page_title: Julia Collier Harris
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Julia Collier Harris / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Mrs. Julian La Rose Harris &amp; Marcel Lenoir circa 1917
context_page_description: Julia Collier Harris was an American writer and journalist. She wrote the earliest biography of Joel Chandler Harris, her husband's father. As owners and publishers of the Columbus Enquirer Sun she and her husband won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. She has been inducted into three Georgia halls of fame: Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame, Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, and Georgia Women of Achievement.
context_section_description: She began her own journalism career in 1911 at The Atlanta Constitution as well, writing on literary topics, the arts and club news. She was also state editor for the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs.
  Around this time her husband Julian was business manager for his father's Uncle Remus Magazine, but his father died in 1908, and the magazine folded in 1913. The couple moved to New York City, where Julian wrote for the New York Herald and Julia wrote for their Herald Syndicate under the pseudonym Constance Bine. She wrote a series of features for the Herald from Paris, and as a result she was one of only two women who were present at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919. She wrote for the syndicate from 1916 to 1920.
  While she was writing for Herald, she worked on two books. Her first was a translation of Romanian folk tales. Her second was the first biography of Joel Chandler Harris, and that 1918 book remains a primary resource for scholars of his work. She was also later instrumental in establishing a collection of his papers at Emory University's Robert W. Woodruff Library.
  In 1920 the couple moved back to Georgia and pooled their money to purchase an interest in (and later, full ownership of) the Columbus newspaper Enquirer-Sun. The newspaper broke ground by identifying politicians who were secretly members of the Ku Klux Klan and by publishing news of the black community.
  Harris wrote a series of articles that helped defeat anti-evolution bills in the Georgia General Assembly in 1924 and 1925. She identified herself as a theistic evolutionist. Other topics she editorialized included campaigns against convict leasing and lynching. Between 1922 and 1929 she wrote hundreds of editorials for the paper, many of which were reprinted in other newspapers.
  As a result of this work, the Columbus Enquirer-Sun won the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. It was the first Pulitzer Prize to be awarded to people from Georgia. Julian accepted the honor for his wife and said of her, "She is not only vice president of the Enquirer Sun Company, but a fearless associate editor, unyielding in the face of injustice of any kind, and a constant inspiration." 
  Harris, her husband, and Mildred Seydell were the only journalists from Georgia who reported in person from the Scopes Trial in 1925. Harris' husband covered the daily progress of the trial, while she wrote in-depth pieces and editorials that explained evolution. Her husband said that "Julia is the better writer." 
  Their outspoken editorials made them many enemies in Columbus, which caused advertising revenue to plummet. This forced them to sell the newspaper in 1929. 
  A good newspaper woman must continue to study as well as to observe, and must prepare herself continuously against every emergency. My own all-round equipment as a writer has enabled me to take advantage of almost every opportunity that has come my way.
  — Julia Collier Harris, quoted in Concerning The Fourth Estate, 1942 
  Julian returned to The Atlanta Constitution, and Julia worked on her third book, a collection of her father-in-law's essays. In 1935 her husband became the executive editor of the Chattanooga Times, and she wrote features, editorials, book reviews. and a weekly column for that paper.
  Poor health and bouts of depression forced her to retire in 1938, but she continued to mentor young journalists until her death. In 1942 the Harrises returned to Atlanta, where Julian was a correspondent for The New York Times until he retired in 1945.
  Outside of her career, Harris was active in the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching and the League of Women Voters. She was also a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution as well as the Georgia Federation of Women's Clubs, in which she held several offices.
caption: Harris with Marcel-Lenoir circa 1917
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