RIP: Gene Patterson

[Ombligo]

Few here will know Mr. Patterson, but he was a leading voice in race equality while editor of the Atlanta Constitution in the early sixties; managing editor of the Washington Post in the late 60's and early 70's, Publisher of the St. Petersburg Times in the 70's and 80's.

As a young man, he commanded a tank platoon in Gen. George Patton's 3rd Army.

Patterson advocated not just good journalism but good writing. The word's he penned following the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala in Sept, 1963 are pure artistry. CBS news anchor Water Cronkite was so moved by the column that he brought Patterson onto the news broadcast to read his column over the air. The only time such a reading has taken place.

Patterson was the definition of the greatest generation.

RIP and God's Speed sir.




"A Flower for the Graves."
Atlanta Constitution, 9/16/63

[deckeda]

I saw some of the image selects and outtakes from while Birmingham browsing the old photo archive once a few years ago when I part of the AJC's archive dept. Even then it was an anachronism, taking over a wall on moveable aisles, and what was still there was only there because a few early archivists had bravely ignored the then-Editor's not-so-mild suggestion to throw them all away in the early '80s.

Now that they've vacated the building downtown, that, and the huge stash of images and negs tossed into a room over in the old press building are long gone. As is of course the people who maintained it as best they could.

Thanks for that Ombligo. Mentored by Ralph McGill. Those two at the Consti in the '60s had a lot to do with Atlanta and the South becoming something better than they were. Here's one reader who a took exception to that:

“I see what you’re trying to do,” one reader accused. “You’re trying to make us think that we’re better than we are.”

And today that would just as likely be, “I see what you’re trying to do, and I don't need your bias." Perhaps that's what the reader in 1963 was thinking, but the wording leaves open the possibility that maybe, just maybe they could become better than they are as opposed to just getting their insular news from sources they comfortably enjoy reading.

Here's also the AP notice: http://www.ajc.com/news/ap/social-issues...ies/nTttW/

... and from Roy Peter Clark. Clark was an early member of what later became known as the Poynter Institute. Tampa Bay's Nelson Poynter trusted one person to maintain his vision for journalism excellence: Patterson. http://www.ajc.com/news/ap/social-issues...ies/nTttW/

[Speedy]

One good man can make a difference.

[stephen]

A phenomenal column. I helped work on an ad campaign for the restoration of that church here in Birmingham.

[Blankity Blank]

RIP