Editor for
Justice: The Life of Louis I. Jaffé
Louisiana State University Press, 2002
By Alexander Liedholt
ISBN: 0-8071-2751-5
Media arts and design professor Alexander Liedholt chronicles the life
of Louis Isaac Jaffé (1919-1950), former editor of the Norfolk
Virginian-Pilot. Jaffé earned the 1929 Pulitzer Prize for
his editorial campaign urging Virginia lawmakers to adopt strict anti-lynching
legislation. Prejudice that Jaffé faced as a Jew created in him
an abiding empathy with the downtrodden, and service in World War I
and the Red Cross deepened his sensitivity to injustice. Editor
for Justice chronicles the civil rights violations and intolerance
that Jaffé wrote about and explores his private life and efforts
to advance racial understanding. Jaffé became a national spokesman
for a better South, while successfully lobbying for black parks and
beaches, black police and a black colleges. Liedholt is also the author
of Standing Before the Shouting Mob: Lenoir Chambers and Virginia’s
Massive Resistance to Public-School Integration.
