Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Sid Salter: West Point's Harris Family Cast a Long Shadow Over Mississippi Journalism

Third-generation Mississippi newspaper publisher William Henry (Billy) Harris, Jr., 70, died March 1 at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. A chapter closes on a rather remarkable family’s contribution to print journalism in this state with his passing.

Billy was only seven years my senior, but he signed one of the first journalism paychecks I earned as a sportswriter for The Starkville Daily News in 1979. While I was a student at Mississippi State, that job introduced me to journalism, printing, and the business side of newspapers.


As a publisher, Billy was not given to anger or outbursts but was exceedingly level in temperament and martini-dry in his humor. He treated the staff fairly and well.


Billy Harris was the son of William Henry Harris, Sr., and the grandson of Edgar G. Harris. Grandfather Edgar Harris founded newspapers in both West Point and Laurel, Mississippi, and Blytheville, Arkansas. Edgar was a past president of the Mississippi Press Association and later the MPA Hall of Fame.


Billy’s father, Henry Harris, took the reins of the family publishing business in 1953 when Edgar Harris died. Through then-modern printing technologies and other innovations and his work ethic, Henry built the family business to include publishing newspapers at both West Point and Starkville, and his West Point plant printed newspapers for Louisville, Houston, Macon, Eupora, and Aberdeen in addition to the West Point and Starkville daily newspapers.


Henry Harris was a past president and Hall of Famer in the MPA. His brother, Sid Harris, was publisher of the weekly Houston Times Post and a past president of MPA. Billy’s sister, Marie Harris Lambeth, also served as president of MPA.


Perhaps most famously in the summer of 1955, Henry Harris hired a 21-year-old Jewish Harvard graduate from New York City named David Halberstam as the 4,000-circulation Daily Times Leader newspaper in West Point’s only news reporter. Less than a decade later, at age 30, Halberstam would win the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished international reporting of the early years of America’s insurgence into Vietnam for The New York Times.


But in 1955, after the promise of a job at a much larger Jackson, Mississippi newspaper fell through, Halberstam was steered to the Harris family newspaper in West Point. According to members of the Harris family and Halberstam’s accounts, there was culture shock on both sides of that transaction.

Halberstam recounted the tale of his first meeting with Mrs. Beulah Ligon Harris – Henry Harris’ mother and Billy’s grandmother, to author James Fallows of The Atlantic in 2019: “‘She often came in on Saturday afternoon to look around, to make sure that everything was in order, and, if nothing else, to wash the floors of the newsroom … She was a small, heavily powdered woman; she was fearfully hardworking and equally devoted to her Baptist faith.’”


“‘You’re David, aren’t you?’” she asked.


“‘I said I was. ‘I don’t think I’m ever going to learn your last name,’” she announced.


“‘I said that was all right.


“‘Then she smiled and said, “‘The Lord Jesus Christ sent you here.’”


“‘I, the descendant of many centuries of illustrious rabbis, a line only recently broken by two or three generations of American renegades, looked at her in stunned surprise. “‘Of course, He did,’” she said. 


“‘Why else would you be here?’” 


“‘I could not argue, and with that, we became friends.’”


Years later, I met David Halberstam in Willie Morris’ Faculty Row bungalow in Oxford. He was a wise and formidable man who admired, appreciated and understood both Willie and Mississippi – but I suspect that understanding was born and significantly nurtured by Halberstam’s time with the Harris family in West Point.



Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jesus! Only Sid Salter would celebrate what Jews have done to the American Media!

Anonymous said...

No thanks, Sid. I simply cannot join you in joyously celebrating jewish “journalism”
SMH

Anonymous said...

I simply can’t imagine the sort of swiss cheese brain who would celebrate this nonsense. No wait I can. It’s the type of person who spends half a century making their living on a college campus!

Anonymous said...

Kingfish, why do you post this asinine drivel from Salter? He’s as bad as little Brian Stelter from CNN in his left-wing media bias and celebration of their own kind. All these media types can’t die off fast enough.

Anonymous said...

F$%K the media in all areas in every part of the world. THEY are the THEY. The great mystery is solved but it's to late.

Anonymous said...

What's up with the Jew Bashing, Kingfish...or allowing it? Never heard of the man.

Kingfish said...

Sometimes I allow people to show how stupid they really are and in this case, it's that guy and his anti-semitism.

Anonymous said...

9:45 : All of media isn't just owned by Jewish folks. Al Gore owned Al Jezera for years for gawds sake. Those folks above are ignorant I guess. Rupert is Australian I think. Lol, Ted Turner jewish ? No. Msnbc is "owned" by sevaral different companies. Lol, BNC is owned/founded by a white dude. Wild huh ?

Anonymous said...

@10:29
Not sure who you are replying too. Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner haven’t owned any media in decades.
What year do you think it is?
BTW your ignorance is really showing. Al Gore co-owned Current TV with Joel Hyatt Zylberberg. A shirt lived network which they sold to Al Jazeera, who converted those holding into Al Jazeera America.
Co-ownership like this is very common in media. You only remember the guys like Al Gore and Ted Turner. You never remember the other guy lurking in the shadows, rubbing his hands together and counting his shekels.

Anonymous said...

10:48 : The point was that all shades of humans have their dirty little hands in media. Race/religion comments are just dumb trolling.

Anonymous said...

It is hard to conceive of how moranic some folks can be. First off, this column wasn't promoting "Jews in Media", it was promoting the Harris family, which as was said pretty damn clear in the column, was a staunchly Baptist family. Just because there was a reference to a Jewish employee as part of the story, anyone who conflated the two obviously has a reading comprehension problem. Ergo, their opinion as to whether Salter's columns should be run is pretty damn worthless.

Secondly, the "JEW" that is mentioned as part of the story, Halberstam, wrote one of the most seminal books about the Vietnam War and the absolute incompetent management of it by the political operation of the LBJ White House. Figure anybody that cannot understand the simple words of this column, as noted above, certainly wouldn't be able to comprehend the writings of Halberstam --- which wasn't, BTW for you Jew Media Hater Group -- as a book, not a NYT story.

Get a grip.

Anonymous said...

The devil has certainly convinced a lot of you that he doesn’t exist.

Anonymous said...

@4:52 PM
Or, maybe you and other “Christians” don’t practice the religion you claim to follow. What exactly does the “devil” need to do on earth when there are millions and millions of fake Christians doing it for him?

“The devil made me do it.”

The devil didn’t make you do anything. Your vanities made you do it.

Anonymous said...

The Devil, 4:52, is a mythical (Biblical) creature, the soul and spirit of whom is the embodiment of evil, meanness, destruction and desolation. To whom are you referring? Don't be shy now. Belly-up!

Anonymous said...

7:10 : Well said. The devil is a metaphor for the seven deadly sins . Vanity is one. And we humans have yet to concur those demons.


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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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