American journalist, born at Athens, GA, in 1851. He was educated at the State University at Athens, and took a postgraduate course at the University of Virginia. For some time he acted as Southern correspondent of the New York Herald. Later, became editor of the Rome (GA) Daily Commercial, and afterward of the Atlanta Herald, and finally, in 1882, he became part owner and managing editor of the Atlanta Constitution, which he conducted until his death. In December 1886, he accepted an invitation to address the New England Society at their annual dinner. His address was received with the greatest enthusiasm, and the whole country was stirred by his eloquent and impassioned plea for “the New South.” He became the idol of his native state, and contributed, in a marked way, to the healing of the feuds between North and South. Just prior to his death he delivered an address on The Future of the Negro before the Merchants’ Association in Boston. He succumbed to an attack of pneumonia, contracted in New York, and died on his way home on the 23rd of December 1889. A handsome monument and a public hospital were erected in Atlanta, GA, to his memory. A biography of Henry Grady has been written by Joel Chandler Harris.
