Lenoir Chambers facts for kids

Joseph Lenoir Chambers (born December 26, 1891 – died January 10, 1970) was an American writer, historian, and newspaper editor. He won a special award called the Pulitzer Prize for his amazing newspaper articles. During World War I, he even served in the army and briefly led a group of soldiers.

In 1960, he was the editor of The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Virginia. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his strong articles that supported ending segregation in schools. This was especially important in Virginia. Joseph Chambers was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1991, he was honored by being chosen for the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame.

A book about Chambers, called Standing Before the Shouting Mob, was published in 2008. It tells the story of his efforts during a time when many people resisted school integration.

Early Life and Education

Joseph Lenoir Chambers was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on December 26, 1891. His parents were Joseph Lenoir Chambers Sr. and Grace Singleton Dewey Chambers. He went to a school called Woodberry Forest and finished there in 1910.

Chambers was a very smart student. He also played sports and worked on the campus newspaper while attending the University of North Carolina. He was part of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and earned his degree in 1914. After college, he taught English at Woodberry for two years. Then, in 1916, he went to the Columbia School of Journalism in New York, graduating in 1917.

In 1960, the University of North Carolina gave him an honorary Doctorate degree.

Military Service in World War I

After finishing journalism school, Chambers had a short job with the New-Republic news service in Washington. But he soon left to join the military during World War I.

Chambers served as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army. He was part of the 52nd Infantry of the 6th Division. He was sent to France and Germany with the American Expeditionary Forces from 1917 to 1919. For a short time, he was in charge of a combat company in France.

While serving, he met Cornelia (Nell) Battle Lewis, who was helping soldiers through the canteen service. They had a brief relationship, but it ended after they both returned to the United States.

Journalism Career and Pulitzer Prize

After his military service, Chambers worked as the Director of the University of North Carolina news bureau until 1921. His job was to keep newspapers informed about what was happening at the university. He also worked as a reporter and editor for the Greensboro Daily News in North Carolina.

In 1929, he joined The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk as an associate editor. He worked under Louis Jaffe, another important editor. In 1928, he married Roberta Burwell Strudwick, who was the society editor for the same newspaper.

In 1944, Chambers became the editor of the Pilot's afternoon newspaper, the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch. After Louis Jaffe passed away, Chambers became the editor of The Virginian-Pilot. This was a big step for him, even though he felt like the office still belonged to Jaffe.

Chambers continued Jaffe's progressive ideas. For five years, he strongly pushed for Virginia to follow the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education court decision. This decision said that public schools must end segregation. The governor at the time, James Lindsay Almond, even closed secondary schools to try and stop integration. This was part of a plan called Massive resistance.

In 1960, Chambers won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing. He received it for his series of articles about the school integration problem in Virginia. Two famous articles were "The Year Virginia Closed the Schools" (published January 1, 1959) and "The Year Virginia Opened the Schools" (published December 31, 1959).

While working at the Pilot, Chambers also wrote a two-volume biography of the Civil War general, Stonewall Jackson, published in 1959. After he retired in 1960, he wrote another book, Salt Water & Printer's Ink (1967). This book told the history of newspapers in Norfolk.

Community Involvement

Chambers was a member of important groups like the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Even after he retired, he stayed involved in historical and community activities.

He served as a Trustee for Woodberry Forest, Norfolk Academy, and the Norfolk Public Library. He was also a member of the Virginia Historical Society. From 1966 to 1969, he helped with a committee to create the New Market Battlefield Historical Park.

Selected Writings

A collection of Joseph Chambers' writings and papers are kept at the University of North Carolina. Here are some of his published works:

• The first year after war the war: being a recapitulation of the activities of the University of North Carolina during the year 1919, Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press, 1920.
• Stonewall Jackson, Volume I, W. Morrow, 1959.
• Stonewall Jackson, Volume II, W. Morrow, 1959.
• Salt water & printer's ink: Norfolk and it's newspapers, 1865-1965, co-author with Joseph E. Shank, Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press, 1967.
• History as an avocation, Virginia Historical Society, 1968.