Wilson's stand for journalistic principles
By Jack Guthrie, Kentucky Kernel editor (1962-1963)
October 2023
Editor’s note: Richard “Dick” Wilson, who died in April 2023 at age 85, served three decades at The Courier Journal, reporting on higher education and state capital issues. His successful career in journalism began at the Kentucky Kernel, where he was known for breaking campus stories well before they were officially announced – including the naming of UK’s new president. While at the Kernel, Wilson served as a reporter, managing editor and a famed short-lived stint as Kernel editor. He resigned after the Kernel’s adviser placed restrictions on the newspaper covering and advocating for integration of University of Kentucky athletics and of the athletic conference. He is known as “the only Kernel editor to have never published an issue,” an act that showed he stood for journalism ethics and editorial independence. Jack Guthrie, Wilson’s lifelong friend and the Kernel editor who immediately preceded Wilson, wrote of this act of journalistic courage.
Dick Wilson has the distinction of being the only Kentucky Kernel editor never to publish an issue.
The Kernel enjoyed great success in the early 1960s, as it still does today, when Dick was named editor-in-chief for the 1963-1964 school year. He had been managing editor the previous year. At the same time, the paper’s adviser, Lewis Donohew, left the University of Kentucky to finish work on his doctorate at the University of Iowa. Donohew was well respected by both students and faculty. (Fortunately, Donohew returned to UK later in his career and became a nationally recognized scholar in the Department of Communication.)
When Donohew left, a new adviser was appointed, reportedly to “tighten the reins” on the Kernel staff, especially some of its editorial positions related to calls for social change. This was the time that Dick’s problems began. During the summer of 1963, the new adviser arrived on campus and physically took over the Kernel office area and newsroom for his own office, moving the Kernel editor and student staff to another room "down the hall.”
Dick wrote me a letter, telling him what was happening on campus. I was Kernel editor the previous year and was fulfilling my military obligation in bootcamp at the U.S. Coast Guard base in Cape May, New Jersey. Of course, there was no such thing as email or cell phones, and I did not have phone privileges for eight weeks. So, writing a letter was the only way two friends could exchange information. I advised Dick to, physically, if necessary, take back his editor’s office and move the new adviser “out in the hall.”
The first time Dick met with the new adviser that summer, the meeting did not go well. In addition to taking over the Kernel offices, the adviser told Dick that although Dick was editor, the adviser was publisher, and Dick needed to follow his orders. He also told Dick that “there will be no more” integration news in the Kernel. During the previous semester, when Dick was managing editor, the Kernel successfully launched an editorial campaign calling on the University to integrate its sports programs or resign its membership in the Southeastern Conference. At the time, no schools in the SEC allowed Black athletes to participate in intercollegiate athletics.
Dick forcefully objected to this demand. He discussed the situation with me, again via U.S. mail, and with other friends, both student and faculty. Dick did the only thing a Kernel editor could do when faced with censorship. He submitted his letter of resignation to protest the challenge to the Kernel’s independence and to fight for freedom of the press. A new editor, Sue Endicott, was named, meaning Dick would never publish an issue as editor.
Later that summer, the University’s Board of Trustees and Athletic Committee voted to allow students, regardless of race, to participate in all University athletic programs. At this time, all SEC schools officially integrated all their sports teams. The Kernel had won its case.
Dick joined The State Journal in Frankfort as a staff member, later returning to UK to help with its Centennial celebration and, eventually, advising the Kernel, where he allowed students complete editorial control. He later joined the Louisville Courier Journal and became a successful and respected higher education reporter and Lexington bureau chief, headquartered in Frankfort. Dick returned to UK a third time to serve as the interim director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications, now the School of Journalism and Media, for the 2002–2003 academic year.
In honor of his long journalistic career, his service to UK in many roles (Kernel staffer, editor, adviser, and school director) and for his firm commitment to journalistic ethics and freedom of the press, Dean Jennifer Greer awarded Dick the 2022–2023 CI Leadership Award. This was presented posthumously in May 2023.