Jack Nelson (journalist)

Jack Nelson
Born	John Howard Nelson (1929-10-11)October 11, 1929 Talladega, Alabama, USA
Died	Bethesda, Maryland
Cause of death	Pancreatic cancer
Occupation	Journalist
Employer	Los Angeles Times

John Howard "Jack" Nelson (October 11, 1929 - October 21, 2009) was an American journalist. He was praised for his coverage of the Watergate scandal, in particular, and he was described by New York Times editor Gene Roberts as "one of the most effective reporters in the civil rights era." He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960.

Youth

Born in Talladega, Alabama, Nelson's father ran a fruit store during the Great Depression. He moved with his family to Georgia and eventually to Biloxi, Mississippi, 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."

Los Angeles Times

He joined the Los Angeles Times in 1965 and led its Washington, D.C. bureau for 21 years after being named bureau chief in 1975. He led the paper's coverage at the time of the Watergate scandal.

In 1970 Nelson wrote a story about how the Federal Bureau of Investigation and 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. The head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, tried to kill the story, which appeared on Page One, by smearing Nelson, falsely, as an alcoholic. Nelson played an important role in uncovering the truth about the Orangeburg Massacre. He discussed current events on television and radio news shows.

Death

Jack Nelson died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Bethesda, Maryland on October 21, 2009, aged 80.

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN
  • Interview with Nelson on Terror in the Night: The Klan's Campaign Against the Jews, Booknotes (February 7, 1993)
• "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)
• Jack Nelson at Library of Congress Authorities, with 11 catalog records