{{short description|American journalist}}
'''Arrington High''' (1910–1988) was an American journalist and newspaper publisher. He published the ''Eagle Eye'' newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi, and was an advocate for African American civil rights.
== Biography == Source:<ref name=":2" />
Arrington High was born in 1910 to an African American mother and a Euro-American father.<ref name=":1" /> He published the ''Eagle Eye'' newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/jackson-eagle-eye/|title=Jackson Eagle Eye|last=Walton|first=Becca|website=Mississippi Encyclopedia|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IUIkiTh2l3YC&pg=PA48|title=Black Life in Mississippi: Essays on Political, Social, and Cultural Studies in a Deep South State|last=Thompson|first=Julius Eric|date=2001|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=9780761819226|pages=28|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fLC2Ei-VvuoC&pg=PA8|title=Emmett Till and the Mississippi Press|last1=Houck|first1=Davis W.|last2=Grindy|first2=Matthew A.|date=2008|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=9781604733044|pages=8|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dS4eA77qau0C&pg=PA258|title=Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power|last1=Beito|first1=David T.|last2=Beito|first2=Linda Royster|date=2009|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252034206|pages=105–106|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine|date=1988-05-16|title=Crusading Publisher Who Fled Mississippi In Casket Dies; Returns For Burial|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ULADAAAAMBAJ&q=jackson+eagle+eye+-philadelphia+mississippi+newspaper&pg=PA64|magazine=Jet|language=en|publisher=Johnson Publishing Company|pages=64}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UuMaBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA73|title=Civil Rights Childhood|last=Shakoor|first=Jordana Y.|date=2010-12-01|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=9781617030925|pages=73|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aeLwAAAAIAAJ&q=eagle+eye|title=Lynchings in Mississippi: A History, 1865–1965|last=Thompson|first=Julius Eric|date=2007|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786427222|pages=149|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-2ZbYRT9bpMC&pg=PA63|title=The African American Press: A History of News Coverage During National Crises, with Special Reference to Four Black Newspapers, 1827–1965|last=Simmons|first=Charles A.|date=2006-01-17|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786426072|pages=63|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XKpZAAAAMAAJ&q=eagle+eye|title=Percy Greene and the Jackson advocate: the life and times of a radical conservative black newspaperman, 1897–1977|last=Thompson|first=Julius Eric|date=1994|publisher=McFarland & Company Incorporated Pub|isbn=9780786400157|pages=181|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=waJZAAAAMAAJ&q=eagle+eye|title=The Black Press in the South, 1865–1979|last=Suggs|first=Henry Lewis|date=1983|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=9780313222443|pages=188, 205|language=en}}</ref> High wrote and published the ''Eagle Eye'' from his own home, located on Maple Street in Jackson.<ref name=":1" /> This weekly newspaper, a two-page mimeographed broadside, was published for 14 years.<ref name=":2" /> Copies of the newspaper were sold for ten cents and were available for purchase directly from High or from the Farish Street Newsstand.<ref name=":1" /> High was known for being a strong, outspoken advocate for social equality and civil rights.<ref name=":1" /> The banner of ''Eagle Eye'' read, "America's greatest newspaper, bombarding segregation and discrimination."<ref name=":1" />
Arrington High’s journalism evoked criticism and more within Mississippi. Initially, High was fined for publishing criticism of school segregation.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} He was later surveilled by the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission.<ref name=encyc>{{Cite web|url=https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/jackson-eagle-eye/|title=Jackson Eagle Eye|website=Mississippi Encyclopedia}}</ref> He was arrested for selling literature without a permit.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://crdl.usg.edu/people/h/high_arrington_w_1910/?Welcome|title=High, Arrington W., 1910-|website=crdl.usg.edu}}</ref> After publishing criticism of white segregationists consorting with prostitutes at a "colored" brothel, he was committed to the Mississippi State Asylum (originally opened in 1935 as the Mississippi Lunatic Asylum) in Whitfield near Jackson in October of 1957. There he was forced to work at a local dairy isolated in the woods.<ref name=":2" />
On February 7 at 5:04 am, he went out to milk the cows and begin his escape.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FLcDAAAAMBAJ |title=Jet |date=1958-02-27 |publisher=Johnson Publishing Company |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Crawford |first=Marc |date=27 February 1958 |title=I escaped from Mississippi in a Casket |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FLcDAAAAMBAJ |journal=Jet |volume=13 |issue=17 |pages=10–13 |via=Google Books}}</ref> After entering a car caravan, he escaped Mississippi by climbing in a casket to be shipping to Chicago.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dS4eA77qau0C&q=%22Arrington+High%22&pg=PA258|title=Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power|first1=David T.|last1=Beito|first2=Linda Royster|last2=Beito|date=October 29, 2009|publisher=University of Illinois Press|via=Google Books|isbn=9780252034206}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/greatmigration00wilk|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/greatmigration00wilk/page/353 353]|quote=Arrington High.|title=The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration|first=Isabel|last=Wilkerson|date=October 29, 2010|publisher=Random House|via=Internet Archive|isbn=9780679444329}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> At the 12th street station in Chicago, he was greeted by Dr. T.R.M. Howard who had himself migrated from Mississippi several years before.<ref name=":2" /> He continued publishing his newssheet from Chicago. He promoted conspiracy theories in his later publishing career.<ref name="encyc" /> He died while living with his daughter in Chicago.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ULADAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Arrington+High%22&pg=PA64|title=Jet |date=May 16, 1988|publisher=Johnson Publishing Company|via=Google Books}}</ref>
==Further reading== * ''Jackson Eagle Eye'' (September 1954 – May 1967) in ''Jet'' magazine May 16, 1988
==References== {{Reflist}}<ref name=":4" /> {{authority control}}
<ref name=":3" />
{{DEFAULTSORT:High, Arrington}} Category:1910 births Category:1988 deaths Category:Activists for African-American civil rights Category:Writers from Jackson, Mississippi Category:Journalists from Chicago Category:20th-century American journalists Category:20th-century American male journalists
{{AfricanAmerican-stub}} {{Mississippi-stub}} {{US-journalist-1910s-stub}}