James L. Hicks
James L. Hicks was an American journalist active from 1935 to 1977. He wrote a column for the Baltimore Afro-American advocating opportunities in the U.S. Army. Hicks covered school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas and Oxford, Mississippi, and his coverage of the Emmett Till murder trial in Sumner, Mississippi.
Biography
Early years
Hicks was born to African-American parents in Akron, Ohio, on May 9, 1915. He was educated at the University of Akron, Ohio, and Howard University.Military service
Hicks enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army, and during his service in New Guinea he was awarded three battle stars and promoted to captain. In an interview for the documentary, Eyes on the Prize, Hicks claimed that his time spent in the military, among many other black veterans', heavily influenced his activist role when he returned to the United States. Hicks said of the beginning of his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, "I spent three years overseas in New Guinea and I became an officer during that period. I had been eager to exercise authority, so when we got out it was just one more step towards saying, 'look, we aren't going to take this anymore'."Career
Hicks began his career in journalism as a reporter for the Cleveland Call and Post in 1935. After his stint in the war, he joined the Baltimore Afro-American, and in his time there became the Washington Bureau Chief for the National Negro Press Association. He served as the executive editor for the New York Amsterdam News during 1955–1966, and again 1972–1977. In 1977, he became editor for the New York Voice.Hicks also held positions in public relations for the National Urban League and as the assistant commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights. Hicks was the first black member of the State Department Correspondents Association and the first black journalist cleared to cover the United Nations; for this he is labeled by some as a "pioneer in the field".
Emmett Till murder trial
Hicks' coverage of the Emmett Till murder trial was published as a series of installments in dozens of newspapers including the Baltimore Afro-American, the Cleveland Call and Post, and the Atlanta Daily World. His investigative journalism uncovered the identities of two key witnesses to the murder, who Hicks believed, would have led to the prosecution of the accused, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam. The witnesses, Leroy "Too-Tight" Collins, and Henry Lee Loggins, had been seen riding in the back of J.W. Milam's truck with Emmett Till the night he was murdered. Hicks and his colleague, L. Alex Wilson, continued to track down these witnesses well after the trial had ended and this investigative work was featured in the documentary, "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till" produced by Keith Beauchamp.Articles by Hicks written for the Cleveland Call and Post are found in Christopher Metress's The Lynching of Emmett Till: A Documentary Narrative.
These were published in the 2000 Spring issue of .
On January 20, 2003 the documentary “” was broadcast by “American Experience” and PBS.
The book by authors David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito include references to Hicks' role in events surrounding the trial of Bryant and Milam.