Karl Fleming (August 30, 1927 – August 11, 2012) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

who made a significant contribution to the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

through his work for

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

magazine in the 1960s. Fleming was born in Newport News, Virginia in 1927.

Early life

When he was a baby, his father died. His mother remarried and had a daughter with her new husband. At the age of 6, his stepfather died and soon after his mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Fleming and his half sister were forced to go into an orphanage. Fleming has claimed that his experiences as a young boy in the orphanage encouraged a hatred of bullies and a support for the underdog that influenced his position on the civil rights struggle.Fleming, Karl, Son of the Rough South: An Uncivil Memoir (New York, NY: Public Affairs, 2005)

Education

Fleming attended college for two years and in 1945 joined the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Career

After his serving in the Navy, Fleming worked at local newspapers and eventually worked his way up to becoming a reporter for

The Atlanta Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

Magazine. In 1961, having worked as a stringer for

for a number of months, he was hired by the magazine as a permanent correspondent in their Atlanta Bureau when

Bill Emerson Norvell William Emerson (January 1, 1938 – June 22, 1996) was an American politician. He served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Missouri from 1981 until his death from lung cancer in Bethesda, Maryland in ...

, formerly Atlanta Bureau Chief, was promoted. During his career as a journalist, Fleming risked his life covering James Meredith's entry into the

University of Mississippi The University of Mississippi ( byname Ole Miss) is a public research university that is located adjacent to Oxford, Mississippi, and has a medical center in Jackson. It is Mississippi's oldest public university and its largest by enrollment ...

and also in 1964 when he covered the deaths of three civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi. After a brief stint at the Houston Bureau, Fleming was promoted to chief of Newsweek's Los Angeles Bureau. Whilst in this post, Fleming not only covered the Watts riots of 1965 but was also severely beaten during a later flare-up of tension in LA's southern black neighborhood in 1966. In 1972 two men used counterfeit 20-dollar bills printed with DB Cooper serial numbers to swindle $30,000 from Karl Fleming who was then working for Newsweek in exchange for an interview with a man they falsely claimed was the hijacker.

Personal life

Fleming's first wife was Sandra Sisk and his second wife was Anne Taylor Fleming. He has four sons named Chas, David, Russell, and Mark and eight grandchildren. Sisk died in 2007.

Death

He died at his

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

home in 2012 of respiratory complications at the age of 84.

Bibliography

* ''The First Time: Famous People Tell about Their First Sexual Experience'' (1975), with Anne Taylor Fleming. Simon & Schuster * ''Son Of The Rough South: An Uncivil Memoir'' (2005) review at NPR
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, Karl Newsweek people 1927 births 2012 deaths American male journalists