Editing Virginius Dabney

{{Short description|American teacher, journalist, writer, and editor (1901–1995)}}
{{For|the American football coach|Virginius Dabney (American football)}}{{Infobox person
| name               = Virginius Dabney
| image              =
| image_size         = 
| caption            = 
| birth_date         = February 8, 1901
| birth_place        = [[Charlottesville, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1995|12|28|1901|2|8}}
| death_place        = [[Richmond, Virginia]], U.S.
| education          = [[University of Virginia]]
| occupation         = Teacher, journalist, writer, editor
| spouse             = {{marriage|Douglas Harrison Chelf|1923|1994|end=died}}
| children           = 3
| awards             = [[Pulitzer Prize]] (1948)
}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2014}}

'''Virginius Dabney''' (February 8, 1901 – December 28, 1995) was an American teacher, journalist, and writer, who edited the ''[[Richmond Times-Dispatch]] ''from 1936 to 1969 and wrote several historical books. Dabney won the [[Pulitzer Prize]] for editorial writing in 1948 due in part to his opposition to the [[Poll tax (United States)|poll tax]].<ref name="nytimes">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/29/us/virginius-dabney-94-southern-writer-who-fought-segregation.html |title=Virginius Dabney, 94, Southern Writer Who Fought Segregation |work=[[New York Times]] |date=December 29, 1995}}</ref> In his later years, he became the first Rector of [[Virginia Commonwealth University]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nitschke |first=Marie Morris |title=Virginius Dabney (1901–1995) |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/dabney-virginius-1901-1995/ |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="encyclopediavirginia.org">{{Cite web |title=Dabney, Virginius (1901–1995) – Encyclopedia Virginia |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/dabney-virginius-1901-1995/ |accessdate=May 5, 2021}}</ref> 

==Youth, education==
Virginius Dabney was born on February 8, 1901, at the [[University of Virginia]] in [[Charlottesville, Virginia]], where his father, Richard Heath Dabney, was a professor of history.<ref name="wapo-1947">{{cite news |title=Dr. Dabney Dies; Famous Va. Professor |date=May 17, 1947 |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |page=3 |url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/215189082.html?dids=215189082:215189082&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=May+17%2C+1947&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post++%281877-1954%29&edition=&startpage=3&desc=Dr.+Dabney+Dies%3B+Famous+Va.+Professor |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021155933/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/215189082.html?dids=215189082:215189082&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=May+17,+1947&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post++(1877-1954)&edition=&startpage=3&desc=Dr.+Dabney+Dies%3B+Famous+Va.+Professor |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 21, 2012 }}</ref> His mother was a descendant of [[Thomas Jefferson]]. His paternal grandfather (also Virginius Dabney, 1835-1894) was a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] veteran and author of collections of tales about the Commonwealth.

Dabney graduated from [[Episcopal High School (Alexandria, Virginia)|Episcopal High School]] in [[Alexandria, Virginia]]. He then studied at the University of Virginia, where he was a brother in the [[Delta Kappa Epsilon]] fraternity (Eta chapter). He lived at the [[Dabney–Thompson House]] until his father sold that home in 1907.<ref name="VAnom">{{cite web |author=Edward |first=D. |date=n.d. |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Dabney-Thompson House |url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Charlottesville/DabneyThompsonSurveyForm.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927065348/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Cities/Charlottesville/DabneyThompsonSurveyForm.pdf |archive-date=September 27, 2012 |access-date=October 15, 2013 |publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

==Teacher, journalist, editor==
After teaching for a year at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, in 1922, Dabney went to work in [[Richmond, Virginia]], as a journalist at ''[[The Richmond News Leader]]'', which was then edited by [[Douglas S. Freeman]]. During this period he was also Virginia correspondent for the ''[[Baltimore Evening Sun]]'', where he came to the attention of [[H. L. Mencken]]. In 1928, he left ''The News Leader'' for the ''[[Richmond Times-Dispatch]]'', where he became Chief Editorial Writer in 1934, and editor in 1936. During his time with the ''Richmond Times-Dispatch'' Dabney also served as the Upper South correspondent for the ''[[New York Times]]''.<ref name=EVDVB />

As editor, Dabney was responsible for the editorial page. He editorialized against [[Adolf Hitler]] and in favor of wage and hour laws for women. He was, for his time, a [[American Progressivism|progressive]], and at times a [[Liberalism in the United States|liberal]] voice, opposing the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and the [[Poll tax (United States)|poll tax]]. He was not afraid to take on the [[Byrd Organization]], a political machine of Governor (and later Senator) [[Harry F. Byrd]] that dominated Virginia's politics from the late 1920s until 1969.<ref name=EVDVB /> He was also known for opining on less-serious topics, such as the death of [[Ellen Glasgow]]'s dog,<ref name="vqr">{{cite web |url=http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1977/summer/mapp-lively/ |title=The Lively Lives of Two Localities |work=[[Virginia Quarterly Review]] |date=Summer 1977 }}</ref> and on the qualities of [[grits]] and [[mint julep]]s.<ref name="life">{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JkoEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22virginius+dabney%22+%22mint+julep%22+life&pg=PA6 |title=Mint Juleps |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=June 17, 1946}}</ref> He served on the Southern Policy Committee and the Southern Conference for Human Welfare. In 1948, he was awarded the [[Pulitzer Prize]] for editorial writing.  He served as president of the [[American Society of Newspaper Editors]] in 1957–58. He was also a member of the [[Peabody Awards]] [[The George Foster Peabody Awards Board of Jurors|Board of Jurors]] from 1940 to 1942.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.peabodyawards.com/stories/story/george-foster-peabody-awards-board-members|title=The Peabody Awards - George Foster Peabody Awards Board Members<!-- Bot generated title -->|accessdate=May 5, 2021}}</ref>

