Charles Ferguson

Making Modern New Orleans

Jack and Justin discuss their interview with Charlie Ferguson - who was once Jack's boss back in the 1970s and early 1980s when they were both at the States-Item and after when that paper's team took over the Times-Picayune. Jack suggests that Ferguson had more of a positive impact on New Orleans journalism than anyone else in the latter half of the twentieth century, a record for which this episode makes a case. Ferguson began working in journalism when he was a copy boy in his father's office, and went on to become a reporter in the early 1960s for the New Orleans States-Item. At the age thirty-two he was made that paper's editor, a move that ushered in an era of aggressive reporting in an era when the city underwent profound change. We cover everything from the relationship between the paper and politics to the desegregation of Carnival, the emergence of food criticism in the city, and the impressive team of young journalists Ferguson assembled at the States-Item and later Times-Picayune.