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Created page with "{{Infobox person | name=Margaret Richardson Dixon<br> (Louisiana's most influential woman journalist of the 20th century) | birth_date=February 27, 1908 | birth_place=[..."
{{Infobox person
| name=Margaret Richardson Dixon<br>
(Louisiana's most influential woman journalist of the 20th century)
| birth_date=February 27, 1908
| birth_place=[[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_place=[[Baton Rouge]], Louisiana
| death_date=June 21, 1970 (aged 62)
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
spouse=J. Muncia Dixon (married 1928)<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Roger W. and Josephine Pettit Richardson
| party= [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]}}
'''Margaret Richardson Dixon''', usually known as '''Maggie Dixon''' (February 27, 1908 – June 21, 1970), was perhaps the most influential woman journalist of 20th century [[Louisiana]]. She was the managing editor of her state's capital city newspaper, ''The Baton Rouge Advocate,'' from 1949 until her death from [[cancer]] some two decades later. She was also an active [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] who championed prison reform, assistance to the mentally ill, and [[organized labor]].<ref name=lahist/> She once addressed a Louisiana [[AFL-CIO]] convention at the behest of union president [[Victor Bussie]], also of [[Baton Rouge.
==Background==
Dixon was born in [[New Orleans]] to Roger W. Richardson and the former Josephine Pettit. In 1928, she obtained her bachelor's degree from [[Louisiana State University]] in Baton Rouge. That same year, she married J. Muncia Dixon.<ref name=lahistory>{{cite web|url=https://www.lahistory.org/resources/dictionary-louisiana-biography/dictionary-louisiana-biography-d/|title=Dixon, Margaret|publisher=Louisiana Historical Association: ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography''|accessdate=January 12, 2020}}</ref>
==Career==
She began her career in 1928 as a reporter for the defunct ''Baton Rouge State-Times,'' an afternoon daily. At the time [[Huey Long|Huey Pierce Long, Jr.]], had been elected governor and was offering a populist ageneda.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/23/archives/margaret-dixon-political-writer-editor-in-baton-rouge-dies.html|title=Margaret Dixon, Political Writer|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|date=June 23, 1970|page-43|accessdate=January 12, 2020; under pay wall}}</ref>
In 1931, she moved to the morning ''New Orleans Times-Picayune'' as women's editor and general assignment reporter, a position that she held until 1937. Thereafter she spent a year as the part-time public relations assistant for the Louisiana State Library and as the pivotal Baton Rouge correspondent for the former ''New Orleans Item'' and the wire service, [[United Press International]].<ref name=lahist/>
In 1938, Dixon became city editor of ''The Morning Advocate,'' a position that she retained until 1942, when she became assistant managing editor for some seven years. In 1949, she was promoted to her final position of managing editor.<ref name=lahist/> In her last three years at ''The Advocate,'' Kenneth L. Dixon (1915-1986) (no relation) was the editor of the editorial page.
In 1955, Dixon headed the Louisiana-[[Mississippi]] [[Associated Press]] Association. She was close to Governor [[Earl Long|Earl Kemp Long]] and often advised him on press and political strategy, according to Long's former lieutenant governor, [[Bill Dodd|William J. "Bill" Dodd]]. In 1956 and 1964, she was a delegate to the [[Democratic National Convention]]. The former met in [[Chicago]] to re-nominate former [[Illinois]] Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]], as the presidential candidate, with [[U.S. Senator]] [[Estes Kefauver]] of [[Tennessee]] as his running-mate. In 1964, the convention met in Atlantic City, [[New Jersey]], to nominate [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] and U.S. Senator [[Hubert Humphrey]] of [[Minnesota]] for the presidency and vice presidency, respectively.<ref name=lahist/> Humphrey had Baton Rouge ties, having been a graduate student at Dixon's LSU. Dixon also served on the LSU Board of Supervisors from 1951 to 1960, on the initial appointment of Governor Long.
