Wayne Flynt

Wayne Flynt
Flynt in February 2010
Born	James Wayne Flynt (1940-10-04) October 4, 1940 (age 84) Pontotoc, Mississippi
Nationality	American
Education	Ph.D.
Alma mater	Florida State University Samford University
Occupation	Professor of History
Spouse	Dorothy
Children	2

James Wayne Flynt (born October 4, 1940) is University Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Auburn University.^[1] He has won numerous teaching awards and been a Distinguished University Professor for many years. His research focuses on Southern culture, Alabama politics, Southern religion, education reform, and poverty. He was the first Editor-in-Chief of the online Encyclopedia of Alabama. Flynt received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard College (shortly before its reorganization as Samford University) in 1961 before taking his Master of Science (1962) and Ph.D. (1965) from Florida State University. After teaching at Samford for 12 years, he joined the faculty at Auburn University in 1977, where he remained until his retirement in 2005. He was a friend of author Harper Lee.

Growing up, Flynt moved around the South frequently with his parents because his father held a series of sales jobs. The family landed a couple of occasions in Anniston, Alabama, where Flynt graduated from high school in 1958.

Flynt has written 13 books that focus largely on the historical, economic and social fabric of Alabama, including Poor But Proud: Alabama's Poor Whites (1990),^[2] and he co-wrote Alabama: A History of a Deep South State,^[3] both of which were nominated for Pulitzer Prizes. He is editor-in-chief of the online Encyclopedia of Alabama, a partnership of Auburn University and the Alabama Humanities Foundation. In 1993 he was the subject of an Alabama Public Television documentary.^[4]

In 2002, the University of Alabama journalism department named Flynt as the winner of the Clarence Cason Writing Award, given to an author writing about or closely identified with the state of Alabama.^[5] He was a longtime friend of Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird;^[6][7] and gave the eulogy at her funeral.^[8] Flynt wrote a book about his friendship with Lee after her death in 2016 titled Mockingbird Songs: My Friendship with Harper Lee (2017). He was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 2006. Wayne Flynt was presented the Eugene Current-Garcia Award in 2004.

Flynt and his late wife Dorothy have two sons, Sean and David.

• Mockingbird Songs: My Friendship with Harper Lee, 2017, published by HarperCollins.
• Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives, Archived 2018-10-12 at the Wayback Machine 2011, published by the University of Alabama Press
• Alabama: The History of a Deep South State, Archived 2017-11-08 at the Wayback Machine 2010, published by the University of Alabama Press
• Alabama in the Twentieth Century, Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine 2006, published by the University of Alabama Press
• Alabama Baptists, Archived 2010-06-10 at the Wayback Machine 2005, published by the University of Alabama Press
• Dixie's Forgotten People: The South's Poor Whites, 2004, published by Indiana University Press
• Poor but Proud, Archived 2011-08-31 at the Wayback Machine 2001, published by the University of Alabama Press
• Taking Christianity to China, Archived 2010-06-11 at the Wayback Machine 1997, published by the University of Alabama Press
• Mine, Mill, and Microchip: A Chronicle of Alabama Enterprise, 1986, published by Windsor Publications, Inc.
• Southern Poor Whites: An Annotated Bibliography with Dorothy S. Flynt, 1981, published by Garland Publishers
• Montgomery: An Illustrated History, 1980, published by Windsor Publications, Inc.
• Cracker Messiah: Governor Sidney J. Catts of Florida, 1977, published by Louisiana State University Press
• Duncan Upshaw Fletcher: Dixie's Reluctant Progressive, 1971, published by Florida State University Press

• "Wayne Flynt." Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors (Gale, 2018).