James H. Gray Sr.

Notable work and positions

Gray Communications Systems, Inc. (now Gray Media) - Founder
The Albany Herald - Editor and Publisher
WALB-TV - Founder

Biography

James Harrison Gray Sr. (1916-1986) founded Gray Communications Systems, Inc., now Gray Media, one of the largest television broadcasting companies in the United States. Born in Westfield, Massachusetts, he graduated from Dartmouth College, studied at the University of Heidelberg, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II, training at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia. He moved to Albany, Georgia, in 1946, where he purchased The Herald Publishing Company, becoming editor and publisher of The Albany Herald, a newspaper founded in 1891. He subsequently bought WALB radio and, by 1953, expanded into television, building WALB-TV, which went on the air in 1954. Gray also served as chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party and was a candidate for governor of Georgia in 1966, finishing fourth in a five-person primary. He was elected mayor of Albany in 1973, a position he held until his death, during which the city built the Albany Mall and the Albany Civic Center, later renamed in his honor. Gray was a prominent segregationist figure during the civil rights era, publicly opposing Martin Luther King Jr.'s Albany Movement and purchasing a public swimming pool to prevent its use by African Americans. He died of a heart attack in 1986. The company he founded grew after his death into Gray Media, now owning or operating roughly 180 television stations across 113 U.S. markets.

Career highlights

• Founded Gray Communications Systems, Inc. 1946 · Grew from The Albany Herald and WALB-TV into what is now Gray Media, a major U.S. television broadcaster.
• Editor and Publisher, The Albany Herald 1947-1986.
• Mayor of Albany, Georgia 1973-1986.