Jo Spivey

A staff writer for The Greensboro Record, she received the tip that the Greensboro Four was at the Woolworth Store. Another reporter, Marvin Sykes, wrote the first story about the sit-ins, but Spivey provided most of the coverage after that and was praised for her fairness. At one point during the sit-ins, Spivey's daughter received a threatening phone call from someone opposed to ending segregation. Spivey covered the city government beat from 1954 until 1977, then moved to health affairs and social services coverage. She began her career at 14, writing for a newspaper in Asheville. She attended Asheville-Biltmore College (now UNC-Asheville) and later studied journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she worked on the student-run Daily Tar Heel.

Spivey and other reporters on The Record won the national Roy Howard Award for community coverage in 1968, 1969, 1970. She won a Political Science Association Award in 1967 and later the Edward R. Murrow Award, presented by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. Her husband, John, was county forester for Guilford County for many years. She's retired from the newspaper, but still lives in Greensboro.

Audio (MP3)

Jo Spivey talks about how the sit-ins came about (:40)
Spivey remembers Curly Harris and the significance of sit-ins (1:10)
Spivey's daughter is threatened by the KKK (1:10)

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