Karl Fleming (1927–2012)

The author was born in Newport News, VA but from age eight to seventeen, he lived at a rather stark church orphanage. Following a few years in the Navy and then a brief stint at Appalachian State Teachers College, Fleming dropped out to begin a career in journalism as a court and police reporter in Wilson, NC. He moved on to the Atlanta Constitution and joined Newsweek in 1960 as a correspondent. For the next five years, Fleming was in the thick of civil rights events covering James Meredith's enrollment at Ole Miss, Bull Connor and the marches and church bombing in Birmingham, Gov. George Wallace's school door stand in Tuscaloosa, AL, and the murders of three volunteer voters' rights workers in Philadelphia, MS. Listen to an interview of the author by Tavis Smiley, then at PBS ( http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200507/20050713.html Karl Fleming, July 13, 2005). In 1965 Fleming became the LA Bureau chief. While covering the 1966 Watts riot, he was severely beaten. This memoir gives his unique perspectives to a turbulent era. Learn more at the NPR Fresh Air program: Civil Rights Reporter Karl Fleming: 'Son of the Rough South' http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4760600 (lj)… (meer)