The Great Speckled Bird was started by progressive young people in Atlanta in 1968 who were against the Vietnam War and were for the Civil Rights Movement. In 2 years it became the 3 most popular weekly newspaper in Georgia. The paper published articles about rock and country music stars (among other articles) to reflect the culture of working people and youth of the South. Many political leaders,
and journalists read the paper, which was sold on the street corners for 10 to 25 cents a copy. It ofen ran complete exchanges with national journals, like THE NATION. Founding editors included Tom and Stephanie Coffin, Howard & Anne Romaine and Nan (now State Sen. Nan Orrock) and Gene Guerrero Jr. It was founded activists from Emory University and members of the Southern Student Organizing Committee, an offshoot of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and many SNCC folk contributed to the paper, like Julian Bond, founding editor of Atlanta's INQUIRER, a leading 'black weekly,' and SNCC leader, Don Stone, a leader in the black led reistance to the illegal war on Indochina, (often referred to as the Vietnam War), and Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, perhaps the leading song maker and theorist of the civil rights, women's and progressive movements of the last half century. "Atlanta's brilliant, funny, radical, cutting-edge, well-loved,
internationally known, one-and-only underground newspaper,
The Great Speckled Bird"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Speckled_Bird_(newspaper)
