Bill Minor 
Major Works
- Eyes on Mississippi: A Fifty-Year Chronicle of Change
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Bill Minor : A Biography
By Hannah McIlwain (SHS)
Bill Minor was born in Hammond, Louisiana. He grew up in southeast Louisiana and graduated from Tulane University in 1943 with a degree in journalism. Following World War II, this naval combat veteran joined the staff of the Times-Picayune in New Orleans. In August 1947, he was assigned as the newspaper's Mississippi correspondent in Jackson, Mississippi. Covering the civil rights era and a wide variety of other major news stories, Minor held this position for thirty years and ended only when the Times-Picayune closed the Mississippi office. He retired from the paper in 1976. Since his retirement he remains in Jackson and has launched a new career as a statewide political columnist, a position which he today still holds.(Minor 353). 
Bill Minor has followed Mississippi political and social life for more than fifty years. He has put himself in harm's way many times to witness firsthand and report in vivid and clear words the truth regardless of the consequences to himself (Douglas 3G). Minor still lives in Jackson, Mississippi, and writes many columns concerning major news stories and issues.
Minor has won many awards. In 1966 the Louis Lyons Award given by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University was given to him for “conscience and integrity in journalism.” In 1997 Minor became the first recipient of the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism presented by the Annenberg School for Communications of Pennsylvania, and in 1991 he joined the Hall of Fame of the Mississippi Press Association (Minor 353).
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A Review
of Eyes on Mississippi: A Fifty-year Chronicle of Change
by Hannah McIlwain (SHS)
 Eyes on Mississippi: A Fifty-year Chronicle of Change should be found fascinating to everyone interested in 20th century American history.Bill Minor’s novel went on sale in late May in book stores around the state of Mississippi.Minor used some 200 of his columns and news articles in this novel.This book includes some of Mississippi’s biggest civil rights stories, such as the 1955 acquittal of two white men accused of killing black man Emmett Till for whistling at a white woman, the 1962 integration of the University of Mississippi, the 1963 assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers in Jackson, and the 1962 Freedom Summer slayings of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County.This novel will remind the reader of all the progress we have made in Mississippi and how much more there is left to do (Minor ix-x).It chronicles changes in race relations, from the increase in black voter registrations to the unraveling of the Sovereignty Commission, a state spy agency devoted to preserving segregation.The columns in this book are sorted out by subject rather than chronology. 
Many people have different opinions of Minor’s book.William F. Winter said, “This volume is an intriguing collection of journalistic vignettes of personalities and events that transformed a state and made its history over the last half-century one of the most absorbing sagas of American life”(Minor ix-x).Ellen Douglas said, “Its importance brings to me to my only major criticism.In any future edition, I would like to see a complete index as well as a more detailed context surrounding the events covered in the columns.We tend, although at the time they seemed indelibly impressed on our memories, to forget those tumultuous times.We need to remind ourselves of the surrounding events if we hope to avoid falling into the same mistakes and bringing about like tragedies” (Douglas 3G).I think that it is a great book for people who lived through these events or who are interested in the history of Mississippi.
Bill Minor has dedicated parts of his book to different people.He dedicated a column to the selection in 1987 of the first black Miss. Mississippi, Toni Seawright.Minor dedicated the entire novel to, “My long-suffering wife Gloria, the three Minor sons, and all the ‘little people’ who helped my fathom what took place in this fathomless state the last half-century(Minor ix-x)
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Related Websites
Read an interview between Terrence Smith of PBS's Newshour and Bill Minor. Minor discusses the shift in attitudes he's seen in the Jackson and The Clarion-Ledger since the Civil Rights Struggle.
Bill Minor writes Opinion in Clarion-Ledger that Trent Lott could be ousted as Senate majority leader by his GOP colleagues, then turn around and run for governor of Mississippi in 2003.
Terence Smith talks with Myrlie Evers-Williams,Bill Minor, and Jerry Mitchell as he reports on how The Clarion-Ledger newspaper of Jackson, Miss. prompted the reinvestigation of more than a dozen civil rights-era crimes.
Square Books of Oxford highlights Bill Minor's book Eyes on Mississippi.
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Bibliography
Wagster,Emily. “Columnist’s book reflects on half century of change.” Clarion Ledger 10 Jan. 2002: 12
Douglas, Ellen. “’Eyes’ carries column collection.” The Clarion Ledger 17 June 2001: 3G
Minor, Bill. Eyes on Mississippi: A Fifty-Year Chronicle of Change. J Prichard Morris Books: Jackson, Mississippi, 2001. intro and ix-x
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