Cause of death Pancreatic cancer Employer Los Angeles Times Role Journalist | Name Jack Nelson Occupation Journalist | |
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Full Name John Howard Nelson Born October 11, 1929 ( 1929-10-11 ) Talladega, Alabama, USA Died October 21, 2009, Bethesda, Maryland, United States Awards Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting People also search for Jack Bass, Merrie Bergmann, James Moor, Lynn Nelson Books The Orangeburg Massacre, Terror in the Night: The Klan, The Censors and the S, LNWR portrayed, Captive Voices | ||
C span call jack nelson dismisses pierre salinger s 1980 october surprise allegation
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.
Contents
- C span call jack nelson dismisses pierre salinger s 1980 october surprise allegation
- Youth
- Early career
- Los Angeles Times
- Death
- References
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.