascarpet-bagging subversion," a civil rights worker recalled in the Frederick W. Heinze papers. Time magazine concluded 22December 1961that the Jackson Daily News had published "unabashed prejudice" for years (p. 44). Both the Clarion-Ledger and the Daily News had justifiably earned such denunciation for unfailingly defending segregation in Mississippi's years of turmoil. The two newspapers had vigilantly guarded "the racial, economic, political, and religious orthodoxy of the closed society," as University of Mississippihistorian JamesSilver concluded in his 1964work The Closed Society (p. 30). Both Jackson newspapers were owned by the Hederman family, and Silver was not alone in believing they served as David R. Davies & Judy Smith opinion leaders in Mississippi. Indeed, the papers were integral in the maintenance of the "Closed Society," in which the tenets of white supremacy dominated the state and relegated blacks to second-class citizenship . The Jackson Daily News, Jackson's afternoon journal, typified the Hederman papers and their segregationist approach to covering race relations . Its editor beginning in 1957 was JimmyWard, a firebrand who held forth in a front-page column, "Covering the Crossroads." The editor's column was a mixture of down-home humor, criticism of blacks, and bitter commentary on the civil rights movement. Asthis chapter will demonstrate , Ward consistently reflected Mississippi's racial orthodoxy in the state's years of turmoil. Both in editorials and columns for the Daily News, and through behind-the-scenes cooperation with segregationist public officials ,Ward served as a staunch defender of the closed society. He and his newspaper played no small role in segregation's maintenance. James Myron Ward began his association with the Daily News as a child, delivering the newspaper in his hometown of Montrose in Jasper County. Upon entering Jackson's Millsaps College in 1937, he fell in love with newspapering. While in college, Ward worked on the student newspaper , the Purple & White, and also worked part-time at the Daily News during the school year and full-time during the summer. When war broke out, Ward took leave from the newspaper business to enlist in the Army Air Corps. After cadet training, he became a B-25 combat pilot and was commissioned as a second lieutenant, flying in more than fifty combat missions. He was eventually promoted to captain, a title he held in the inactive reserve after his honorable discharge. After leaving the army, Ward returned to his journalism career as a photographer and reporter for the Daily News. In September 1954, Major Frederick Sullens, the newspaper's longtime editor, named Ward the city editor. Three months later, Ward waspromoted to managing editor, second in command at the newspaper. After Sullens' death in 1957, Ward took over the reign of editor from his idol. He held that tide and continued his front-page column until illness forced his retirement on 7 January 1984. The Hederman family, which owned both the Daily News and the Clarion-Ledger, had considerable newspaper holdings. The family owned 86 Jimmy Ward and the Jackson Daily News the Hattiesburg American as well as a Jackson television station. Their tight control of the Jackson media market had prompted area businessmen to band together to form a rival newspaper, the Jackson State-Times^ in 1955, but the newspaper died for lack of advertiser support seven years later. The State-Time? owners sold out to the Hedermans' company, the Mississippi Publishers Corporation, in 1962. Through his early career, Ward was heavilyinfluenced by his mentor, Sullens, a staunch segregationist well known for his resistance to change and for his defense of the segregationist status quo in Mississippi and in the South. "Jimmy Wardwasperhaps the favorite of allthe young journalists trained by Major Sullens," the Daily News commented on 24...