The Changing South of Gene Patterson: Journalism and Civil Rights, 1960 - 1968. [Signed by Roy Peter Clark, Raymond Arsenault, and Gene Patterson].

Gainesville: University Press of Florida, (2002). Signed by Roy Peter Clark, Raymond Arsenault, and Gene Patterson. Octavo, gold cloth & boards (hardcover),xvii, 305 pp. Near Fine in a Fine dust jacket. From dust jacket: The Changing South of Gene Patterson celebrates the work of one of America’s most influential journalists, who wrote in a time and place of dramatic social and political upheaval. The editor of the Atlanta Constitution from 1960 through 1968, Patterson wrote directly to his fellow white southerners every day, working to persuade (truncated) them to change their ways. His words were so inspirational that he was asked by Walter Cronkite to read live on the CBS Evening News his most famous column, about the Birmingham church bombing. This volume includes more than 120 of Patterson’s best pieces, selected from some 3,200 columns. These columns offer probing commentary on the crucial issues of race, civil rights, social justice, and desegregation; some reveal examples of political and moral leadership, drawn from every corner of southern culture. Introductory essays, framing Patteron’s work as journalism and literature, place it in the context of southern history and the evolution of white southern liberalism. Patterson himself contributes a new essay, reflecting on his life, work, and times. (Inventory #: vita5983)