Legendary Tuscaloosa News Publisher Featured In 'Jeopardy!' Question

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The late Buford Boone, the longtime Tuscaloosa News publisher who won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for his searing editorial decrying racial violence in the city, had his illustrious contributions memorialized in a different sort of way on Wednesday.

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On the latest episode of the quiz show "Jeopardy!," a question was presented that read:

"Though these are traditionally unsigned, the Pulitzers usually name the recipient, like Buford Boone of The Tuscaloosa News"

The first attempt to answer the question during Wednesday's show was incorrect, before eventual winner Amy Schneider correctly responded that Boone won for an editorial.

That Pulitzer-winning editorial, "What a Price for Peace," stands as one of the greatest individual works of opinion writing from the Civil Rights Era and was published Feb. 7,1956. The editorial took particular issue with the University of Alabama and Tuscaloosa residents for the response to Autherine Lucy's admission to the university that February.

Boone was disgusted by the actions of the townsfolk, who reportedly threw eggs at the young woman and chanted threats of violence.

The following day, he wrote:

"No intelligent expression ever has come from a crazed mob, and it never will ... and make no mistake. There was a mob, in the worst sense, at the University of Alabama yesterday."

Despite the expected backlash from a deeply-bitter segment of Tuscaloosa's white population, Boone would be instrumental in pushing his city toward progress — at a time when very few white southern newspaper publishers held similar viewpoints.

He would go on to serve as publisher until 1968, when his son — James Jr. — purchased a controlling interest in the parent company and took over as publisher and president of the Tuscaloosa News.

Boone stayed on as chairman of the board of the newspaper until he officially retired in 1974. He died on Feb. 7, 1983 — 27 years to the day after "What a Price for Peace" was first printed.

Read the full editorial below or click here

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