Mrs. Dixon was a former president of the Capitol Correspondents Association. In 1965, she was secretary to the [[Mississippi River]] Parkway Commission. In 1966, she was elected to membership in the American Society of Newspaper Editors. She won the "Headliner Award" from Theta Sigma Phi, the professional journalism society, and the "Women of Achievement Award" from the Federation of Press Women. Shortly before her death, she was initiated into the Southeastern Louisiana chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, now known as the Society for Professional Journalists. She also received the "First Lady of the Year Award" from Beta Sigma Phi.
Dixon's papers from 1922 to 1969 are located at the LSU Archives. Dixon is commemorated by the Margaret Dixon Award given annually to a senior female student majoring in mass communication at LSU.
Dixon is further remembered for her work in prison reform<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FJp7dKVIl2UC&pg=PA148&lpg=PA148&dq=Rollo+C.+Lawrence&source=bl&ots=hQAvyuLGI-&sig=JnN17KqcyZ4zPse8mQnvzEr6WuE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFQQ6AEwDmoVChMI0qvV4pLvxgIVA_eACh0QHgDr#v=onepage&q=Rollo%20C.%20Lawrence&f=false|page=148-152|title=Politics and Punishment: The History of the Louisiana State Penal System|author=Mark T. Carleton|publisher=[[Louisiana State University]] Press|date=1971|isbn=0-8071-0940-1|accessdate=July 22, 2015}}</ref> through the Margaret Dixon Correctional Institute, which opened on April 1, 1976, in Jackson in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, halfway between Baton Rouge and the Mississippi state line. The prison grounds had once been part of the East Louisiana State (Mental) Hospital and were revamped to accommodate the new facility, a part of the state's attempt to decentralize inmates from the mammoth Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola in West Feliciana Parish.
In his memoirs entitled ''Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics,'' Bill Dodd described Dixon as "the only reporter I knew who had Earl's confidence and could influence him to embrace any kind of reform program. She was wholly responsible for Earl's changing our state prison system from a brutal and neglected stepchild to a fairly well-operated program. . . . "<ref>[[Bill Dodd|William J. "Bill" Dodd]], ''Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics'' (Baton Rouge: Claitor's Publishers, 1991), p. 27.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Margaret}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
| name=Margaret Richardson Dixon<br>
(Louisiana's most influential woman journalist of the 20th century)
| birth_date=February 27, 1908
| birth_place=[[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], [[United States|USA]]
| death_place=[[Baton Rouge]], Louisiana
| death_date=June 21, 1970 (aged 62)
| nationality=[[United States|American]]
spouse=J. Muncia Dixon (married 1928)<br>
'''Parents''':<br>
Roger W. and Josephine Pettit Richardson
| party= [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]}}
'''Margaret Richardson Dixon''', usually known as '''Maggie Dixon''' (February 27, 1908 – June 21, 1970), was perhaps the most influential woman journalist of 20th century [[Louisiana]]. She was the managing editor of her state's capital city newspaper, ''The Baton Rouge Advocate,'' from 1949 until her death from [[cancer]] some two decades later. She was also an active [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] who championed prison reform, assistance to the mentally ill, and [[organized labor]].<ref name=lahist/> She once addressed a Louisiana [[AFL-CIO]] convention at the behest of union president [[Victor Bussie]], also of [[Baton Rouge.
==Background==
Dixon was born in [[New Orleans]] to Roger W. Richardson and the former Josephine Pettit. In 1928, she obtained her bachelor's degree from [[Louisiana State University]] in Baton Rouge. That same year, she married J. Muncia Dixon.<ref name=lahistory>{{cite web|url=https://www.lahistory.org/resources/dictionary-louisiana-biography/dictionary-louisiana-biography-d/|title=Dixon, Margaret|publisher=Louisiana Historical Association: ''A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography''|accessdate=January 12, 2020}}</ref>
==Career==
She began her career in 1928 as a reporter for the defunct ''Baton Rouge State-Times,'' an afternoon daily. At the time [[Huey Long|Huey Pierce Long, Jr.]], had been elected governor and was offering a populist ageneda.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/23/archives/margaret-dixon-political-writer-editor-in-baton-rouge-dies.html|title=Margaret Dixon, Political Writer|publisher=''[[The New York Times]]''|date=June 23, 1970|page-43|accessdate=January 12, 2020; under pay wall}}</ref>
In 1931, she moved to the morning ''New Orleans Times-Picayune'' as women's editor and general assignment reporter, a position that she held until 1937. Thereafter she spent a year as the part-time public relations assistant for the Louisiana State Library and as the pivotal Baton Rouge correspondent for the former ''New Orleans Item'' and the wire service, [[United Press International]].<ref name=lahist/>
In 1938, Dixon became city editor of ''The Morning Advocate,'' a position that she retained until 1942, when she became assistant managing editor for some seven years. In 1949, she was promoted to her final position of managing editor.<ref name=lahist/> In her last three years at ''The Advocate,'' Kenneth L. Dixon (1915-1986) (no relation) was the editor of the editorial page.
