For half a century Hazel Brannon Smith published weekly newspapers in Holmes County, Mississippi, a bastion of massive resistance to integration during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Her unflinching commitment to law and order, equal justice, and freedom of expression made her the target of segregationist reprisals--advertising boycotts, smear campaigns, bombings, cross burnings, and a rival newspaper established to drive her out of business. The plainspoken eloquence of her opposition to racial violence earned her the first Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing awarded to a woman.

She gloried in being a newspaperwoman, rejecting other labels. "I flinch every time I am called a crusading editor," she wrote. "But an honest editor who would truly serve the highest and best interest of the people will not compromise convictions to support a popular cause known to be morally wrong just to incur popular favor or support...