09/20/2007
OXFORD, Miss. – Two distinguished Mississippians with
national reputations – one a journalist, the other a lawyer
– have been named inaugural fellows at the new Overby
Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at the
University of Mississippi.
The honorees are Curtis Wilkie, holder of the Kelly G. Cook
Chair of Journalism at UM, and John R. Hailman, recently
retired assistant U.S. attorney from Oxford.
While the center’s dedication and grand opening are planned
for next spring, its first event Friday (Sept. 21) is a 5
p.m. reception featuring U.S. Sen. Trent Lott and former
Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, who is on campus for a
program with the Lott Leadership Institute. Wilkie and
Hailman are also expected to be on hand for the reception.
Known nationally for his work as political writer for The
Boston Globe, Wilkie joined the university’s journalism
faculty in 2003. Hailman has traveled worldwide for the
Justice Department, training prosecutors and educating
judges about issues related to terrorism, white-collar
crime, drug-trafficking and undercover operations.
Wilkie and Hailman are to write, lecture and conduct
programs at the Overby Center during their one-year
fellowships. “The common thread between Curtis and John is
that they are astute observers of people, they are great
storytellers and they are good writers. They represent the
very best of journalism and public service,” said Charles
L. Overby, chairman of the Freedom Forum, which funded the
building and beginning operations of the Overby Center with
a $5 million grant.
Paying tribute to Wilkie and Hailman individually, Overby
said, “Curtis is synonymous with Southern journalism and
politics. If you said those words to leading journalists in
the country, they would mention Curtis’ name immediately.
He is one of the great assets on the Ole Miss campus.
“John is a keen observer of the Southern scene. He
understands politics going back to his days in Washington
with Sen. John Stennis. He has a broad range of interests
and now that he is retired from the Justice Department, he
will be free to write about what he has seen and what he
thinks.”
Adjacent to the newly renovated journalism department
facility at Farley Hall, the Overby Center is a new
building that features 16,000 square feet of conference
space. It includes a 225-seat auditorium, a multipurpose
conference room that will accommodate 100 people for
seminars and dinners, and a boardroom seating up to 24
people.
The center soon is to have state-of-the-art technology and
video throughout the building, including a news wall with
nine large-screen TV monitors for showing live news
programs and current front pages from 12 Southern states.
“We expect to be able to take advantage of the technology
and the content at the Newseum,” said Overby, who is CEO of
the Newseum being built on Pennsylvania Avenue in
Washington D.C. It is to be the world’s most interactive
museum that focuses on the importance of a free press and
the First Amendment. It is expected to open in 2008.
Wilkie, a Greenville native and 1963 Ole Miss graduate, was
a reporter and editor at The Clarksdale Press Register from
1963 to 1969, a time when the civil rights movement was at
its height. While at The Boston Globe for 25 years, he
served as national and foreign correspondent. He covered
seven presidential campaigns for the Globe and served as
White House correspondent 1977-82. He established and
headed the Globe’s Middle East bureau and lived in
Jerusalem from 1984 to 1987. He covered numerous wars and
conflicts in the Middle East. He is a frequent contributor
to national magazines and has written or co-written three
books about the South.
Hailman, who earned his law degree from Ole Miss, received
a bachelor’s degree from Millsaps College, where his
writing professor was author Eudora Welty. He began his law
career as clerk for federal judge William C. Keady of
Greenville, then served as legal counsel to U.S. Sen. John
Stennis. He worked as a legal services attorney in Oxford
for three year and was chief of the Criminal Division in
the Office of the U.S. Attorney in Oxford. He supervised
all trials, grand jury investigations, indictments and
appellate briefs. His work for the Justice Department sent
him throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.
Aside from his legal career, Hailman is a noted wine
expert, recently writing a book on Thomas Jefferson and
wines. He was a wine columnist for The Washington Post for
three years and wrote a nationally syndicated column on
wines for some 100 newspapers for 12 years.
For more information on the journalism programs at UM,
including the Overby Center, go to
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/journalism/.
Media contact for the Freedom Forum is Susan Bennett, vice
president/marketing, at 703-284-3765 (office) or
703-615-4182 (cell).