John Bertram Oakes (April 23, 1913 – April 5, 2001) was an

iconoclastic Iconoclasm (from Ancient Greek, Greek: grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, wikt:κλάω, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών + wi ...

and influential U.S. journalist known for his early commitment to the environment, civil rights, and

opposition to the Vietnam War Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War (before) or anti-Vietnam War movement (present) began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social mov ...

Background

John Bertram Oakes was born on April 23, 1913, in

Elkins Park, Pennsylvania Elkins Park is an unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is split between Cheltenham and Abington Townships in the northern suburbs outside of Philadelphia, which it borders along Cheltenham Avenue roughly from Ce ...

, the second son of George Washington Ochs Oakes and Bertie Gans. He is regarded as the creator of the modern op-ed page and was editor of the ''New York Times'' editorial page from 1961 to 1976. His uncle was ''

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 ...

'' publisher Adolph Ochs. Oakes attended the Collegiate School and later

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

(A.B., 1934), where he was

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...

of his class and graduated magna cum laude. He then became a Rhodes Scholar (A.B., A.M., Queens College, Oxford, 1936).

Career

On his return to the United States in 1936, he joined the ''Trenton Times'' as a reporter. A supporter of

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

's New Deal, he moved to Washington in 1937, where he became a political reporter for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. In Washington, he covered the U.S. Congress, the Dies Un-American Activities Committee and F.D.R.'s 1940 campaign. When the United States joined

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in 1941, Oakes entered the Army as a private in the infantry. His training at

Camp Ritchie Fort Ritchie at Cascade, Maryland was a military installation southwest of Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania and southeast of Waynesboro in the area of South Mountain. Following the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission, it closed in 19 ...

and connection to the

Ritchie Boys The Ritchie Boys were a special collection of soldiers, with sizable numbers of German-Austrian recruits, of Military Intelligence Service officers and enlisted men of World War II who were trained at Camp Ritchie in Washington County, Maryland. ...

allowed him to be recruited into the O.S.S. (the Office of Strategic Services), and as a result he served two years in Europe, capturing and "turning" enemy agents still in communication with the Nazis. In recognition of his service there he received the Bronze Star, the Croix de Guerre, the Medaille de Reconnaissance and the Order of the British Empire. He ended the war with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

''New York Times''

Immediately after his discharge in 1946, he joined the "family paper" as editor of the Sunday ''New York Times'' "Review of the Week." Three years later, he became a member of the

editorial board The editorial board is a group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take. Mass media At a newspaper, the editorial board usually consists of the editorial page editor, ...

. While an editorial page writer, in 1951 he convinced the paper's editors to let him write a monthly column on the then relatively neglected subject of the environment - the first such column at a major national newspaper. He also wrote for other areas of the paper, such as the

book review __NOTOC__ A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly revie ...

and the Sunday magazine. His memorable profile of Joseph McCarthy ("This Is the Real,the Lasting Damage," March 7, 1954) became the basis of an

Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...

newspaper column
and was subsequently widely reprinted. His career on the editorial board, first as a writer (1949–1961) and then as editorial page editor (1961–1976) spanned the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford administrations. As editorial page editor, he appointed the first woman in fifty years ( Ada Louise Huxtable), and the first African American ( Roger Wilkins), to the editorial board. Oakes was famously out of step with his more conservative cousin,

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Sr. (February 5, 1926 – September 29, 2012) was an American publisher and a businessman. Born into a prominent media and publishing family, Sulzberger became publisher of ''The New York Times'' in 1963 and chairman of t ...

, who became publisher in 1963, two years after Oakes' appointment to run the editorial page. Their most noteworthy confrontation occurred in 1976, when the ''Times'' had to decide who it would endorse as New York's junior senator in the upcoming Democratic party primary. Sulzberger wanted Daniel Patrick Moynihan, but Oakes preferred

Bella Abzug Bella Savitzky Abzug (July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998), nicknamed "Battling Bella", was an American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women's movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steine ...

. Sulzberger overruled Oakes, but allowed him to write a printed rebuttal. But according to

Harrison Salisbury Harrison Evans Salisbury (November 14, 1908 – July 5, 1993), was an American journalist and the first regular ''New York Times'' correspondent in Moscow after World War II. Biography Salisbury was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He gradu ...

