The Smell of Burning Crosses: An Autobiography of a Mississippi Newspaperman

Journalist Ira Harkey (1918-2006) risked it all when he advocated for James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi as the first African American student in 1962.

Preceded by a legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court and violent, deadly rioting, Meredith’s admission constituted a pivotal moment in civil rights history. At the time, Harkey was editor of the Chronicle in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where he published pieces in support of Meredith and the integration of Ole Miss. In 1963, Harkey won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing after firmly articulating his advocacy of change.

Originally published in 1967, this book is Harkey’s memoir of the crisis and what it was like to be a white integrationist editor in fiercely segregationist Mississippi. He recounts conversations with University of Mississippi officials and the Ku Klux Klan’s attempts to intimidate him and muzzle his work. The memoir’s title refers to a burning cross set on the lawn of his home, which occurred in addition to the shot fired at his office.

Reprinted for the fifth time, this book features a new introduction by historian William Hustwit.

Ira Harkey was born in New Orleans in 1918. He served as editor of the Pascagoula Chronicle during the integration of the University of Mississippi in 1962, and his opinion and editorial writing won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1963. Harkey wrote three other books and lectured at several universities before his death in 2006. William Hustwit is associate professor of history at Birmingham-Southern College and author of James J. Kilpatrick: Salesman for Segregation and Integration Now: ＂Alexander v. Holmes＂ and the End of Jim Crow Education.