A. M. Secrest

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrew McDowd Secrest
BornSeptember 15, 1923
Monroe, North Carolina
DiedApril 17, 2010 (aged 86)
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
OccupationJournalist
SpouseAnn Louise Eastman

Andrew McDowd "Mac" Secrest Jr. (September 15, 1923 – April 17, 2010), known professionally as A. M. Secrest, was an award-winning American newspaper publisher, editor, and civil rights advocate. He served as a federal mediator for the Community Relations Service under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Early life and education[edit]

Secrest was born on September 15, 1923, in Monroe, North Carolina.[1] He attended Duke University, where he earned a B.A. in 1944, a Master's degree in 1970, and a PhD in 1972.[1][2]

Journalism[edit]

After serving as an officer aboard the USS Hammann (DE-131) during World War II, Secrest worked for several newspapers including The Laurinburg Exchange and The Charlotte News.[1] In 1953, he became the owner and publisher of The Cheraw Chronicle, a weekly paper in northeastern South Carolina. His editorials opposing segregation and advocating for civil rights drew criticism and harassment, but also support.[3] During his tenure, the paper sustained its circulation and advertising revenue, and Secrest garnered local and national accolades for his journalism.[4][5]

Contribution to civil rights[edit]

In 1959, Secrest was appointed to South Carolina's State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.[6][7] During this period, Secrest joined the board of directors of Penn Community Services, Inc. (now Penn Center), where Martin Luther King Jr. and Southern Christian Leadership Conference members planned the March on Washington and the Poor People's Campaign.[8]

In June 1964, Secrest was appointed to the newly established Community Relations Service as a field conciliator, a role that sent him to different communities in the U.S. to help mediate racial disputes.[9][10] The behind-the-scenes work of the Community Relations Service under director LeRoy Collins is credited with helping deescalate tensions in Selma, Alabama, following the events of Sunday, March 7, 1965, when state troopers and possemen attacked unarmed civil rights demonstrators.[11] Hoping to avoid a repeat of "Bloody Sunday", President Johnson dispatched Collins and Secrest to Selma to meet with King about plans to resume the Selma-to-Montgomery march.[12][13] A compromise was negotiated: on March 9, King would lead demonstrators across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, hold a prayer meeting at the site of the Bloody Sunday violence, then turn the march back to Selma.[12][13] Collins and Secrest secured assurances from Alabama officials that they would not attack demonstrators this time.[14]

Officers stand in a line on the Edmund Pettus Bridge as demonstrators cross
Civil rights demonstrators crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965

Teaching career and retirement[edit]

After selling The Cheraw Chronicle in 1968, Secrest taught journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for five years.[1] From 1976 until he retired in 1985, he taught at North Carolina Central University, a historically black college in Durham.[15] In 2004, Secrest published a memoir, Curses and Blessings: Life and Evolution in the 20th Century South, which includes stories of his encounters with King, John F. Kennedy, Dizzy Gillespie, Richard Nixon, Strom Thurmond, and other notable figures of the time.[16]

Marriage and children[edit]

Secrest married Ann Louise Eastman, of Concord, New Hampshire, in 1948.[1] They had three children: David Kilton, Andrew Phillips, and Mary Ann.[17]

Death[edit]

In 2010, Secrest died in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, after complications from surgery for throat cancer.[1]

Honors and awards[edit]

Secrest received honors for his journalism and contributions to civil rights.[3] In 1957, he won the National Editorial Association's Herrick Editorial Award "for the most significant contribution to the extension and strengthening of democracy and individual liberties."[5] He was awarded the Sidney Hillman Foundation's Hillman Prize in 1958.[18] In 1960, he received a Nieman Fellowship, enabling him to study at Harvard University for a year.[19] As a journalism graduate student at Duke University, Secrest was named a Halstead Fellow in 1969 and received a Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship in 1970.[17]

In 2007, Secrest was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame in Chapel Hill.[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Secrest, anti-segregation SC editor, dies at 86". Associated Press. April 20, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
  2. ^ "Secrest to join N.C. faculty". The State. March 24, 1971. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "Passages: Andrew McDowd "Mac" Secrest Jr". Journalism & Mass Communication Educator. 65. Thousand Oaks: 91–92. Spring 2010. OCLC 649475520.
  4. ^ Newberry, Anthony Lake (1985). Without Urgency or Ardor: the South's Middle-of-the-Road Liberals and Civil Rights, 1945-1960 (Thesis). OCLC 12307564.
  5. ^ a b "2 Newsmen Trade Lock, Stock and Barrel for a Month". Fort Lauderdale News and Sentinel. March 15, 1949. p. 30.
  6. ^ "Civil Rights Body Named". The State. December 30, 1959.
  7. ^ "SC Advisory Committee Organizes". Asheville Citizen. December 30, 1959. p. 5.
  8. ^ "Penn Center - Reconstruction Era National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  9. ^ "Collins Fills 4 Top Civil Rights Posts". The Tampa Bay Times. January 15, 1965. p. 13.
  10. ^ "SC Native Appointed Deputy To CRS Chief". The New Journal and Guide. January 23, 1965. p. 1.
  11. ^ Faturechi, A. C. Thompson,Robert. "How a Key Federal Civil Rights Agency Was Sidelined as Historic Protests Erupted". ProPublica. Retrieved 2020-09-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ a b Kirk, John A. (2015). Martin Luther King Jr. London: Routledge. pp. 133–134. ISBN 9781138131002. OCLC 933449238.
  13. ^ a b Kiker, Douglas (March 10, 1965). "Showdown Averted by President". Boston Globe. p. 1. ProQuest 276313328. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
  14. ^ Levine, Bertram J. (2005). Resolving Racial Conflict: The Community Relations Service and Civil Rights, 1964-1989. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. pp. 64–66. ISBN 0826215580. OCLC 835374493.
  15. ^ "North Carolina Central University Mourns Loss of Champion of Civil Rights". US Fed News. April 22, 2010. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
  16. ^ Schwartz, Valarie (January 19, 2005). "Zeal and honesty mark life of retired journalist". Chapel Hill News. p. B3. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
  17. ^ a b Secrest, Andrew McDowd (1972). In black and white: Press opinion and race relations in South Carolina, 1954-1964 (PhD thesis). Duke University. p. 469.
  18. ^ "Hillman Awards Given: Ashmore Gets Prize for His Little Rock Editorials". New York Times. May 16, 1958. p. 50. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
  19. ^ "Newsmen Win Fellowships For Year of Harvard Study". The Christian Science Monitor. June 9, 1960. p. 9. ProQuest 510134450. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
  20. ^ "8 honored for work in media". News & Observer. April 2, 2007. Retrieved September 6, 2020.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A._M._Secrest&oldid=1186326370"