William Fowlkes, 94, editor, reporter

As an African-American reporter and editor who covered many racially motivated crimes in the South from the 1930s through the 1960s, William Fowlkes wasn’t always welcomed by the locals.

He once was sickened by a poison slipped into his drink at an Alabama bar, where he was taking a break from covering a story, said his daughter, Wilhelmina Fowlkes of Atlanta.

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William Fowlkes covered many historic racial crimes as a reporter for the Atlanta Daily World from the 1930s to 1960s. To relax, he played poker with his friends twice a month.

“We tried to report, and did report details of racial incidents, because the white press did not report everything, and they reported it their way,” Mr. Fowlkes told a doctoral student a few years ago.

Mr. Fowlkes, 94, of Atlanta died Sunday of pneumonia at Emory University Hospital. A memorial service will be noon Saturday at Radcliffe Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. Cremation Society of Georgia is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Fowlkes was reared in Union City, Tenn., the son of a Presbyterian minister, said his daughter.

His strict father didn’t allow him to play cards, but he took up poker while attending Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial College, now Tennessee State University, in Nashville. He eventually earned the nickname “The Master” for his skill at cards. For most of his adult life he had a twice-a-month poker game with his buddies, his daughter said.

Mr. Fowlkes earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1935. He worked in the college library as a night watchman, where he first saw copies of the Atlanta Daily World, according to a 2005 Ph.D. dissertation by Maria Odum-Hinmon for the journalism school at the University of Maryland.

The conservative black newspaper had been founded a few years earlier and quickly became one of the most successful in the country. Shortly after graduating, Mr. Fowlkes wrote to the publisher, C.A. Scott, asking for a job. A one-word reply — “yes” — came back in about a month, according to Mr. Fowlkes’ account in the dissertation.

As a reporter and editor at the Daily World for more than 30 years, Mr. Fowlkes covered many historic racial crimes, such as the 1955 murder of Emmett Till and the 1946 Monroe Massacre, in which a lynch mob brutally killed two young black couples in Walton and Oconee counties in Georgia.

Mr. Fowlkes and another Daily World employee picked up a potential witness in the Monroe case in the dead of night, and brought him to Atlanta so he could remain unharmed until the trial. They also helped him get a job in Atlanta, according to the dissertation.

Mr. Fowlkes wrote a column called “Seeing and Saying,” and also wrote for Jet magazine and other publications, his daughter said.

He called himself “the race man,” not only because he worked to improve life for African-Americans but also because he raced off to cover big stories.

To supplement his income, Mr. Fowlkes worked nights playing piano in jazz bands, including the Troubadors and the Joe “King” Oliver Creole Jazz Band, his daughter said.

From the late 1930s to the 1950s, he played regular gigs and also composed music. He published at least one jazz song, called “You’re the Sweetest Little Something in the World,” his daughter said.

Survivors also include another daughter, Loretta Harrison of Atlanta; and a granddaughter.