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James Madison University - Madison - The Magazine of James Madison University - Spring 08 - Index

28 Madison Magazine
BRIGHTLIGHTS
[Alexander Leidholdt]
Southern press historian
By Katie Hudson (’10)
“
i
haven’t had a day where
i didn’t write,” says alexander
Leidholdt.
The professor of media
arts and design has completed
biographies of two
Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper
editors as well as a biography
on a major female journalist. “i
have always been tremendously
interested in southern journalism,
specifically the first half of
the 20th century,” he says.
Leidholdt’s first book, Before
the Shouting Mob: Lenoir Chambers
and Virginia’s Massive Resistance
to Public-School Integration,
was published in 1997. The biography
focuses on Lenoir Chambers,
who was a former editor of
norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot.
Chambers was part of a fiveyear
editorial campaign opposing
Virginia’s resistance to school
integration when in 1958 almost
10,000 students were kept from
attending norfolk’s secondary
schools. gov. J. Lindsay
almond refused to accept the
Brown v. Board of education’s
required integration and ordered
that three city school systems be
closed. Chambers then took it Media arts and design professor Alexander Leidholdt has com-
upon himself to use his editopleted a third biography about Southern journalists. His newest
book focuses on Cornelia Battle Lewis, arguably the South’s most
rial position to urge the peaceful
accomplished progressive female journalist.
implementation of integration.
“i know a lot of people have never heard and worked created a substantial amount of
of Chambers, and that’s one reason why i work for Leidholdt, who says “i spent two
chose to write this book. He lived such a years just doing the research for this book.”
remarkably interesting life,” says Leidholdt.
The book received fantastic reviews,
Chambers’ work at the newspaper even- and American Journalism editors called his
tually lead to the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for account of Chambers, “a model for other
editorial Writing for his series of editorials historians of press performance in other
on desegregation and the school integration civil rights battlegrounds. such community
problem in Virginia.
studies are badly needed.”
The historically important and politically For his next biographical book, Leidholdt
charged climate in which Chambers lived has decided to travel back 30 years before
Chamber’s time. it was not coincidental
that Leidholdt would next focus on Louis
Jaffé, the 1920s Virginian-Pilot editor who
led an anti-lynching campaign. “i grew up
in norfolk and went to school there, so i
have always had an interest in the area,” says
Leidholdt. Published in 2002,
Editor for Justice: The Life of Louis
I. Jaffé proved to be even a little
more of a struggle for Leidholdt
to complete than his previous
book. “since Jaffé was from the
’20s, a lot of people whom i
could have used for research for
this book were no longer alive,”
says Leidholdt. Having to go
through another two years of
research, Leidholdt was given
a grant of more than $10,000
from various departments at
Purdue University (where he was
a professor of communications
from 1994 to 2001).
after writing the two books,
Leidholdt and his wife moved
back to the norfolk area. after
earning a Ph.d. from old
dominion University and working
for academic Television
services, one of his close friends
and a JMU alumna insisted that
Leidholdt and his wife come to
her alma mater to teach.
Leidholdt recently finished his
third book, Battling Nell: The
Life of Southern Journalist Cornelia
Battle Lewis, who is arguably
the south’s most accomplished
progressive female journalist.
Leidholdt focused on her life
from the 1920s to the 1950s. “i
traveled throughout the south
for research, and it took about six years. now
it’s just going through the process of revision
so it can be published,” Leidholdt says.
along with the three books, Leidholdt still
finds time to write scholarly journals and
teach more than 300 students. Yet, when
asked about his impressive achievements and
how he manages it all, he keeps it humble.
“all the professors here and at other schools
do work outside the classroom. i am no different
from any other faculty member.” M
‘I have always been tremendously interested in Southern journalism,
specifically the first half of the 20th century.’
— Alexander Leidholdt
photograph by shay cochrane (’05)