Remembering Ira Harkey
Clarion-Ledger Perspective Editor Sid Salter writes: In 1993, Harkey was inducted into the Mississippi Press Association’s Hall of Fame some eight years after it was established. Even at the induction ceremony during a summer MPA convention weekend, Harkey groused about how he was treated in the 1960s. Time had not salved the hurt, nor did the olive branch of the MPA’s highest honor. He still wondered aloud why more Mississippi journalists had not stood with him against racism and segregationist blather back in the day…
Sun Herald political writer Geoff Pender: “He showed courage at a time when it was terribly important for some journalistic voices to speak out,” said pioneering civil rights journalist Bill Minor. “There were very few at that time. Ira was one of the few…”
The Associated Press via Editor & Publisher: Mr. Harkey’s editorials were recognized by the Pulitzer Prize administrators as courageous support for the processes of law and reason during the desegregation crisis of 1962, in which federal marshals and troops were needed to quell rioting that threatened to prevent James Meredith from becoming the first black student at Ole Miss…
Clarion-Ledger editorial board: In newspaper columns, editorials, books and from the podium as a professor, Harkey’s name was synonymous with the highest ideals of journalism - speaking the truth, telling it like it is, pulling no punches, letting the readers decide.