, writing in '' Without Fear or Favor'', Sulzberger judged Oakes' response to be too emotional and divisive. Oakes eventually had to content himself with an unprecedented one-sentence dissent, which appeared as a "Letter to the Editor"—essentially a letter to himself—on the ''Times'' editorial page on September 11, 1976, and which in its entirety read: "As Editor of the Editorial Page of ''The Times'', I must express disagreement with the endorsement in today's editorial columns of Mr. Moynihan over four other candidates in the New York State Democratic primary contest for the United States Senate." According to the ''Village Voice'' article on Oakes' death (May 1, 2001), "the ''Times'' was credited with giving Moynihan his one percent margin of victory." Shortly afterward, Sulzberger replaced Oakes as editorial page editor with

Max Frankel Max Frankel (born April 3, 1930) is an American journalist. He was executive editor of ''The New York Times'' from 1986 to 1994. Life and career Frankel was born in Gera, Germany. He was an only child, and his family belonged to a Jewish minorit ...

, who described his approach to politics, in contrast to Oakes', as "more fun." Journalist John L. Hess said on Oakes' death in 2002 that after his departure, "the editorials never recovered." On his retirement from the editorial page, he became a contributing columnist to the op-ed page, writing primarily on domestic politics, foreign affairs, human rights, civil liberties, and the environment.

Areas of focus

In 1961, the year Oakes was appointed editor of the editorial page, Harper and Brothers published his book ''The Edge of Freedom: A Report on Neutralism and New Forces in Sub-saharan Africa and Eastern Europe''. But his principal areas of concern were human rights and civil liberties, manifested by anti-McCarthyism and consistent support of the civil rights movement; strong and early criticism of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

(1963), making the ''Times'' one of the few papers to take such a stand and leading to personal attacks on him by President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

Dean Rusk David Dean Rusk (February 9, 1909December 20, 1994) was the United States Secretary of State from 1961 to 1969 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, the second-longest serving Secretary of State after Cordell Hull from the F ...

and others; and advocacy of conservation and protection of natural resources. In 1966, he was awarded the

George Polk Award The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...

for bringing to the editorial page "a brilliance, an intensity and a perceptiveness" that made it "the most vital and influential journalistic voice in America." He was nothing if not persistent. After pushing the idea for ten years with a succession of publishers, he initiated the first modern op-ed (so called because it appeared "opposite the editorial page"; the belief that the phrase stands for "opinion"-"editorial" is incorrect) page on September 21, 1970, on which the op-ed page of other American newspapers is modeled. As he wrote in introducing the page, his basic motive was to provide a window on the ideas and opinions of non-journalists. The appearance of ''Times'' columnists on the new op-ed page (limited to one or two per day in the early years) reflected merely the need to create more space for "Letters to the Editor" on the editorial page—as he later wrote, "again in the interests of broadening the opportunity for expression of outside opinion in the ''Times''." In a 2010 interview, op-ed editor David Shipley referred to the page as Oakes' "brainchild."

Death

John B. Oakes died on April 5, 2001, in Manhattan. Wrote Hess, in his obituary, "If people think of the ''Times'' today as a great newspaper and a liberal one, it’s largely an illusion, but Oakes believed in it and tried to make it true." Oakes died on April 5, 2001, in Manhattan.

Awards

In 1976, Oakes received the National Audubon Society's highest honor, the Audubon Medal. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1986. Two weeks before Oakes’ death in 2001 he was awarded a second

, for his "lifetime achievements."

Legacy

The John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism was established in 1994 by the

Natural Resources Defense Council The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a United States-based 501(c)(3) non-profit international environmental advocacy group, with its headquarters in New York City and offices in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Bo ...

as an annual prize for print journalists; it is now administered by the

Columbia University School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism sc ...

References

External links

Slate.com on Oakes' role in creating op-ed page

* ttps://journalism.columbia.edu/oakes John B. Oakes Award, Columbia University School of Journalism
''Village Voice'' article about death of Oakes

John B. Oakes papers
Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.
John B. Oakes papers at Wisconsin State Historical Society

September 2002 obituary in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oakes, John Bertram 1913 births 2001 deaths Princeton University alumni Jewish American writers The New York Times editors American male journalists 20th-century American journalists American Rhodes Scholars George Polk Award recipients Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford United States Army officers Sierra Club awardees Ritchie Boys 20th-century American Jews Members of the American Philosophical Society