James J. Kilpatrick
Encyclopedia
James Jackson Kilpatrick (November 1, 1920 – August 15, 2010) was an American editorial columnist
and grammarian. He was a legal abstractionist, a social conservative, and an economic libertarian according to Harvard (1983).
Kilpatrick was born and raised in Oklahoma City
, and received his degree in journalism from the University of Missouri
in 1941. He spent many years as an editor of The Richmond News Leader
in Richmond, Virginia
.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Kilpatrick was noted as a fervent segregationist
. MacLean states that, "The National Review made Kilpatrick its voice on the civil rights movement and the Constitution, as Buckley and Kilpatrick united North and South in a shared vision for the nation that included upholding white supremacy.". The National Review
was the conservative magazine edited by William F. Buckley, Jr.
.
Kilpatrick also advocated the states' rights
doctrine of interposition
, arguing that the states had the right to oppose and even nullify
federal court rulings on the subject.
Kilpatrick's arguments against desegregation were not solely based on federalism, though. In 1963, he submitted an article for the Saturday Evening Post entitled "The Hell He Is Equal" in which he wrote that the "Negro race, as a race, is in fact an inferior race." (The article was spiked by the magazine's editors out of sensitivity concerns after four black girls were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
.) He eventually changed his position on segregation, though he remained a staunch opponent of actual or perceived federal encroachments upon the individual states.
Kilpatrick began writing his syndicated political column, "A Conservative View," in 1964 and left the News Leader in 1966. Kilpatrick is perhaps best known for his nine years as a debater on the TV news magazine 60 Minutes
. He appeared in a closing segment on each show in the 1970s called "Point-Counterpoint," opposite Nicholas von Hoffman
and, later, Shana Alexander
. This was later parodied on Saturday Night Live
with Dan Aykroyd
and Jane Curtin
, where Aykroyd would respond to Curtin's opening argument with, "Jane, you ignorant slut." Another famous parody was in the film "Airplane!
", in which Kilpatrick, played by William Tregoe, argues "Shana, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash." Tregoe also played Kilpatrick in a Point-Counterpoint parody in the film The Kentucky Fried Movie
.
as a columnist, eventually distributed to more than 180 newspapers around the country.
Kilpatrick went into semi-retirement in 1993, shifting from a three-times-a-week political column to a weekly column on judicial issues, "Covering the Courts," which ended in 2008. For many years he also wrote a syndicated column dealing with English usage, especially in writing, called "The Writer's Art" (also the title of his 1985 book on writing). In January 2009, the Universal Syndicate announced that Kilpatrick would end this column because of health reasons.
His other books include The Foxes Union, a recollection of his life in Rappahannock County, Virginia
, in the Blue Ridge Mountains
; Fine Print: Reflections on the Writing Art; and, A Political Bestiary, which he co-wrote with former U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy
and Pulitzer Prize
-winning editorial cartoonist
Jeff MacNelly
.
Kilpatrick's personal papers, including his editorial files and correspondence, are housed in Special Collections of the University of Virginia Library. Guides and descriptions of Kilpatrick's papers are available through the Virginia Heritage database.
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
and grammarian. He was a legal abstractionist, a social conservative, and an economic libertarian according to Harvard (1983).
Kilpatrick was born and raised in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
, and received his degree in journalism from the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
in 1941. He spent many years as an editor of The Richmond News Leader
The Richmond News Leader
The Richmond News Leader was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Richmond, Virginia from 1888 to 1992. During much of its run, it was the largest newspaper source in Richmond, competing with the morning Richmond Times-Dispatch. By the late 1960s, afternoon papers had been steadily losing...
in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
.
Segregationist
Chappell (1998) shows that there were two factions of Southern segregationists that opposed federal enforcement of civil rights legislation between 1957 and 1962. The first used states' rights and constitutional arguments to justify segregation on an intellectual level; Kilpatrick was an important leader of this faction. The second group used highly emotional language to justify segregation for reasons of racial purity, often inclining toward the anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic. Roy V. Harris, Georgia's political "kingmaker," was one of the leaders of this second group.During the 1950s and 1960s, Kilpatrick was noted as a fervent segregationist
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
. MacLean states that, "The National Review made Kilpatrick its voice on the civil rights movement and the Constitution, as Buckley and Kilpatrick united North and South in a shared vision for the nation that included upholding white supremacy.". The National Review
National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
was the conservative magazine edited by William F. Buckley, Jr.
William F. Buckley, Jr.
William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1,429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing was noted for...
.
Kilpatrick also advocated the states' rights
States' rights
States' rights in U.S. politics refers to political powers reserved for the U.S. state governments rather than the federal government. It is often considered a loaded term because of its use in opposition to federally mandated racial desegregation...
doctrine of interposition
Interposition
Interposition is an asserted right of U.S. states to declare federal actions unconstitutional. Interposition has not been upheld by the courts. Rather, the courts have held that the power to declare federal laws unconstitutional lies with the federal judiciary, not with the states...
, arguing that the states had the right to oppose and even nullify
Nullification (U.S. Constitution)
Nullification is a legal theory that a State has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional...
federal court rulings on the subject.
Kilpatrick's arguments against desegregation were not solely based on federalism, though. In 1963, he submitted an article for the Saturday Evening Post entitled "The Hell He Is Equal" in which he wrote that the "Negro race, as a race, is in fact an inferior race." (The article was spiked by the magazine's editors out of sensitivity concerns after four black girls were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
16th Street Baptist Church bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed on Sunday, September 15, 1963. The explosion at the African-American church, which killed four girls, marked a turning point in the U.S...
