John Temple Graves II papers

The son of Atlanta newspaper editor and orator John Temple Graves and Anne Cothran, John Temple Graves II was born on April 25, 1892, in Rome, Georgia. Graves attended Princeton University, graduating in 1915, and studied law at George Washington University. On October 17, 1931, Graves married Rose Duncan in Birmingham, Alabama.

He briefly worked as an economist at the Federal Trade Commission before beginning a career in journalism that spanned more than three decades. After his father's death in 1925, Graves moved to Florida and began writing articles for what had been his father's column in the Palm Beach Times. In 1929, he moved to Birmingham and began writing a daily column, "This Morning," for the Birmingham Age-Herald. In 1946, Graves left theAge-Herald to join the staff of the Birmingham Post, where he continued to write his column under the new title "This Afternoon." Graves's columns were syndicated and reprinted in newspapers throughout the South. Like his father, Graves was also known as an accomplished lecturer, speaking to audiences throughout the nation. By the end of his career Graves had become an outspoken supporter of segregation and state's rights. His book The Fighting South, published in 1943, offered a defense of segregation and denounced federal intervention into Southern politics.

Graves died on May 19, 1961, shortly after defending his racial views on the national CBS Reports broadcast "Who Speaks for Birmingham?"