On March 1, 1952, Dabney guest starred on the [[CBS]] live variety show, ''[[Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town]]'', in which hostess [[Faye Emerson]] visited Richmond to accent the kinds of music popular in the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ctva.biz/US/MusicVariety/FayeEmersonsWonderfulTown.htm|title=''Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town''|publisher=Classic Television Archives|access-date=September 2, 2013}}</ref>

In the 1950s, Dabney's editorials took on a more conservative tone. Although he was personally opposed to [[massive resistance]] against [[desegregation]] of Virginia's public schools, the owners of the ''Times-Dispatch'' did not allow him to editorialize against it. Offended by the student activists of the 1960s, Dabney was ambivalent about [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], whom he admired for his courage regarding the [[civil rights movement]], but disdained for his "trouble-making" and what Dabney termed "unfair" attacks on the [[Vietnam War]].

==Later years==
Dabney retired from the ''Times-Dispatch'' in 1969, having agreed the previous year to become the first rector of [[Virginia Commonwealth University]] (created after the merger of the [[Medical College of Virginia]] and the [[Richmond Professional Institute]]), but he resigned after less than a year, in part because of protests from Afro-American students, although he remained on the governing board for many years and also wrote its history, ''Virginia Commonwealth University: A Sesquicentennial History'' (1987).<ref name="encyclopediavirginia.org"/> Active in the [[Virginia Historical Society]], Dabney served on its executive committee for three decades and as president from 1969 to 1972.

Dabney continued writing during his retirement. Receiving a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]], he wrote ''Virginia: The New Dominion'' (1971, which became the state history textbook for years). His other books written during this time included ''Richmond: The Story of a City'' (1976), ''Across the Years: Memories of a Virginian'' (1978, his autobiography), ''Mr. Jefferson's University: A History'' (1981) and ''Pistols and Pointed Pens: The Dueling Editors of Old Virginia'' (1987). His most criticized book may have been ''The Jefferson Scandals, a Rebuttal'' (1981), which concerned the [[Sally Hemings]] allegations. Compilations of his newspaper columns were also published as  ''The Last Review: The Confederate Reunion, Richmond, 1932'' (1984) and ''Virginius Dabney's Virginia: Writings about the Old Dominion'' (1986).<ref name="encyclopediavirginia.org"/>

==Personal life==
Dabney married Douglas Harrison Chelf in 1923.<ref name=EVDVB>{{cite web|last1=Morris Nitschke|first1=Marie|title=Virginius Dabney (1901–1995)|url=http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Dabney_Virginius_1901-1995|publisher=[[Encyclopedia Virginia]]/[[Dictionary of Virginia Biography]]|access-date=15 June 2015}}</ref> They had two daughters. Dabney and his wife had been married for 69 years when she died in 1994.<ref name=EVDVB/> Dabney died the following year, in his sleep at his Richmond home on December 28, 1995, aged 94.

==Bibliography==

The following are books by Virginius Dabney:
*''The Patriots'' (editor)
*''Liberalism in the South'' (1932)
*''Below the Potomac'' (1943)
*''Dry Messiah: The Life of Bishop Cannon'' (1949, a revised edition of an unpublished 1929 text)
*''Virginia: The New Dominion'' (1971)
*''Richmond: The Story of a City'' (1976)
*''Across the Years: Memories of a Virginian'' (1978)
*''Mr. Jefferson's University'' (1981)<ref>{{cite book |url=http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=2006_01/uvaBook/tei/b000325415.xml&query=virginius%20dabney |title=Mr. Jefferson's University |year=1981 |publisher=University Press of Virginia}}</ref>
*''The Jefferson Scandals: A Rebuttal'' (1981)
*''The Last Review: The Confederate Reunion, Richmond, 1932'' (1984)
*''Virginius Dabney's Virginia: Writings about the Old Dominion'' (1986)
*''Virginia Commonwealth University: A Sesquicentennial History'' (1987)
*''Pistols and Pointed Pens: The Dueling Editors of Old Virginia'' (1987)

The item following was by this author's grandfather of the same name:
* ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73601 The Story of Don Miff: as told by his friend John Bouche Whacker]'' (1886)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*Oral History Interviews with Virginius Dabney [http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/A-0311-1/menu.html], [http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/A-0311-2/menu.html] from [http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/ Oral Histories of the American South]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dabney, Virginius}}
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1995 deaths]]
[[Category:American male journalists]]
[[Category:Burials at Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia)]]
[[Category:Episcopal High School (Alexandria, Virginia) alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Richmond, Virginia]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing winners]]
[[Category:University of Virginia alumni]]
[[Category:Historians of Virginia]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Charlottesville, Virginia]]
[[Category:20th-century American historians]]
[[Category:Journalists from Virginia]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American journalists]]
[[Category:Historians from Virginia]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Society of News Editors]]