Hoke Marion Norris (October 8, 1913 – July 8, 1977) was a

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journalist whose reporting during the Civil Rights Movement had a significant impact on popular opinion in Chicago. Born in 1913 in

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, Norris studied journalism at

Wake Forest College Wake Forest University (WFU) is a private university, private research university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1834, the university received its name from its original location in Wake Forest, North Carolina, Wake ...

. He married Edna Dees Norris of North Carolina and had one child, a daughter, Marion Dees Norris. His first journalism job was writing for the '' Daily Advance'' in Elizabeth City, NC, which he left to write for the Raleigh ''

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''. He then worked for the

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before joining the

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in 1942. When his tour of duty ended, he returned to AP. After studying at

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on a

Nieman Fellowship The Nieman Fellowship is a fellowship from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. It awards multiple types of fellowships. Nieman Fellowships for journalists The Nieman Fellowship is an award given to journalists by the Nieman ...

in 1950, Norris became a reporter and editor at the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...

''. Although he was literary editor, he took on a news reporter role during the Civil Rights Movement, and sent dispatches from the South. During the 1970s, he taught and was an administrator at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and was on the editorial board of the ''

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

''. Norris's literary career included the novels ''All the Kingdoms of the Earth'' (1956) and ''It's Not Far but I Don't Know the Way'' (1968), and the collection of essays ''We Dissent'' (1962). Hoke Norris died in 1977.

References

External links

Hoke Norris Papers
at

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Guide to the Hoke Norris Papers 1974-1977
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norris, Hoke 1913 births 1977 deaths 20th-century American journalists American male journalists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American novelists Chicago Sun-Times people Nieman Fellows Hoke People from Holly Springs, North Carolina United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II University of Chicago alumni University of Chicago faculty Wake Forest University alumni Journalists from Chicago Writers from North Carolina 20th-century American male writers