The McGill program honors Ralph McGill's courage as editor of The Atlanta Constitution. McGill was regarded as the "conscience of the south" for his editorials challenging racial segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1958 for "long, courageous, effective leadership."
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The McGill program is growing.

For nearly 40 years, the McGill Lecture has brought significant figures in journalism to the University of Georgia to help us honor Ralph McGill's courage as an editor.

In 2007, we added the McGill Symposium, bringing together students, faculty and leading journalists to consider what journalistic courage means and how it is exemplified by reporters and editors.

In 2009, we awarded the first McGill Medal to a U.S. journalist whose career has exemplified journalistic courage.

All of this is for a single purpose: to advance journalistic courage.