Main Street militants

This anthology of 35 articles published between 1960 and 1972 in Grassroots Editor, the magazine of the Internation­al Society of Weekly Newspaper Edi­tors, memorializes the spirit of crusad­ing journalists on the small newspapers in communities in Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, and Tennessee. The articles are by the journalists them­selves, usually owner-editors of the newspapers, and concern not only the investigative reporting these "main street militants” undertook into corrupt local political machines, inefficient police work, closed meetings, and fiscal irregularities, but also the reprisals practiced on them, the losses of their businesses, and even threats against their lives.

Howard Rusk Long is Director Emeritus of the School of Journalism at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.