John Herbers (1923–2017)

John Norton Herbers Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee on November 4, 1923. During World War II, he was a combat infantryman in the Pacific. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Emory University in 1949 and began his career as a reporter-city editor for The Morning Star of Greenwood, toon meer Mississippi. In 1951, he joined The Jackson Daily News as a political and state reporter. In 1953 the United Press hired him to be the Jackson bureau chief responsible for state coverage. In 1955, he covered the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till as well as the trial of two suspects whose swift acquittal by an all-white jury shocked much of the nation. He studied American history at Harvard University on a Nieman fellowship in 1960-1961. In 1962, he went to Washington for United Press International to cover the Labor and Justice Departments. He was hired by The New York Times in 1963 and worked there for 24 years. He reported on the passage and enforcement of civil rights laws, the rising influence of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., antiwar protests, the 1968 presidential campaign and the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Watergate scandal and the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. He retired from The Times in 1987. He wrote several books including The Lost Priority, The Black Dilemma, No Thank You, Mr. President, and The New Heartland. He died on March 17, 2017 at the age of 93. (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder