The Utica Observer-Dispatch and the Utica Daily Press (New York), for their successful campaign against corruption, gambling and vice in their home city and the achievement of sweeping civic reforms in the face of political pressure and threats of violence. By their stalwart leadership of the forces of good government, these newspapers upheld the best tradition of a free press.[1]
Mary Lou Werner of the Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), for her comprehensive year-long coverage of the integration crisis in Virginia which demonstrated admirable qualities of accuracy, speed and the ability to interpret the news under deadline pressure in the course of a difficult and taxing assignment.
John Harold Brislin of the Scranton Tribune and the Scrantonian (Pennsylvania), for displaying courage, initiative and resourcefulness in his effective four-year campaign to halt labor violence in his home city, as a result of which ten corrupt union officials were sent to jail and a local union was emboldened to clean out racketeering elements.[2]
Howard Van Smith of The Miami News, for a series of articles that focused public notice on deplorable conditions in a Florida migrant labor camp, which resulted in the provision of generous assistance for the 4,000 stranded workers in the camp, and thereby called attention to the national problem presented by 1,500,000 migratory laborers.[3]
Ralph McGill, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, for his distinguished editorial writing during 1958 as exemplified in his editorial "A Church, A School..." and for his long, courageous and effective editorial leadership.[5]
