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Texas humorist wins record libel award
On this day in 1962, a jury awarded Texas humorist John Henry Faulk $3.5
million, the largest libel judgment in history to that date. Faulk, born
in Austin in 1913, became a popular radio personality in the late 1940s.
In 1955 he ran afoul of AWARE, Inc., an influential anti-Communist
watchdog firm, in a dispute over control of the entertainers' union. In
retaliation, AWARE branded him a Communist. When Faulk discovered that
the charge prevented a radio station from making him an employment
offer, he sought redress in the courts. Attorneys for AWARE managed to
stall the suit for five years, but when the trial finally concluded, the
jury had determined that Faulk should receive more compensation than he
sought in his original petition. An appeals court subsequently reduced
the amount to $500,000, and legal fees and accumulated debts erased the
balance of the award. Despite his vindication, years passed before he
worked again as a media entertainer. He recounted his ordeal in his 1963
book Fear on Trial. Faulk served on the steering committee for
his former mentor J. Frank Dobie's Paisano Ranch, and in 1984, with the
backing of J. R. Parten, ran unsuccessfully for Congress. He died in
Austin in 1990. The Center for American History at the University of
Texas at Austin sponsors the John Henry Faulk Conference on the First
Amendment.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- FAULK, JOHN HENRY
- CENTER FOR AMERICAN HISTORY
- PAISANO RANCH
- PARTEN, JUBAL RICHARD
- TEXAS SINCE WORLD WAR II
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Texas Senate ratifies women's right to vote (1919)
- Texas Jack Omohundro dies (1880)
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