Grady College, The Red & Black receive donation to support student journalism

The Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and The Red & Black have received a total of $1 million to support the advancement of excellence in journalism for University of Georgia students. This gift was divided equally between Grady College and The Red & Black Publishing Company, the nonprofit independent UGA student-led news organization. 

The gift was made to the new Celestia “Lessie” Bailey Smithgall Experiential Learning Fund in honor of Tom Johnson, a 1963 graduate of Grady College and former editor of The Red & Black. 

Smithgall is a 1933 Grady College graduate and alumna of The Red & Black.

“All of us at Grady College are deeply indebted to our generous anonymous donor, who will help students for generations in honor of one of our greatest, Tom Johnson,” said Charles N. Davis, dean of Grady College. “Between Lessie who was an incredible pioneer of women in media and played a pivotal role in the creation of the Peabody Awards, and Tom who remains one of our most active and loyal alumni, we are grateful for the strength of the Grady network.”

The experiential learning fund is named after Smithgall, a champion for local news. After college, she took a job as a copywriter at radio station WGST where she met her husband, Charles Smithgall. Charlie and Lessie went on to co-found The Gainesville Daily Times in 1947 which they owned until 1981. Lessie died in 2021. She was 110 years old.

Johnson graduated from UGA, earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and won a White House Fellowship. He became deputy White House press secretary in 1967 and was appointed executive assistant to former President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1969. Tom’s illustrious career included roles as editor/publisher of The Dallas Times Herald, president/publisher of the Los Angeles Times and chairman/president of CNN. In 2025, he published a memoir entitled, “Driven: A Life in Public Service and Journalism from LBJ to CNN.”

The contributions to the Smithgall Student Experiential Learning Fund were made in honor of Johnson and The Red & Black to champion publishing company’s legacy and sustaining mission, and to support the advancement of excellence in journalism education for Grady College students. The gift to Grady College will go toward funding programs such as The Oglethorpe Echo, Grady Newsource, study away and student equipment and production needs.

One of Smithgall’s legacies to Grady College is the pivotal role she played in the creation of the Peabody Awards. Both Lessie and Charlie worked at WSB radio before purchasing the Gainesville Daily Times. Lessie introduced her boss at WSB, Lambdin Kay, to John Drewry, then dean of Grady School, later named Grady College. Kay, who also served on the executive committee of the National Association of Broadcasters, wanted to find a home for awards that recognized excellence in radio, similar to the Pulitzer Prize.

Following the introduction, Kay and Drewry created the Peabody Awards, the world’s oldest and most prestigious award for honoring stories that matter in broadcast and electronic media. The first awards were presented on March 29, 1941, at the Commodore Hotel in New York City.

In a 2019 article from The Red & Black written on her 108th birthday, Lessie reflected upon her life and the newspaper industry. Smithgall said at the time that she believed print journalism would be around for years to come because “you want to know what your neighbor is doing.”

In offering her advice for future journalists, she reiterated her life-long dedication to journalism.

“Write for your local newspapers and print journalism because I hope it will stay,” Smithgall said in 2019.

Authors: Charlotte Varnum, cvarnum@randb.com

Sarah Freeman, freemans@uga.edu