Harold Wayne Greenhaw (February 17, 1940 – May 31, 2011) was an American writer and journalist. The author of 22 books who chronicled changes in the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

from the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

to the rise of a competitive Republican Party, he is known for his works on 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 ...

and the exposition of the

My Lai Massacre My or MY may refer to: Arts and entertainment * My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station * Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe * ''My'' (album), by Edyta Górniak * ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon Business * Market ...

of 1968. Greenhaw wrote for various Alabamian newspapers and magazines, worked as the state's tourism director, and was considered "a strong voice for his native state".

Biography

Born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

, Greenhaw and his family moved to

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population of 1 ...

when he was ten. He attended Tuscaloosa High School, and at age fourteen contracted

polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...

and spent the better part of a year in a body cast. During this time he read

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...

and

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...

and decided to become a writer. He enrolled at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...

at Tuscaloosa and studied under the creative writing professor

Hudson Strode Hudson Strode (October 31, 1892 – September 22, 1976) was an author and professor of creative writing at the University of Alabama. He taught at the University of Alabama from 1916 until his retirement in 1963. His creative writing classes ...

. He wrote for ''The Montgomery Journal'' (which was later incorporated into 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 ...

'') and helped break the story of the indictment of

William Calley William Laws Calley Jr. (born June 8, 1943) is a former American army officer and war criminal convicted by court-martial for the premeditated killings of 200 to 400 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the Mỹ Lai massacre on March 16, 1968, d ...

for murder on September 12, 1969; Greenhaw was one of only a few people who spent time with Calley in that time, having him over at his house 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 ...

. The story earned him 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 1973. He wrote for and edited the ''Alabama Magazine'' in the 1980s, and wrote 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 ...

'' and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''. From 1993 to 1994, he served as Alabama's state tourism director under Democratic

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

James Folsom Jr., and was awarded the

Harper Lee Award The Harper Lee Award for Alabama's Distinguished Writer of the Year is an annual award recognizing a writer who was born in Alabama or has spent their formative years there. It is named after Harper Lee, whose ''To Kill A Mockingbird'' has sold ove ...

for Alabama's Distinguished Writer in 2006. His papers are held in

Auburn Montgomery Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM) is a public university in Montgomery, Alabama. Established by an act of the Alabama Legislature in 1967, it is governed by the Auburn University Board of Trustees as a member of the Auburn University system. ...

's library. Greenhaw died on May 31, 2011, in Birmingham from complications during heart surgery.

Work

His book ''Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama'' was hailed as "an important addition to the civil rights record"; the book is "a scholarly account based on interviews, court records, and newspaper articles" that has "readability and poignancy".

Greenhaw navigates through the explosive events that spurred a sea change in race relations, encompassing both the villains-e.g., Robert "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss, who supplied the explosives responsible for many of the bombings, including the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 1963-and the numerous heroes, such as the sole early black lawyers in Selma, J.L. Chestnut Jr., and Orzell Billingsley; attorney Charles Morgan in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
; the intrepid Freedom Fighters, demonstrators and student writers for the Southern Courier; and Morris "Bubba" Dees Jr., who moved from representing racists to ardent civil-rights lawyer and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The author skillfully weaves a rich historical tapestry from his deeply engaged, firsthand observations.

He co-wrote with Donnie Williams ''The Thunder of Angels: The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the People Who Broke the Back of Jim Crow''. Williams and Greenhaw "expose the reader to lesser-known figures" of the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...

, "bring ngto life the boycott that catapulted the nation into the civil rights era, portraying the personal sacrifices and heroism of ordinary people". Among his friends were a number of notables who were active in the civil rights movement, including Judge

Frank M. Johnson Frank Minis Johnson Jr. (October 30, 1918 – July 23, 1999) was a United States district judge and United States Circuit Judge serving 1955 to 1999 on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, United States Court of A ...

, and notable Alabama professors and writers such as William Bradford Huie,

Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926February 19, 2016) was an American novelist best known for her 1960 novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird''. It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Lee has received numero ...

, Don Noble,

Rick Bragg Rick Bragg (born July 26, 1959) is an American journalist and writer known for non-fiction books, especially those about his family in Alabama. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 recognizing his work at ''The New York Times''. Early life Bragg wa ...

, and

Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...

. In his book on

George 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 ...

, ''George Wallace and the Defeat of the American Left'', "Greenhaw portrays Wallace as a surprisingly intelligent man whose worst flaw is not racism (or even cynicism) but egocentricity".

Select bibliography

*''The Making of a Hero: A Behind-the-Scenes View of the Lt William Calley Affair'' (Louisville: Touchstone, 1971) *''Elephants in the cottonfields: Ronald Reagan and the new Republican South'' (New York City: Macmillan, 1982) *''Fighting the Devil in Dixie: How Civil Rights Activists Took on the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama'' (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2011)

References

External links

Guide to the papers of Wayne Greenhaw
at

Wayne Greenhaw
in the ''Encyclopedia of Alabama'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenhaw, Wayne 1940 births 2011 deaths People from Sheffield, Alabama American male journalists Nieman Fellows The New York Times writers University of Alabama alumni Writers from Montgomery, Alabama People with polio Journalists from Alabama