James S. Free

Who was James S. Free?

James Stillman Free was an American journalist whose 50 years of Washington-based reporting included coverage of 10 presidential administrations, seven national political conventions, the Cold War, labor relations, civil rights, and the space program.

For 33 years he served as the Washington correspondent for the Birmingham News. In a Congressional Record tribute, Sen. Howell Heflin of Alabama said of Free, "his name and writings became synonymous with Alabama political coverage and analysis in the nation's capital." Because of his pivotal reporting during the civil rights struggle, Free had unusually open access to Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

Free was chairman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents of the Congressional Press Galleries and was president of the Washington chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, as well as a member of its hall of fame.

For many years Free served as the historian of the Gridiron Club, an organization of Washington journalists. He wrote a book about the club's history, entitled, "The First One Hundred Years: A Casual Chronicle of the Gridiron Club".