Grover Cleveland Hall, Sr. (January 11, 1888 – 1941) was an American newspaper editor.
[ At the '']Montgomery Advertiser
The ''Montgomery Advertiser'' is a daily newspaper and news website located in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829.
History
The newspaper began publication in 1829 as ''The Planter's Gazette.'' Its first editor was Moseley Baker. It ...
'' in Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
, he garnered national attention and won a Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
during the 1920s for his editorials that criticized the Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
.[
]
Newspaper career
Hall was born in Haleburg, Alabama
Haleburg is a town in Henry County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Dothan, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2020 census, the population was 112. Established in 1885 as "Halesburgh", the town was incorporated in September, ...
, near the Georgia and Florida borders, and educated in the state's country schools.[ Grover was ten in 1898, when his older brother William Theodore Hall started newspaper work in ]Dothan, Alabama
Dothan () is a city in Dale, Henry, and Houston counties and the Houston county seat in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is Alabama's eighth-largest city, with a population of 71,072 at the 2020 census. It is near the state's southeastern corner, ...
, also in the southeastern corner of the state. W.T. Hall was editor of the Dothan ''Eagle'' from 1905 to 1924 (his death) and Grover started work under him in 1905.[ There he was a ]printer's devil
A printer's devil was a young apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type. Notable writers including Ambrose Bierce, Benjamin Franklin, Walt Whitman, and Mark Twain served ...
; from 1907 to 1910 he worked in editorial positions at the ''Enterprise Ledger'' ( Enterprise, AL), ''Dothan Daily Siftings'', '' Selma Times'', and at the ''Pensacola Journal
The '' Pensacola News Journal'' is a daily morning newspaper serving Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida. It is Northwest Florida's most widely read daily.
The ''News Journal'' is owned by Gannett, a national media holding company tha ...
'', where he wrote editorials
An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, such ...
in 1910.[ That year he moved to be associate editor of the ''Montgomery Advertiser'' in the state capital, where he married in 1912, became chief editor in 1926, and was appointed probate judge in 1933.][
Today the ''Montgomery Advertiser'' says that it "waged war on the resurgent ]Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
" during the 1920s. Hall won the annual Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing
The Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing is one of the fourteen American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Journalism. It has been awarded since 1917 for distinguished editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style, ...
in 1928 for that work.[ The official citation specified "his editorials against gangsterism, floggings and racial and religious intolerance."]["Editorial Writing"]
The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-07. Hall had previously supported the Ku Klux Klan until it challenged the state's dominant political establishment, the Big Mule/Black Belt coalition, in the election of 1926.[
Hall endorsed ]Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928.
The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...
for U.S. President in 1928 (against Hoover).[ He was a friend of ]H.L. Mencken
Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, cultural critic, and scholar of American English. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, ...
, editor of ''The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'', and they exchanged many letters, some of which "inspired Hall to think critically about the South".[ Mencken did not support democracy but theirs was "a remarkable coincidence of views" on less political matters, according to the Hall family biographer (quoted in the review).][
Late in the 1930s, Hall argued for release of the black Scottsboro Boys][ who were commonly defended only in the North.
]
The Egregious Gentile
On December 4, 1938, the ''Advertiser'' published Hall's editorial "The Egregious Gentile Called to Account".[ It carried the subtitle: "Clinical notes on his lack of gallantry and sportsmanship, his bad mental habits, his tactlessness, his lack of imagination, his poor discernment, his faults as citizen and neighbor, his gullibility and arrogance." Hall observed that "1,000,001 articles and books" have defended the Jew. "Fortunately he does not stand in need of defense. But I can think of 100 reasons why his Gentile brother, usually ignored by critics, invites and deserves arraignment before the bar of his own conscience. ... The earth swarms with men who think they are experts on the Jew. Nobody attempts a critical estimate of the Gentile as a Gentile. ... I, for one, marvel at this escape of the Gentile from accountability and justice." He concluded that in order to save "the lovely pillars of civilization we shall have to purge ourselves. That striding Colossus known as the Nordic Gentile must be born again."][
"The Egregious Gentile" was published in the U.S. ]Congressional Record
The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Inde ...
on January 17, 1939.["The egregious gentile called into account" (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1939). 13 p. 23 cm]
Harvard Library catalog record
Retrieved 2013-11-08. It was issued by the New York City League for Industrial Democracy The League for Industrial Democracy (LID) was founded as a successor to the Intercollegiate Socialist Society in 1921. Members decided to change its name to reflect a more inclusive and more organizational perspective.
Background Intercollegiate So ...
as pages 27–40 of a 40-page pamphlet, with a longer article by the editor of ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
''.
* "The Jewish refugee problem", by Bruce Bliven, and "The egregious Gentile called to account", by Grover C. Hall (New York: League for Industrial Democracy, copyright 1939)
The pamphlet opened with a two-page dedication to the recently deceased Baruch Charney Vladeck
Baruch Charney Vladeck (born Baruch Nachman Charney; January 13, 1886 – October 30, 1938) was an American labor leader, manager of ''The Jewish Daily Forward'' for twenty years, and a member of the New York City Council.
Biography
Early years
...
and was sold for 15 cents.
Family
Hall married Claudia English in 1912 and they had one son.[ His wife suffered an emotional breakdown in 1929 and Hall died of a bleeding ulcer in 1941 (from a scholarly review of the family biography, ''An Alabama Newspaper Tradition'').][
Grover Cleveland Hall, Jr. (February 10, 1915 – September 24, 1971) was educated in the Montgomery public schools and worked seven years in ''Advertiser'' reporting and writing positions before ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
military service. In the United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...
from 1942 to 1945, he contributed some articles to the ''Advertiser'' and ''Alabama Journal'' from England. He was a ''Montgomery Advertiser'' editor after the war, and editor-in-chief from 1956 to 1971.[ Or from 1948 until fired in 1966.][ He also authored the book "1000 Destroyed" about the 4th Fighter Group of the US Army Air Corps. Hall allied with ]George C. Wallace
George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...
in 1958 and was preparing to be director of publications for the Wallace organization when he died in 1971.[ After the ]16th Street Baptist Church
The 16th Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. In 1963, the church was bombed by Ku Klux Klan members. The bombing killed four young girls in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The church is stil ...
bombing of 1963, Hall wrote that Wallace had no need to apologize for the violence he had encouraged by his call for resistance to court-ordered desegregation. Instead, he wrote, it was President John Kennedy who "inflamed the Negroes during the recent trouble by rehearsing their historic grievances. He may also have inflamed him who finally planted the dynamite at the church."
See also
References
External links
* (one belongs to his father Grover C. Hall)
*
Library of Congress and WorldCat records nominally for the son (1915–1971) actually pertain to both Grover C. Halls and the family.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Grover Cleveland 1
1888 births
1941 deaths
People from Henry County, Alabama
American newspaper editors
Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing winners
Writers from Montgomery, Alabama
Date of death missing
Place of death missing
Journalists from Alabama