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KERRVILLE, Texas, Oct 16, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and publisher Ira B. Harkey Jr. has died at a care facility in Texas from complications of Parkinson's disease.
The Tulane graduate and son of a wealthy New Orleans businessman was known for his editorials supporting racial integration at a time when such views were anathema in the U.S. South, The Los Angeles Times reports.
After serving in the Navy during World War II, Harkey worked as a reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune until 1949 when he purchased the Chronicle newspaper in Pascagoula, Miss., about 100 miles east of New Orleans.
Harkey shocked readers of the small-town paper with editorials supporting civil rights and backing the peaceful integration of the University of Mississippi.
The Pulitzer board awarded Harkey the prize for "his courageous editorials devoted to the processes of law and reason during the integration crisis in Mississippi in 1962."
Shortly after winning the Pulitzer, Harkey sold the paper and went on to write, teach and work in private industry.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