In 1955, Dixon headed the Louisiana-[[Mississippi]] [[Associated Press]] Association. She was close to Governor [[Earl Long|Earl Kemp Long]] and often advised him on press and political strategy, according to Long's former lieutenant governor, [[Bill Dodd|William J. "Bill" Dodd]]. In 1956 and 1964, she was a delegate to the [[Democratic National Convention]]. The former met in [[Chicago]] to re-nominate former [[Illinois]] Governor [[Adlai Stevenson]], as the presidential candidate, with [[U.S. Senator]] [[Estes Kefauver]] of [[Tennessee]] as his running-mate. In 1964, the convention met in Atlantic City, [[New Jersey]], to nominate [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] and U.S. Senator [[Hubert Humphrey]] of [[Minnesota]] for the presidency and vice presidency, respectively.<ref name=lahist/> Humphrey had Baton Rouge ties, having been a graduate student at Dixon's LSU. Dixon also served on the LSU Board of Supervisors from 1951 to 1960, on the initial appointment of Governor Long.
Mrs. Dixon was a former president of the Capitol Correspondents Association. In 1965, she was secretary to the [[Mississippi River]] Parkway Commission. In 1966, she was elected to membership in the American Society of Newspaper Editors. She won the "Headliner Award" from Theta Sigma Phi, the professional journalism society, and the "Women of Achievement Award" from the Federation of Press Women. Shortly before her death, she was initiated into the Southeastern Louisiana chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, now known as the Society for Professional Journalists. She also received the "First Lady of the Year Award" from Beta Sigma Phi.
Dixon's papers from 1922 to 1969 are located at the LSU Archives. Dixon is commemorated by the Margaret Dixon Award given annually to a senior female student majoring in mass communication at LSU.
Dixon is further remembered for her work in prison reform<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FJp7dKVIl2UC&pg=PA148&lpg=PA148&dq=Rollo+C.+Lawrence&source=bl&ots=hQAvyuLGI-&sig=JnN17KqcyZ4zPse8mQnvzEr6WuE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CFQQ6AEwDmoVChMI0qvV4pLvxgIVA_eACh0QHgDr#v=onepage&q=Rollo%20C.%20Lawrence&f=false|page=148-152|title=Politics and Punishment: The History of the Louisiana State Penal System|author=Mark T. Carleton|publisher=[[Louisiana State University]] Press|date=1971|isbn=0-8071-0940-1|accessdate=July 22, 2015}}</ref> through the Margaret Dixon Correctional Institute, which opened on April 1, 1976, in Jackson in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, halfway between Baton Rouge and the Mississippi state line. The prison grounds had once been part of the East Louisiana State (Mental) Hospital and were revamped to accommodate the new facility, a part of the state's attempt to decentralize inmates from the mammoth Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola in West Feliciana Parish.
In his memoirs entitled ''Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics,'' Bill Dodd described Dixon as "the only reporter I knew who had Earl's confidence and could influence him to embrace any kind of reform program. She was wholly responsible for Earl's changing our state prison system from a brutal and neglected stepchild to a fairly well-operated program. . . . "<ref>[[Bill Dodd|William J. "Bill" Dodd]], ''Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics'' (Baton Rouge: Claitor's Publishers, 1991), p. 27.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Margaret}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Women]]
[[Category:Journalists]]
[[Category:Democrats]]