Grady, Henry Woodfin

Henry Woodfin Grady, (born May 24, 1850, Athens, Ga., U.S.—died Dec. 23, 1889, Atlanta, Ga.), American journalist and orator who helped bring about industrial development in the South, especially through Northern investments, after the Reconstruction period (1865–77).

In 1876 Grady became a special reporter in Georgia for The New York Herald, and three years later he bought a quarter interest in The Atlanta Constitution, which under his leadership (1879–89) became the newspaper of largest circulation in the South.

Both in the Constitution and in his nationally publicized speeches, he promoted industrialization and crop diversification as means of revitalizing the South, and he urged a reasonable accommodation on the race issue. His most famous speech was in December 1886, when he spoke of “The New South” in New York City.