Johnson served as General Manager and Publisher alongside Editor Frederick Sullens until his death in October 1947.

On August 24, 1937, The Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News incorporated under a charter issued to Mississippi Publishers Corporation for the purpose of selling joint advertising.

[4] Historically, both newspapers, The Clarion-Ledger and the Jackson Daily News, were openly and unashamedly racist, supporting white supremacy.

"[5]In August 1963, when 200,000 people joined the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and Martin Luther King Jr. gave his now-famous "I Have A Dream" speech, The Clarion-Ledger made short note of the rally.

The Jackson Daily News prominently featured pictures of the four black players in an effort to scare the Bulldogs from playing the Ramblers.

The ploy backfired, as the Bulldogs ignored the threat and defied an order from Governor Ross Barnett to withdraw.

Their competing with the Ramblers, the eventual national champion that year, is a significant, but often overlooked, milestone of progress in race relations in sports.

[7] In the mid-1970s, Rea S. Hederman, the third generation of his family to run the paper, made a concerted effort to atone for its terrible civil rights record.

Gannett has long been well known for promoting diversity in the newsroom and covering events in communities of racial and ethnic minorities.

In 1983, The Clarion-Ledger won the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a package of stories on Mississippi's education system.