John Egerton (journalist)

John Egerton (June 14, 1935 — November 21, 2013) was an American journalist and author known for his writing on the Civil Rights Movement, Southern food, history of the South, and Southern culture.

Egerton wrote or edited approximately twenty non-fiction books and one "contemporary fable". He also contributed chapters to numerous other volumes and wrote scores of articles in newspapers and magazines. Egerton was a participant and writer for many projects and conferences dealing with education, desegregation, civil rights, and the American South; particularly its food. Among his best-known books are "The Americanization of Dixie", "Generations: An American Family", "Southern Food: At Home, on the Road, in History", and "Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation before the Civil Rights Movement in the South".

Egerton's Speak Now Against the Day: The Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement in the South won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He also wrote Southern Food: At Home, On the Road, In History and coedited Nashville: An American Self-Portrait, a look at his adopted city to in the 1960s. In June 2013, five months before his own death, Egerton spoke at the memorial service for preacher and civil rights activist Will D. Campbell.

A native of Atlanta, Egerton was the son of traveling salesman William G. Egerton and his wife Rebecca White. The family settled in the small Kentucky city of Cadiz, where John graduated from Trigg County High School in 1953. He attended Western Kentucky University 1953-54, then served in the U.S. Army 1954-56. He earned a B.A. degree from the University of Kentucky in 1958 and an M.A. in 1960.

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