The Press and Race: Mississippi Journalists Confront the Movement

George A. McLean and the Tupelo Journal

GeorgeA. McLean and the Tupelo Journal Laura Nan Fairley God forbid that I should be remembered primarily asa newspaperman, or as a man of wealth and power. . . . If I can't be remembered primarily as one who sought to serve the best interests of all people of the community, then I hope that all memory of me will be blotted out. —George A. McLean, writing in an unfitted, undated manuscript Are we treating our coloredMississippians as we would want to be treated? Youand I both know the answer to that question. —McLean, in a 1965 speech For George Alonzo McLean, publisher of the Tupelo Journal^ one tiling mattered first and foremost—his community. The modest McLean was a hard-driving civic booster who worked methodically to bring agricultural and industrial diversification to Northeast Mississippi from the 1930S to the 1980$. As Tupelo prospered, largely through his leadership in community and economic development, he earned respect from leaders in Tupelo, Jackson, Washington D.C., and beyond. Laura Nan Fairley In the cause of improving Tupelo, McLean had an impact in areas ranging from education to race relations. His leadership on community issues—including race—is credited with keeping Tupelo peaceful even as race-related violence swept Mississippi to the west and south in the 19608. Though some derided him as too "liberal" for Mississippi, his writing on racial issues more often reflected the middle-of-the-road, behind-thescenes approach to civic issues that characterized all of his work in Tupelo. Through the editorial pages of the Journal^ McLean and editor Harry Rutherford presented carefully crafted arguments for progress in a state determined to cling to the past. Both believed that a low-key push for progress was the most effective route to change. Their vision of human development pushed the Tupelo Journal far beyond the norm for Mississippi newspapers of the era. Further, McLean put his preaching into practice . When he said he believed in equal opportunity for all, for example, he took practical steps to create opportunities for all. When he said Mississippians should be left to solve their own problems, he meant it; he was not employing the diversionary tactic so often used by other editors. He truly believed that he and other Mississippians could solve problems ranging from race relations to education. McLean and Rutherford's approach —similar to Hodding Carter, Jr.'s work in Greenville and J. Oliver Emmerich's in McComb—ultimately proved effective in the town they loved. Though challenging Mississippi's racial mores was not McLean's primary motivation, his work had a profound effect on the lives of both black and white Mississippiansin Tupelo and in Northeast Mississippi. McLean's crusades to improve the region's schools and economy helped to create a community that escaped the scars of racial conflict that marred so many other Mississippi towns in these years. His behind-the-scenes activity and low-key editorial style kept him largely out of the state and national spotlight , protecting him from Mississippi's rabid segregationists but denying him the national accolades he no doubt deserved asaprogressive publisher in difficult times. Though he did not accept school desegregation until it seemed inevitable , otherwise McLean was steady in his defense of equal rights for all Mississippians, blacksincluded. For these views, the editor's contemporaries tagged him a "moderate," avague catchall term applied to anyone who 138 George A. McLean and the TupeloJournal eschewed the outright racism of Mississippi's closed society. Newspaper columnist Bill Minor, quoted in McLean's obituary published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal on 2 March 1983, praised McLean "for remaining a staunch supporter of federal social programs after many Mississippians became alienated from the federal government in the 19408 and 19505." Minor also said McLean and Hodding Carter represented the few "moderate newspaper voices being heard in the state" during the civil rights struggles of the 19505 and 19608. Minor, who covered much of this era, added, "He (McLean) had the courage to stand up for a philosophy that was against a great deal of the prevailing thought in Mississippi." James W. Silver, author of Mississippi: The Closed Society^ singled out McLean's newspaper and those in Greenville, McComb, and Pascagoula asrepresentative of "varying degrees of moderation" that could be found in the Mississippi press, offering sharp contrast with the "extremist" Jackson Clarion-Ledger. The Journalwas a "beacon of progressive thinking, moderation and tolerance in...