John Seigenthaler

Mr. Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt in 1991 with the mission of creating national discussion, dialogue and debate about First Amendment values. A former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, he served for 43 years as an award-winning reporter, editor and publisher for The Tennessean, Nashville's morning newspaper. He was founding editorial director of USA TODAY. He left journalism briefly in the early 1960s to serve as U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s administrative assistant. During the Alabama Freedom Rides, while serving as the Kennedy administration’s chief negotiator with the Governor of Alabama, he was attacked by a mob of Klansmen and hospitalized. He retired from both The Tennessean and USA TODAY in 1991 to found the Freedom Forum funded Center at Vanderbilt. Mr. Seigenthaler has attended three API seminars: Program for General Reporters (1957) and two J. Montgomery Curtis Memorial Seminars, “The Coverage of Presidential Candidates: Press Responsibility” (1987) and “Free Speech Restrictions and The Press” (1991).