Pascagoula newspaper legend Ira Harkey dies at 88

The Mississippi Press

Pulitzer prize winner, Ira B. Harkey Jr., 88, died Sunday from complications of Parkinson's disease at the Parson's Nursing Home in Kerrville, Texas. Harkey was surrounded by friends and family in his final moments.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete at press time, but a local memorial is possible according to friends and family.

When Harkey received the Pulitzer in 1963, he had been editor/publisher of The Chronicle Star (now The Mississippi Press) for 14 years. The Pulitzer Prize was awarded for his editorial writing during the integration of the University of Mississippi. His editorials were recognized as courageous and devoted to the processes of law and reason during the integration crisis in Mississippi in 1962.

"His work was the most significant and important of the time," said Jerry St. Pe?? Pascagoula. "He not only influenced me professionally, but personally. He was not just the publisher of a newspaper, he had the skills and the tools of the trade to reach the people in ways others just couldn't back then. It was not just about getting the paper out each day. It was about the people who read the paper each day. He rolled up his sleeves and he wrote."

St. Pe??s a young reporter for The Chronicle Star in 1958 and remembers the magnitude of what Harkey was trying to accomplish.

"If you really stop and think about it -- it's amazing," St. Pe??id. "Right in the height of the civil rights movement -- in '62 and '63 -- here was this little, small town newspaper winning a Pulitzer prize."

Harkey's editorials called for the peaceful admittance of James Meredith to Ole??ss and evoked outspoken criticism across the state, as well as violence.

St. Pe??id he doesn't remember being scared in a time when flaming crosses were left on the lawn of the newspaper in protest. Or when gun shots ricocheted throughout the building, but he does remember the threats vividly.

"Maybe I was too young to recognize the fear in what he was doing," St. Pe??id. "He was clearly the voice of the time and I was just honored to know him professionally and as a friend."

Edward King, who worked for Harkey the entire 14 years he published The Chronicle Star, said it was a terrible time in Mississippi history.

"It all started because he would not say who was black and who was white in his stories," King, a retired press foreman, said. "That's what people wanted and that's what started it."

King said Harkey was a conservative, serious-minded person who had one thing on his mind -- publishing a good paper each day.

"At work he was all business," King said. "But, when he relaxed he was very social. He was an easy-going, fine person to work for. As long as you did your job and you did it good, that's what mattered to him. He never tried to hold you back."

King said he remembers Harkey taking criticism from those within his own staff, too.

"Some people just didn't think what he was doing was right," King said. "Trying to say black people had the same rights as white people. But, he said that was their opinion and they could have it. He never did fire anyone over it. To him it was better to show them why he was right. No matter how hard it was."

King agreed with St. Pe??nd said he never remembered being scared.

"It was directed at him," King said. "And that's the way he wanted it. Things like that always happened at night when there was only a few around. And I still think it's ridiculous. Here, all these years later, people still feel the same way."

Harkey also published "The Smell of Burning Crosses" in 1967. He described the book in a 2004 article in the Tulane University Magazine:

"The sins of the press spread-eagled the whole sorry scene of racism in Mississippi. ...

"The press was the chief instrument through which politicians fanned the hatred of ignorant whites to such a heat that the better-educated white, our of fear for his very skin, stood mute. Thus the proud profession of journalism degenerated into an agency for the propagation of the ideals of the lowest elements in our society."

Harkey, who served his country in the Navy in World War II, bought The Chronicle Star in 1949.

After bringing the paper from a weekly to a twice-a-week edition and finally to a daily, he sold the paper.

"I think it all finally took its toll on him," King said. "He was so sad the day he sold the paper."

He went on to teach journalism at Ohio State University, then at the University of Alaska and joined the staff at Columbia.

St. Pe??d Harkey stayed in touch even after he left and moved to Kerrville, Texas, with his wife, Virgia.

"We've stayed close all these years," St. Pe??id. "I have boxes full on memories of my dear friend. His death is a loss to his family and everyone who knew him."

Reporter Cherie Ward can be reached at cward@themississippipress.com or (228) 934-1442.