Emily Barnelia Woodward

{{Short description|American journalist (1885–1970)}} {{Infobox writer | name = Emily Barnelia Woodward | birth_name = Emily Barnelia Woodward | image = Emiily Woodward circa 1937.png | caption = Woodward circa 1937 | birth_date =  | birth_place = [[Vienna, Georgia]], U.S. | death_date =  | death_place = [[Vienna, Georgia]], U.S. | occupation = Journalist | alma_mater = [[Gordon State College]]<br>[[LaGrange College]] | awards = Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame<br>[[Georgia Women of Achievement]] | years_active = }}

'''Emily Barnelia Woodward''' (May 2, 1885 – March 23, 1970) was an American journalist and advocate. She served as the editor for the ''Vienna News'' and later became its sole owner. Later in life, she became actively involved in advocating in several areas relating to reforms in Georgia. Woodward was posthumously inducted into the [[Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame]] and the [[Georgia Women of Achievement]].

==Biography==

=== Early life and career === Woodward was born on May 2, 1885, on a large plantation near the south-central town of [[Vienna, Georgia]].<ref name=bio>{{cite web|last1=Gurr|first1=Steve|title=Emily Woodward (1885–1970)|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/emily-woodward-1885-1970|website=New Georgia Encyclopedia|publisher=Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press|access-date=July 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201025/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/emily-woodward-1885-1970|archive-date=March 3, 2016|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref name=achievement>{{cite web|title=Emily Barnelia Woodward |url=https://www.georgiawomen.org/emily-barnelia-woodward|publisher=Georgia Women of Achievement|access-date=June 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613010436/https://www.georgiawomen.org/emily-barnelia-woodward|archive-date=June 13, 2020|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> She was the daughter of Nancy Barnelia McCormick and John Hartwell Woodward,<ref name=bio/> and grew up in a comfortable affluent household.<ref name=achievement/> She had one brother.<ref name=independent1928>{{cite news|title=Feminine Journalism wins in Georgia|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19280903&id=GuBPAAAAIBAJ&pg=4052,2078445&hl=en|work=Evening Independent|date=September 3, 1928|page=3|access-date=July 6, 2016|archive-date=December 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213090555/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19280903&id=GuBPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pVQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4052%2C2078445&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref> Woodward attended public schools across in the Vienna area, and graduated from [[Gordon State College]] in 1910. She began a career in journalism six years later when she was made the editor of the ''Vienna News'', which had been brought by members of her family and became its editor in 1917.<ref name=achievement/> Woodward was made the sole owner of the newspaper in 1918.<ref name=bio/> She wanted to become involved in journalism from an early age, and studied law from her brother's office, though she disliked the subject.<ref name=independent1928/> In the period she was editor, Woodward became one of the most recognizable journalistic women in the [[Southern United States]], and had close connections with the [[University of Georgia]]'s journalist faculty.<ref name=bio/>

In August 1927, Woodward was elected the first women president of the Georgia Press Association,<ref name=achievement/> and in the following year, she founded the Georgia Press Institute, which organizes annual gatherings of newspaper editors in Georgia.<ref name=bio/> She became a member of the State Democratic Committee and attended the [[1928 Democratic National Convention]].<ref name=achievement/> Woodward sold ''Vienna News'' in 1933,<ref name=bio/> and three years later, she authored the book ''Empire: Georgia Today in Pictures and Paragraphs,'' which is centred on the first visual photographs of Georgia's history.<ref name=achievement/> Her popularity increased throughout the 1930s when she was a freelance journalist for the ''[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|Atlanta Journal]]'', which led to a high demand for her to speak at events across the United States. Due to this, Woodward was invited to direct the Georgia Public Forums, a direct adult education program that started in the fall of 1938.<ref name=bio/>

She became a fervid [[New Deal]] Democrat,<ref name=bio/> and courted controversy in the 1940s when she advocated for the reform of prisons by holding town hall meetings at [[Atlanta Federal Penitentiary]]; she took part in the 1943 Atlanta Conference on Race Relations. Woodward became an advocate of training and empowering leaders in Georgia.<ref name=achievement/> Her book, ''Forums: Why and How'' was published by the [[University of Georgia Press]] in 1943.<ref name=bio/> She was the University of Georgia's Director of Forums between 1938 and 1944, and was the founder of the university's first Leadership Institute; she held the post of its director from 1943 to 1950. Woodward flew to Great Britain in 1944 at the invitation of the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|British Ministry of War Information]] and the [[United States Office of War Information]] to hold forums to people in England and Scotland for 12 weeks with the intention of improving [[United Kingdom–United States relations]].<ref name="achievement" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gordonstate.edu/pdf/PR2004.pdf|title=The Lady of Embarwood – Emily Barnelia Woodward – Championed Democracy|last=Boltz|first=Peter|date=Fall 2004|publisher=Gordon State College|pages=3–7|access-date=July 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170112080625/https://www.gordonstate.edu/pdf/PR2004.pdf|archive-date=January 12, 2017|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Woodward broadcast on [[BBC Radio]] while under attack from Axis bombing.<ref name="achievement" />

=== Later career, death, and legacy === After World War II ended, she was asked by the [[United States Department of State]] and the [[United States Department of War]] to serve on [[Douglas MacArthur]]'s committee on education starting from February 1946. She flew to Japan where she travelled to the schools in the country, and discussed on what tasks need to be completed to help modernize their education system.<ref name=achievement/><ref name=":0" /> After returning to Georgia, Woodward was an early proponent on saving the public schools of the state when advocates of segregation wanted them to be closed due to [[Brown v. Board of Education]], and in the early 1960s. she was one of two people from outside of Atlanta that signed on to join the city's H.O.P.E. (Help Our Public Education) project. She died in Vienna, Georgia, on March 23, 1970.<ref name=bio/> In her lifetime, Woodward was awarded honorary degrees from the University of Georgia and [[LaGrange College]], and was made an inductee of the [[Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame]] in 1976.<ref name=gpa1976>{{cite news | title=News Hall of Fame Chooses Three More | newspaper=Atlanta Journal-Constitution | page=7C | date=February 29, 1976 | url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54546275/news-hall-of-fame-chooses-three-more/ | via=newspapers.com | access-date=July 2, 2020 | archive-date=July 3, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200703032414/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54546275/news-hall-of-fame-chooses-three-more/ | url-status=live }}</ref> She was posthumously inducted into the [[Georgia Women of Achievement]] in a ceremony held at [[Wesleyan College]] on March 11, 2004.<ref>{{cite news|last=McDaniel|first=Jan|title=Murphy will be honored on March 11|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=365&dat=20040302&id=UQUwAAAAIBAJ&pg=6058,16595&hl=en|work=The Cedartown Standard|date=March 2, 2004|page=2|access-date=July 6, 2016|archive-date=December 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201213090550/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=365&dat=20040302&id=UQUwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FT8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6058%2C16595&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref>

== External links ==

*[https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library], Emory University: [http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/902d5 Emily Woodward papers, 1918-1968]

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodward, Emily Barnelia}} [[Category:1885 births]] [[Category:1970 deaths]] [[Category:People from Vienna, Georgia]] [[Category:Gordon State College alumni]] [[Category:Journalists from Georgia (U.S. state)]] [[Category:LaGrange College alumni]] [[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) Democrats]] [[Category:20th-century American people]]