Harry Brandt Ayers

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/209787029/harry-brandt-ayers

Newspaper publisher who turned The Anniston Star into a voice for integration in the 1960s. Ayers was the archetype of a heroic band of southern newspaper proprietors who risked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to throw in with the civil rights movement.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry Brandt Ayers died at his home on May 3. He was 85 years old. The son of Colonel and Mrs. Harry Mell Ayers was born in Anniston, Alabama, on April 8, 1935. He attended the Woodstock Elementary School and graduated from The Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut. He received Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alabama and retained his fierce loyalty to its football teams throughout his life. Both institutions awarded him with a distinguished alumni awards in recognition of his career achievements.

After serving in the Navy, Ayers returned to Anniston for a brief stint working for his family’s newspaper, The Anniston Star. From there, he went to The Raleigh (North Carolina) Times as capitol and legislative reporter. While in Raleigh, he met Josephine Peoples Ehringhaus; they were married in 1961.

They moved to Washington immediately afterward, and Ayers began work for the Bascomb Timmons Bureau, which served southern newspapers from Texas to North Carolina. He was assigned to cover the Justice Department, where he was privy to all the negotiations between the Kennedy Administration and Gov. George Wallace regarding the desegregation of The University of Alabama.

Ayers represented the third generation of his family to serve as chairman and publisher of The Anniston Star. He retired in 2018 after 43 years. During his tenure, Time magazine twice named the newspaper “one of the best small newspapers in the United States.” In 1998, amid dwindling family owned papers, Ayers was featured as the cover story of American Journalism Review. In addition to his interest in The Star, he was co-owner of The Daily Home of Talladega, The Jacksonville (Alabama) News, The Cleburne News, The News Journal and the St. Clair Times. For many years, he wrote a weekly syndicated column, “Out Here,” carried by some 30 newspapers. He was a frequent opinion contributor to a variety of papers, including The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post. He was a regular commentator for “Morning Edition” on National Public Radio.

Ayers was awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University (1967-68), and in 1990, he was named a Gannet Fellow at Columbia University. He received a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1996. He received numerous awards from national and state civic, educational and social organizations, including the Alabama Academy of Honor, which recognizes the accomplishment of 100 living Alabamians. Ayers was honored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors with its Leadership Award in 2003. During his long career, he traveled widely in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East on governmental and journalistic missions. He served as a trustee of the American Committee of the International Press Institute, Vienna, and on the advisory board of the Ditchley Foundation, London.

In 1970, Ayers was a co-founder of the LQC Lamar Society, an organization that brought together political and civic leaders from all over the South to address leadership vacuums throughout the region. LQCLS established the Commission on the Future of the South, which investigated origins, current conditions and offered solutions to the challenges faced by the South to build a progressive, inclusive society. With his colleague, Thomas Naylor, he edited and contributed to “You Can’t Eat Magnolias,” a manifesto for the “New South.”

Ayers lectured on foreign and domestic affairs at many venues, including Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Capetown, Natal University and the University of Nairobi. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, a trustee of The Century Foundation of New York (formerly the Twentieth Century Fund), trustee of the Southern Center for International Studies and was appointed by President Carter to the Board of Foreign Scholarships (the International Fulbright Board).

He was inducted into the University of Alabama’s Communication Hall of Fame in October 2000. In 2002, Ayers fulfilled a longtime dream with his founding of World Affairs Journalism Fellowship Program, which would supply travel grants to regional editors to learn about and report on countries around the world.

In his native Alabama, Ayers served on numerous boards and commissions, including The Advisory Council to Dr. Joseph Volker at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Board of Trustees of Talladega College, The Alabama Research Alliance, and the Alabama Archives and History Foundation Board.

In Anniston, Ayers wore many hats: founding board member of The Alabama Shakespeare Festival, founder with the late Sunny King and Glen Huie of the Forward Calhoun County initiative to raise money to support local needs in the region and founder with the late Tom Potts and the late Reverend James Tinsley of the Committee on Unified Leadership (COUL). Like his father before him, he devoted his life to supporting public education; he was a founder of the NEXT START program and of PEFA, the Public Education Foundation of Anniston, among dozens of other efforts to improve education opportunities and outcomes in his beloved hometown.

Ayers was the author of several publications and books.

“A Bicentennial Portrait of the American People: An Epitaph for the Past.” The chapter contributed is “The South and the Nation are Joined.” — “U.S. News & World Report,” 1975.

“The Second Greatest Generation,” commencement address at the University of Alabama, 2002.

“In Love With Defeat: The Making of a Southern Liberal,” New South Books 2012

“The 2013 BCS National Championship,” New South Books, 2012.

“Cussing Dixie, Loving Dixie,” University of Alabama Press, Carol Nunnelley, editor, 2015.

“Missionary Doctor,” the journey of his grandfather, Dr. Thomas W. Ayers, as a medical missionary in China during 1901-1925. To be published 2020.

Ayers is survived by his wife, Josephine, and their daughter, Margaret.

He was a lifelong member of Grace Episcopal Church. A memorial service will be announced at a later date.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Brandt_Ayers

Harry Brandt Ayers, also known as Brandy Ayers (8 April 1935 - 3 May 2020) was a publisher and journalist based in Anniston, Alabama, part of the Ayers family of publishers.

Early life

Ayers was born in Anniston, Alabama to Colonel Harry Mell Ayers and his wife. At that time Colonel Ayers was owner of the Anniston Star newspaper. Ayers attended Woodstock Elementary School, followed by The Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut. He subsequently attended the University of Alabama, where he received his BA. Ayers served in the US Navy as an officer, following which he briefly worked for the Anniston Star before moving to work for a newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he met his wife Josephine.

Publishing career

In the 1960s Ayers returned again to Anniston to assume control of the family newspaper, replacing his father as publisher. During this time he moved the newspaper towards being more favorable towards the Civil rights movement that was active in Alabama during this time. Ayers also provided commentary for National Public Radio.

Under Ayers' leadership, the Star's critical stance towards the leadership of Alabama governor George Wallace, and generally left-wing position on the political issues of the day, led Wallace to label it The Red Star.

Ayers stood down as publisher of the Star in 2016, but remained in charge of the publishing company that owned it, Consolidated Publishing Co.

Me Too controversy

In November 2017, during the Me Too movement, allegations that Ayers had physically assaulted female employees, in particular by spanking them, emerged. In January 2018 Ayers acknowledged that one of the incidents had occurred but claimed that this incident, which had occurred in his employee's home, had been on a doctor's advice to "calm her down". When confronted with a second incident that had occurred at the offices of the Star he stated that he would "Let the accusation stand". Subsequent research showed that allegations of spanking had been levelled against Ayers as early as 2007.

Ayers initially refused to resign as head of Consolidated Publishing in the wake of the allegations. However, as further incidents emerged he resigned from his post at Consolidated Publishing and was replaced by his wife. Ayers was listed amongst prominent media figures to have been the subject of sexual harassment, assault, or other misconduct allegations during the Me Too movement.

Bibliography

In Love with Defeat: The Making of a Southern Liberal

Cussing Dixie, Loving Dixie: Fifty Years of Commentary by H. Brandt Ayers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

https://www.annistonstar.com/free/h-brandt-ayers-former-publisher-o...