19 Facts About Harry Ashmore

Harry Scott Ashmore was an American journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials in 1957 on the school integration conflict in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Harry Ashmore attended Greenville Senior High School and Clemson Agricultural College where he graduated with a degree in general science in 1937.

Harry Ashmore showed an early ability in journalism, having served as editor of the student newspapers at both Greenville High School and Clemson College.

In 1940, Harry Ashmore married Barbara Edith Laier, a physical education teacher at Furman University.

Harry Ashmore was accepted for a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University in 1941.

In 1947 Harry Ashmore was recruited to be the editorial writer at the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Harry Ashmore soon became the executive editor at the paper and gained a reputation as a moderate-to-liberal thinker.

Harry Ashmore spoke to the governors on civil rights, a contentious subject in southern states, and newspapers around the United States reprinted the speech or excerpts from it.

Harry Ashmore wrote the first of his eleven books in 1954.

Also in 1954, Harry Ashmore came to the aid of Orval Faubus, who was running for Governor of Arkansas.

In 1955, Harry Ashmore took a leave of absence for a year to work on Adlai Stevenson's presidential campaign.

Faubus defied the court order, bur Harry Ashmore editorialized for compliance with the law, which ended the friendship between them.

Harry Ashmore became a rallying point for moderates and liberals in Arkansas and a figure of hatred for segregationists, who labeled him a carpetbagger.

In 1959 Harry Ashmore left the Arkansas Gazette and moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he joined the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.

Harry Ashmore served as President of the Center from 1969 to 1974.

In 1967 and 1968 Harry Ashmore traveled to North Vietnam with Bill Baggs on a private peace mission.

Harry Ashmore speaks about his experiences in the 1968 documentary film In the Year of the Pig.

In 1989, Harry Ashmore published Unseasonable Truth: The Life of Robert Maynard Hutchins.

Harry Ashmore died in Santa Barbara, California on January 20,1998.