RIP Bob Gordon

Man who was in the trenches during the Civil Rights era passes:

Former Clarion-Ledger editor/reporter who covered civil rights dies at 69
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Robert "Bob" Gordon, a former newspaper editor and reporter who documented the South's turbulent struggle for civil rights, has died. He was 69.
Gordon died Saturday from heart complications, according to an article in The Clarion-Ledger, the stateás largest newspaper. Gordon was the paperás managing editor in the 1980s.
Gordon was characterized as a professional with a compassionate personality that allowed him to properly cover the civil rights movement.
"Bob was significant at the time because he was part of that battalion of Southern reporters who decided to tell the civil rights story honestly," author Hank Klibanoff said. "That may sound simple, but back then it wasn't. Many didn't want to venture out onto the front line because of fear and because some didn't feel it was important to portray the lives of African Americans."
Klibanoff co-wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation, which features Gordon.
"He was cool about everything, the way a reporter should be. He always added a little humor with his stories, and that's how he approached life," said John Herbers, who worked with Gordon for United Press International wire service in the early 1960s.
Herbers said Gordon was intelligent, low key and professional, which was why he was so effective.
"Reporters were not that popular with segregationists, but he knew how to get along with people although he disagreed with them," he said.
In 1966, Gordon, a McComb native, was attacked and beaten by a mob while covering Grenada's first school desegregation case.
"We were always concerned for him, but he always managed to survive," said Gordon's brother, Jim Gordon.
Gordon began his career at the State-Times in Jackson after graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1960. He joined UPI in Atlanta in 1961.
In 1977, he became the managing editor of The Jackson Daily News after serving three years as metro editor of The News and Observer in Raleigh, N.C.
Gordon was named managing editor of The Clarion-Ledger in 1982.
From 1986 to 1987, Gordon served as executive editor of the Hattiesburg American until he suffered a massive heart attack.
"He was such a caring person along with being a hard-nosed newsman, which is something you donát see that often in this business," David Hampton, editorial director of The Clarion-Ledger said.
Gordon is survived by his wife of 40 years, Jimmie Ray. Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

 

Ditto on the RIP.

And a shameless plug here for The Race Beat, as good a book as I've read in some time.