Jack Bass

Journalist, Author, Professor
Charleston, SC

Reporter visits South Carolina State University days before the Orangeburg Massacre

Bass tells of his experience deep in the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina, from the Orangeburg Massacre to Strom Thurmond.

Video Interview

This video has been edited for length. If you’d like to listen to the full raw audio from our interview with Jack Bass, contact SCPA.

Biography

Born: Columbia, SC

Newspaper History:

  • News and Courier
  • The West Ashley Journal
  • The Columbia Record
  • The State 

Honors and Awards: 

  • South Carolina Journalist of the Year
  • American Library Association’s “Notable Books for Adults List” for The Transfomation of Southern Politics
  • Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Taming the Storm

Education:

  • University of South Carolina
  • Nieman Fellow at Harvard University
  • Ph.D. Emory University

Military Service: U.S. Navy

Family: Wife, Nathalie Dupree

Books:

  • Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond
  • Taming the Storm: The Life and Times of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. and the South’s Fight over Civil Rights
  • The Orangeburg Massacre
  • Unlikely Heroes
  • The Transformation of Southern Politics

SCPA's oral history project is dedicated to preserving the heritage of our state's journalists and newspapers.

This program is funded by the South Carolina Humanities Council, whose mission is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. This program is co-sponsored by the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications.