The World According to Oz

By Vernon E. Jordan
Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: "as life is action and passion, it is required of man to share the actions and passions of his time, at the risk of being judged not to have lived." By Justice Holmes's standard, Oz Elliott truly lived because he shared the actions and passions of his time. I have been blessed with Oz Elliott's friendship since the early '60s. And in those years, he taught me that "friendship is the medicine of life."

Oz had enormous passion for equality of opportunity and human rights. From his editor-in-chief desk at NEWSWEEK and in the field, Oz watched us march, sit in, freedom ride, boycott and go to jail.

He saw the fire hoses; police dogs and state troopers attack young civil-rights workers—black and white—marching for freedom. He heard us singing "We shall overcome, ain't gonna let nobody turn us around, lift every voice and sing, 'til earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty."

And Oz dispatched NEWSWEEK reporters to the hot spots of the South to bring the nation the news that freedom and justice were on the march. The civil-rights movement got first-class coverage from NEWSWEEK because Oz chose advocacy journalism in a good and just cause. In 1967, NEWSWEEK published a cover story, compiling 1,200 interviews under the title "The Negro in America: What Must Be Done." Six years later, NEWSWEEK published another lead piece asking "What Ever Happened to Black America?" Oz put my face on the cover of that story, providing me, in the infancy of my succession to the late Whitney Young, instant legitimacy as a civil-rights leader and access to the corridors of power in the public and private sectors. I am forever indebted to him for that.

In 1992, Oz organized a march on Washington called "Save Our Cities, Save Our Children." Indeed, he was a true giant in the world of journalism where he left his indelible print. But Oz Elliott was also a community organizer and civic activist who shared the actions and passions of his time in this city and this nation that he loved so much.

© 2008