.) He eventually changed his position on segregation, though he remained a staunch opponent of actual or perceived federal encroachments upon the individual states.
Kilpatrick began writing his syndicated political column, "A Conservative View," in 1964 and left the News Leader in 1966. Kilpatrick is perhaps best known for his nine years as a debater on the TV news magazine 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
. He appeared in a closing segment on each show in the 1970s called "Point-Counterpoint," opposite Nicholas von Hoffman
Nicholas von Hoffman
Nicholas von Hoffman is an American journalist and author. He wrote for the Washington Post. Later, TV audiences knew him as a "Point-Counterpoint" commentator for CBS's 60 Minutes, from which Don Hewitt fired him in 1974.-Biography:He is of German-Russian extraction, descendant of Melchior...
and, later, Shana Alexander
Shana Alexander
Shana Alexander was an American journalist, born Shana Ager in New York City on October 6, 1925. Although she became the first woman staff writer and columnist for Life magazine, she was best known for her participation in the "Point-Counterpoint" debate segments of 60 Minutes with conservative...
. This was later parodied on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
with Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
and Jane Curtin
Jane Curtin
Jane Therese Curtin is an American actress and comedienne. She is commonly referred to as Queen of the Deadpan.First coming to prominence as an original cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1975, she went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series on the 1980s...
, where Aykroyd would respond to Curtin's opening argument with, "Jane, you ignorant slut." Another famous parody was in the film "Airplane!
Airplane!
Airplane! is a 1980 American satirical comedy film directed and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and released by Paramount Pictures...
", in which Kilpatrick, played by William Tregoe, argues "Shana, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash." Tregoe also played Kilpatrick in a Point-Counterpoint parody in the film The Kentucky Fried Movie
The Kentucky Fried Movie
The Kentucky Fried Movie is an American comedy film, released in 1977 and directed by John Landis. The film's writers were the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker. This same team would go on to write and direct Airplane!, Top Secret! and the Police Squad! television series and its...
.
Columnist
In 1979 Kilpatrick joined the Universal Press SyndicateUniversal Press Syndicate
Universal Press Syndicate, a subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, is the world's largest independent press syndicate. It distributes lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and other content. Popular columns include Dear Abby, Ann Coulter, Roger Ebert and News of the Weird...
as a columnist, eventually distributed to more than 180 newspapers around the country.
Kilpatrick went into semi-retirement in 1993, shifting from a three-times-a-week political column to a weekly column on judicial issues, "Covering the Courts," which ended in 2008. For many years he also wrote a syndicated column dealing with English usage, especially in writing, called "The Writer's Art" (also the title of his 1985 book on writing). In January 2009, the Universal Syndicate announced that Kilpatrick would end this column because of health reasons.
His other books include The Foxes Union, a recollection of his life in Rappahannock County, Virginia
Rappahannock County, Virginia
As of the census of 2010, there were 7,373 people, 2,788 households, and 2,004 families residing in the county. The population density was 26 people per square mile . There were 3,303 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...
, in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...
; Fine Print: Reflections on the Writing Art; and, A Political Bestiary, which he co-wrote with former U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy
Eugene McCarthy
Eugene Joseph "Gene" McCarthy was an American politician, poet, and a long-time member of the United States Congress from Minnesota. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1971.In the 1968 presidential election, McCarthy was the first...
and Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning editorial cartoonist
Editorial cartoonist
An editorial cartoonist, also known as a political cartoonist, is an artist who draws editorial cartoons that contain some level of political or social commentary....
Jeff MacNelly
Jeff MacNelly
Jeffrey Kenneth MacNelly was a three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and the creator of the popular comic strip Shoe.-Early life:...
.
Family
Kilpatrick married his first wife, sculptor Marie Louise Pietri, in 1942. She died in 1997. In 1998, Kilpatrick married liberal Washington-based syndicated columnist Marianne Means.Kilpatrick's personal papers, including his editorial files and correspondence, are housed in Special Collections of the University of Virginia Library. Guides and descriptions of Kilpatrick's papers are available through the Virginia Heritage database.
Works
- The Sovereign States: Notes of a Citizen of Virginia. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1957.
- The Smut Peddlers: The Pornography Racket and the Law Dealing with Obscenity Censorship. Doubleday, 1960.
- The Southern Case for School Segregation. Crowell-Collier Press, 1962.
- The Foxes' Union, EPM Publications, Inc., 1977.
- A Political Bestiary, Viable Alternatives, Impressive Mandates & Other Fables (with Eugene McCarthy and Jeff MacNelly), 1978.
- The American South: Four Seasons of the Land (with William A. Bake). Oxmoor House, 1983.
- The Writer's Art. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1985. ISBN 0836279255
- The Ear Is Human: A Handbook of Homophones and Other Confusions. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1985. ISBN 0836212592
- Fine Print: Reflections on the Writing Art. Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1993.
Further reading
- Chappell, David L. "The Divided Mind of Southern Segregationists," Georgia Historical Quarterly, Spring 1998, Vol. 82 Issue 1, p45-72
- Friedman, Murray. "One Episode in Southern Jewry's Response to Desegregation: An Historical Memoir," American Jewish Archives, July 1981, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p170-183, focused on his debates with Kilpatrick
- Havard, William C. "The Journalist as Interpreter of the South," Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 1983, Vol. 59 Issue 1, pp 1–21
External links
- Kilpatrick's Columns on LegalNews.TV
- Shana Alexander's Obituary at the LA Times