Prescribing a double dose of ‘Southern Exposure’

“At the birthing of our magazine in 1973, long lists of prospective names were prepared. What to call a journal that challenged and criticized the region, yet embraced it as our home?

“It wasn’t long before the name Southern Exposure emerged as the obvious choice. Not only did the words carry the double message we wanted, they carried on the tradition of the muckraking journalism embodied in Stetson [Kennedy]’s original “Southern Exposure” [1946] — a tradition that links analysis to action, that tells the truth and makes clear the imperative for change….”

Bob Hall, founding editor, Southern Exposure magazine, published by the Institute for Southern Studies in Durham

 Stetson Kennedy, one of the mid-century South’s most memorable wave-makers, died Saturday at age 94. His obituaries may be the first (and last) to cite the Ku Klux Klan, Jean-Paul Sartre,  Superman, Woody Guthrie and Freakonomics.