John Howard "Jack" Nelson (October 11, 1929 – October 21, 2009) was an American journalist. He was praised for his coverage of the

Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...

, in particular, and he was described by ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' editor Gene Roberts as "one of the most effective reporters in the civil rights era." He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960.

Youth

Nelson was born in

Talladega, Alabama Talladega (, also ) is the county seat of Talladega County, Alabama, United States. It was incorporated in 1835. At the 2020 census, the population was 15,861. Talladega is approximately east of one of the state’s biggest cities, Birmingham. ...

. His father ran a fruit store during the Great Depression. Nelson moved with his family to Georgia and eventually to

Biloxi, Mississippi Biloxi ( ; ) is a city in and one of two county seats of Harrison County, Mississippi, United States (the other being the adjacent city of Gulfport). The 2010 United States Census recorded the population as 44,054 and in 2019 the estimated popu ...

, where he graduated from Notre Dame High School in 1947.

Early career

After graduating from high school Nelson began his journalism career with the ''Biloxi Daily Herald''. There he earned the nickname 'Scoop' for his aggressive reporting. He then worked for the U.S. Army writing press releases before taking a job with the '' Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' in 1952. He won the Pulitzer for local reporting under deadline in 1960, citing "the excellent reporting in his series of articles on mental institutions in Georgia.""Local Reporting"
The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-06.

''Los Angeles Times''

Nelson joined the ''Los Angeles Times'' in 1965. He played an important role in uncovering the truth about the 1968

Orangeburg Massacre The Orangeburg massacre refers to the shooting of protesters by South Carolina Highway Patrol officers in Orangeburg, South Carolina, on the South Carolina State University campus on the evening of February 8, 1968. About 200 protesters had prev ...

, where South Carolina Highway Patrol officers shot and killed African-American students protesting racial segregation in

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. Nelson obtained the victims' medical records, which showed the police had shot some of the black students in the back of the head. In 1970 he wrote a story about how the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

and local police in Meridian, Mississippi shot two Ku Klux Klan members in a sting bankrolled by the local Jewish community. One of the Klan members, a woman, died in the ambush.

FBI Director The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a United States' federal law enforcement agency, and is responsible for its day-to-day operations. The FBI Director is appointed for a single ...

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation � ...

tried to kill the story, which appeared on the ''Los Angeles Times'' front page, by smearing Nelson, falsely, as an

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...

. In the early 1970s, Nelson led the LA Times's award-winning coverage of the

, and then served as the paper's

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Bureau Chief for 21 years, from 1975 to 1996. During that period, he was a frequent guest on television and radio news programs.

Death

Jack Nelson died of pancreatic cancer at his home in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

on October 21, 2009, ten days after his 80th birthday.

Notes

References

External links

*
"Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist Jack Nelson Dies at 80"
Associated Press via Yahoo News (October 21, 2009) * Jack Nelson, ''Scoop: The Evolution of a Southern Reporter'' (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2013) *
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Jack Nelson papers, 1940-2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Jack 20th-century American journalists American newspaper reporters and correspondents American male journalists Los Angeles Times people Journalists from Georgia (U.S. state) Journalists from Mississippi Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting winners People from Bethesda, Maryland People from Biloxi, Mississippi Deaths from cancer in Maryland Deaths from pancreatic cancer 1929 births 2009 deaths