Henry Woodfin Grady | |
---|---|
Born |
Athens, Georgia, USA |
May 24, 1850
Died | December 23, 1889 Georgia, USA |
(aged 39)
Henry Woodfin Grady (May 24, 1850 – December 23, 1889) was a journalist and orator who helped reintegrate the states of the former Confederacy into the Union after the American Civil War. Grady encouraged the industrialization of the South.
As a teenager, Grady witnessed fierce Civil War fighting in his home state of Georgia and his father William was killed by a Union soldier. After his father's death, he was raised by his mother Anne in Athens, Georgia. He was educated in the classical tradition of a southern gentleman of the time at the University of Georgia (Bachelor of Arts in 1868). In 1867, he became a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society, and later attended the University of Virginia to study law, but became especially interested in Greek and Anglo-Saxon languages, history, and literature, which led to a career in journalism.
Grady was a lifelong devoted member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He was a charter member of the Eta Chapter of Chi Phi at the University of Georgia. In 1882 he was elected as the first Grand Alpha (National President) from the south after the union of the Northern and Southern Orders of Chi Phi in 1874.
Upon graduation, he held a series of brief journalistic jobs with the Rome Courier, the Atlanta Herald, and the New York Herald. After working in New York City, Grady returned to the South as a reporter-editor for the Atlanta Constitution.