Archival Resources

Graves, John Temple, II
Papers, 1903-1961

John Temple Graves was born in Rome, Georgia, in 1892, the son of John Temple Graves, Sr., a newspaper editor and well-known orator, and Anne Cothran Graves. He was the great-grand nephew of U.S. Senator John C. Calhoun.

Graves' early education was at the Georgia Military Academy and the Horace Mann School in New York. He received a B.A. from Princeton University and attended law school at George Washington University. In World War I, Graves served as an officer in the 49^th Heavy Artillery from 1915 until 1918. After the armistice, he worked in Paris as an assistant to Edward M. Hurley of the American Peace Conference.

During his professional career Graves was an economist, lawyer, historian, writer, and speaker. Following work in Washington on the Federal Trade Commission and in New York and Florida as a newspaper journalist and editor, Graves moved in 1929 to Birmingham, Alabama to work for the Birmingham Age-Herald. In 1946 he moved to the Birmingham Post, and following the merger of the two newspapers he worked for the Birmingham Post-Herald until his death. His daily column, "This Morning," was syndicated to western and southern newspapers and he served as a correspondent for the New York Times.

Graves was active in politics and was in demand as a lecturer. After he made his home in Birmingham, he focused much of his speaking and editorializing on southern ideology. Although he spoke against violence, he resisted the social changes that were already being advocated by journalists and politicians in the 1930s and 1940s. Considered a southern liberal early in his career, Graves by the 1950s had become a spokesman for the white Citizens' Council, an advocate of States' Rights, and an opponent of federal intervention in the southern race question. He authored several books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Fighting South (1943). He won the Freedom Foundation Award in 1953 and again in 1956.

John Temple Graves died in 1961.

Sources:

Graves, John Temple. The Fighting South. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1985.

"Milestones." Time, May 26, 1961, p. 94.

Who's Who in the South and Southwest. Chicago: Marquis-Who's Who Inc., 1956.

The Graves papers include correspondence, newspaper clippings, booklets, three scrapbooks, a manuscript of an unpublished novel (The Ticket to Nowhere), and typed drafts of his newspaper bylines and speeches.

The correspondence includes personal letters, invitations and notes, and responses to Graves' column or speeches. Graves corresponded with many leading newspaper editors and their letters to him frankly address issues of race relations, the U. S. Supreme Court, states' rights, the change in voting laws, northern attitudes toward the South, and the southern economy.

File level guide available in the Archives Department.

Authors -- Alabama -- Birmingham.
Birmingham (Ala.) -- Authors.
Graves, John Temple (1892-1961)
Journalists -- Alabama -- Birmingham.
Southern States -- Civilization.
Southern States -- Race relations.

Collection Number: 830

Size: 2 linear feet (2 boxes)

Restrictions: Standard preservation and copyright restrictions.