Writer: Paper ignored civil rights stories
The lede in Reuben Mees’ assessment of newspaper coverage way back when: “The Hattiesburg American ignored local aspects of the civil rights movement of the 1960s - unless events forced its hand.”
The paper goes on to review another less-than-stellar point in its history: “When Pine Belt residents woke up on this day 81 years ago, the publisher of the Hattiesburg American had made the front page. The headline read: ‘Grand Jury Indicts Harmon on 7 Counts.’”