{"id":2568,"date":"2012-09-04T14:10:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T14:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=2568"},"modified":"2014-12-23T06:26:04","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T06:26:04","slug":"nov-15-1948-the-post-gazettes-reporter-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/04\/nov-15-1948-the-post-gazettes-reporter-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Gazette reporter Ray Sprigle disguises himself as a black man"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Photo <\/a>
(Photo credit: Unknown) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Nov. 15, 1948:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Ray Sprigle was a top-notch investigative journalist.\u00a0“He posed as a black-market meat operator to expose graft and corruption in the war-rationing system; he got himself committed to a mental institution to prove inhumane conditions; he disguised himself as a black man traveling through the South to produce a groundbreaking 21-part series in 1948” (Post-Gazette, Sept. 16, 1986).<\/p>\n

In 1937, Sprigle won the newspaper\u2019s first Pulitzer Prize for a story proving that Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, who was then newly appointed to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court by President Roosevelt, had been once a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Sprigle\u2019s report was accompanied by transcripts, names, signed affidavits, Black\u2019s application for membership in the Klan from Sept. 11, 1923, his membership dues and Black\u2019s handwritten resignation from July 9, 1925.<\/p>\n

This photograph captures Ray Sprigle posing as a black man for the 1948 series titled \u201c\u2018I was a Negro in the South for 30 Days.\u201d\u00a0In this disguise and using the name\u00a0James R. Crawford,\u00a0Sprigle traveled through the South and experienced\u00a0firsthand what life was like for 10 million people living under Jim Crow\u2019s system of legal segregation.\u00a0\u00a0To \u201cpass\u201d as an African American, as Springle writes in one of his dispatches, he \u201chad shaved\u00a0head, practically down to the skull, had my glasses reset in enormous black rims, and acquired a cap that drooped like a Tam o\u2019Shanter.\u201d\u00a0Only twice in his month-long travels was his status as a black man \u201ceven remotely questioned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ray Sprigle was a top-notch investigative journalist.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesPost-Gazette reporter Ray Sprigle disguises himself as a black man<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[946],"tags":[959,960,980,1250,1036,1037],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/tumblr_m9n6pdpHVL1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C1023&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2565,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/04\/ray-sprigles-pulitzer-winning-story-on-the-front-page-of-the-post-gazette\/","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":0},"title":"Ray Sprigle\u2019s Pulitzer-winning story on the front page of the Post-Gazette","date":"September 4, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"\" \u201cSprigle was a great reporter, but I think he would be very unhappy in this business today.\"","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/tumblr_m9tvh3Ya3h1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=965%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2571,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/09\/04\/ray-sprigles-series-black-like-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":1},"title":"Ray Sprigle’s series ‘Black Like Me.’","date":"September 4, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"For four endless, crawling weeks I was a Negro in the Deep South. I ate, slept, traveled, lived Black.\"","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Screen-Shot-2014-12-17-at-12.23.33-AM.png?fit=1200%2C540&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":901,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/03\/03\/jimmy-mckays-capital-of-crookdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":2},"title":"Jimmy McKay\u2019s \u2018capital of crookdom\u2019","date":"March 3, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Carrie Nation stormed into Pittsburgh one day in 1908, took a look at the city\u2019s taverns and declared...","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/tumblr_n1q408lViH1rr5swxo4_r1_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C443&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6910,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2016\/08\/17\/pittsburghs-unseen-queen-of-the-underworld\/","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":3},"title":"Pittsburgh’s unseen “Queen of the Underworld”","date":"August 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Nettie Gordon proved untouchable as a keeper of bawdy houses.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/20160812DigsNettieGordon006.jpg?fit=1200%2C792&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2196,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/12\/19\/sunday-christmas-shoppers-at-kaufmanns\/","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":4},"title":"Sunday Christmas shoppers at Kaufmann\u2019s","date":"December 19, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Cash registers rang out a Merry Christmas tune in the three biggest stores in the Golden Triangle on this particular Sunday.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/tumblr_mf6rmqCmFC1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C976&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2577,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/08\/31\/oct-18-1948-henry-a-wallace-who-had-been-vice\/","url_meta":{"origin":2568,"position":5},"title":"Henry A. 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