author
James Jackson Kilpatrick
1920–2010
A sharp, influential newspaper columnist and language writer, he spent decades shaping conservative commentary in the United States. His career is also closely tied to his early, controversial defense of school segregation in Virginia, a legacy that remains central to how he is remembered.
1 Audiobook
The Southern Case for School Segregation
by James Jackson Kilpatrick
About the author
Born in Oklahoma City on November 1, 1920, he became a prominent American journalist, editor, columnist, author, and grammarian. He worked for the Richmond News Leader, rising to editor in the 1950s, and later became a nationally syndicated columnist and familiar television commentator.
Kilpatrick was widely known for his forceful conservative voice and for books and columns about politics and the English language. At the same time, accounts of his life consistently note his major role in defending segregation and supporting Virginia's "Massive Resistance" campaign against school desegregation after Brown v. Board of Education.
He died in Washington, D.C., on August 15, 2010, at age 89. For many readers, he remains a notable and complicated figure in American journalism: a polished stylist and popular commentator whose public record also includes some of the most contentious arguments of the segregation era.