Bill Shipp, longtime chronicler of Georgia politics, dead at 89
By JEFF AMY
Associated Press
ATLANTA (AP) — Bill Shipp, a journalist who covered politics in Georgia for more than 50 years, has died at age 89. No cause of death has been released. Shipp first gained notice in 1953 as an editor of the University of Georgia’s student newspaper writing articles criticizing the refusal to admit Black applicant Horace Ward to the university’s law school. Shipp resigned under pressure and entered the U.S. Army. He returned in 1956 to work for The Atlanta Constitution, covering civil rights and politics. Shipp rose to be a preeminent journalist, breaking the news that Jimmy Carter would run for president. Shipp founded a newsletter in 1987, later becoming a pioneering online journalist.
