Thomas Grey Wicker (June 18, 1926 – November 25, 2011) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

. He was a political reporter and columnist for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

Background and education

Wicker was born in

Hamlet, North Carolina Hamlet is a city in Richmond County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 6,042 at the 2020 census. History The area in Richmond County which presently includes Hamlet was originally known as Sandhills. The Wilmington, Charlotte & ...

. He was a graduate of the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

. He won a

Nieman Fellowship The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University awards multiple types of fellowships. Nieman Fellowships for journalists A Nieman Fellowship is an award given to journalists by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1957. In 1993, he returned to Harvard, where he was a fellow at

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

Career

''The New York Times''

Wicker began working in professional journalism in 1949, as editor of the small-town ''Sandhill Citizen'' in

Aberdeen, North Carolina Aberdeen is a town in Moore County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 6,350 at the 2010 census. History Scottish emigrants were the first Europeans to settle the area beginning in 1745. They were drawn to the area by bountiful ...

. By the early 1960s, he had joined ''

''. At the ''Times'', he became well known as a political reporter; among other accomplishments, he wrote the paper's November 23, 1963 lead story of the

assassination of President Kennedy John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle wi ...

, having ridden in a press bus in the

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

motorcade that accompanied Kennedy. Wicker was a shrewd observer of the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

scene. In that capacity, his influential "In The Nation" column ran in the ''Times'' from 1966 through 1992. In an exit-interview Q & A with fellow ''Times'' reporter

R. W. Apple Raymond Walter Apple Jr. (November 20, 1934 – October 4, 2006), known as Johnny Apple but bylined as R.W. Apple Jr., was a correspondent and associate editor at ''The New York Times'', where he wrote on a variety of subjects, most notably polit ...

, he reflected on one primary lesson of his years in the capital. Apple asked whether Wicker had "any heroes" in political life. ::I think it tends to work the other way. Which doesn't mean that I look at all those people with contempt—quite the opposite. But the journalist's perspective makes you see the feet of clay and the warts, and that's a good thing. I found them in many cases to be truly engaging human beings and admirable persons but not really, in the long run, impeccable heroes, or even just heroes without the "impeccable." We should try to see people as clearly as we can. Then if a hero does come into view, why, we can give him his due.

Books

Wicker's 1975 book ''A Time to Die: The Attica Prison Revolt'', which recounted the

events Event may refer to: Gatherings of people * Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion * Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest * Event management, the organization of ev ...

at the

Attica Correctional Facility Attica Correctional Facility is a maximum security campus New York State prison in the Attica (town), New York, Town of Attica, New York (state), New York, operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. It w ...

Attica, New York Attica is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Wyoming County, New York, Wyoming County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 7,702 as of 2010. The Town of Attica is on the northern boundary of the county ...

, during September 1971, received an

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the bes ...

from the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the Edgar Award ...

for Best Fact Crime book. He is also the author of several books about U.S. presidents, including ''Kennedy Without Tears: The Man Beneath the Myth'' (1964), ''JFK & LBJ: The Influence of Personality Upon Politics'' (1966), and ''One of Us: Richard Nixon and the American Dream'' (1991). Other volumes Wicker penned include ''Facing the Lions'' (1973), a novel about a presidential campaign involving a candidate modeled on Sen.

Estes Kefauver Carey Estes Kefauver (; July 26, 1903 – August 10, 1963) was an American politician from Tennessee. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949 and in the Senate from 1949 until his d ...

; ''Unto This Hour'' (1984), a novel of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, during the

Second Battle of Bull Run The Second Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Second Manassas was fought August 28–30, 1862, in Prince William County, Virginia, as part of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of the Northern Virginia Campaign waged by Confederate ...

(1862), ''Tragic Failure: Racial Integration in America'' (1996) and ''Shooting Star : The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy'' (2006). In addition, Wicker penned three standalone detective novels under the pseudonym “Paul Connolly”: ''Get Out of Town'' (1951), ''Tears Are for Angels''Simon, Tom
"Tear Are for Angels."
''Paperback Warrior'', January 21, 2019. (1952), and ''So Far, So Evil'' (1955).

Politics

Wicker's work earned him a place on the

master list of Nixon political opponents Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

. He wrote the essay on

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

for the book ''Character Above All: Ten Presidents from FDR to George Bush'' (1995). Wicker was mentioned in a ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

'' report from the 1970s which detailed how, along with other journalists and members of Congress who supported

desegregation busing Race-integration busing in the United States (also known simply as busing, Integrated busing or by its critics as forced busing) was the practice of assigning and student transport, transporting students to schools within or outside their local s ...

, Wicker and the others nevertheless sent their children to DC private schools.

NSA monitoring of Wicker's communications

In a secret operation code-named "

Project MINARET Project MINARET was a domestic espionage project operated by the National Security Agency (NSA), which, after intercepting electronic communications that contained the names of predesignated US citizens, passed them to other government law enforcem ...

," the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

(NSA) monitored the communications of leading Americans, including Wicker and other prominent U.S. journalists, Senators

Frank Church Frank Forrester Church III (July 25, 1924 – April 7, 1984) was an Americans, American politician and lawyer. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Idah ...

and

Howard Baker Howard Henry Baker Jr. (November 15, 1925 June 26, 2014) was an American politician and diplomat who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1967 to 1985. During his tenure, he rose to the rank of Senate Minority Leader and then ...

, such civil rights leaders as

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

, and prominent U.S. athletes who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam.''The Guardian'', 26 Sept. 2013,
Declassified NSA Files Show Agency Spied on Muhammad Ali and MLK
A review by NSA of the NSA's Minaret program concluded that Minaret was "disreputable if not outright illegal."

Death

Wicker died from an apparent heart attack, on November 25, 2011.

References

External links

Ubben Lecture at DePauw University; March 12, 1993
via PBS. * *
Tom Wicker papers
Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wicker, Tom 1926 births 2011 deaths American male journalists American historical novelists Edgar Award winners The New York Times writers Nieman Fellows Novelists from North Carolina People from Hamlet, North Carolina People from Rochester, Vermont 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male novelists 20th-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers