Virginius Dabney - Teacher, Journalist, Editor

Teacher, Journalist, Editor

After teaching for a year at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, in 1922, he went to work in Richmond, Virginia as a journalist at the The Richmond News Leader, which was then edited by Douglas S. Freeman. During this period he was also Virginia correspondent for the Baltimore Evening Sun, where he came to the attention of H.L. Mencken. In 1928, he left The News Leader for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he became Chief Editorial Writer in 1934, and editor in 1936.

As editor, he was responsible for the editorial page. He editorialized against Adolf Hitler and in favor of wage and hour laws for women. He was, for his time, a progressive, and at times a liberal voice, opposing the Ku Klux Klan and the poll tax. He was not afraid to take on the Byrd Organization, a political machine of Governor (and later Senator) Harry F. Byrd that dominated Virginia's politics from the late 1920s until 1969. He was also known for opining on less-serious topics, such as the death of Ellen Glasgow's dog, and on the qualities of grits and mint juleps. He served on the Southern Policy Committee and the Southern Conference for Human Welfare. In 1948, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. He served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1957-58.

In the 1950s, his editorials took on a more conservative tone. Although he was personally opposed to Massive Resistance against desegregation of Virginia's public schools, the owners of the Times-Dispatch did not allow him to editorialize against it. He was offended by the student activists of the 1960s, and was ambivalent about the Rev. Martin Luther King, whom he admired for his courage but disdained for his "trouble-making" and what he called "unfair" attacks on the Vietnam War.