We Believed We Were Immortal: Twelve Reporters Who Covered the 1962 Integration Crisis at Ole Miss

On September 30, 1962, the nation was transfixed over the integration crisis at the University of Mississippi as James Meredith sought to become the first African-American to enroll in any public school in Mississippi. More than 300 reporters descended on the small town of Oxford. Before dawn a reporter would be murdered and 30,000 troops called in to quell a riot. Kathleen Wickham details the challenges faced by reporters to get their stories followed by the original reports they filed. She examines the still-unsolved murder of French reporter Paul Guihard and offers theories on the circumstances around his death. The FBI's list of 300+ reporters and their journals or TV/radio stations is included.
The twelve reporters covered in the book Include Claude Sitton of The New York Times; Karl Fleming of Newsweek; Sidna Brower, the Ole Miss student newspaper editor who stood-up to her peers in editorials calling for calm; and Moses Newsom, who was barred from covering the story because of his race. Featured also are CBS reporter Dan Rather, Michael Dorman of Newsday, photographer Flip Schulke, Fred Powledge of the Atlanta Journal, Texas videographer Gordon Yoder, NBC reporter Richard Valeriani, Dorothy Gilliam of The Washington Post and Neal Gregory of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and Agence France-Presse reporter Paul Guihard, who was murdered on campus. In his preface CBS journalist Bob Schieffer writes, "There have been many heroes in this long struggle, and Kathleen Wickham gives long-deserved credit to twelve men and women who risked their lives to tell the story."

Author: Kathleen Wickham
Publisher: Yoknapatawpha Press
Published: 09/30/2017
Pages: 248
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.07lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d
ISBN: 9780916242831

About the Author
Wickham, Kathleen: - Dr. Kathleen Woodruff Wickham is professor of journalism at The University of Mississippi where she teaches Advanced Reporting, Media Ethics, Magazine Writing and a course on press coverage of civil rights. She has also lectured at the Sorbonne and Rennes universities in France. She previously taught at The University of Memphis and worked as a reporter at the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger and Atlantic City (N.J.) Press. She was instrumental in having the Society of Professional Journalists designate The University of Mississippi a national historic site in journalism in honor of the reporters who covered the 1962 integration crisis and establish a memorial marker in honor of the Paul Guihard, the French reporter murdered on campus during the 1962 riot. She has published three books, numerous academic articles and since 2010 has judged the National Headliner Journalism Awards. In 2008 SPJ presented Wickham the David L. Eshelman National Outstanding Campus Adviser Award.

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