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‘It was all American’: Excerpts from Ralph McGill’s 1963 column

An editor looks back at Ralph McGill’s column about the 1963 March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr.

Monica Richardson, managing editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reads excerpts from former publisher Ralph McGill's column written in 1963 about the March on Washington. (Photos by AP, Video by Ryon Horne/AJC)
Jan 10, 2017

Ralph McGill, who was a longtime editor and publisher of The Atlanta Constitution, wrote more than 10,000 columns from June 1938 until his death in February 1969.

Dr. Martin Luther King mentioned McGill in his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” in 1963, writing that McGill was one of the “few enlightened white persons” to understand and sympathize with the civil rights movement.

RELATED: Why we celebrate Ralph McGill during Black History Month

And in 1964, McGill went on to win the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In the video above, Monica Richardson, managing editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reads excerpts from former publisher Ralph McGill’s column written in 1963 about the March on Washington.

RELATED: Ralph McGill’s 1968 column after the death of Martin Luther King

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