2000 Citizen of the Year
Recipient

Dr. Flynt was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, grew up in Alabama, and attended Samford University where he was a history/theology student. After graduation, he continued his studies at Florida State University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1965, specializing in Southern political history.

In subsequent years, his research interests turned to poverty and religion. Of his ten books, three deal with poverty and two with evangelical religion. Two of his books have been nominated for Pulitzer Prizes, and one of them won the Lillian Smith Award for Nonfiction, which is given by the Southern Regional Council. Two of his books have won the Alabama Library Association prize for best works of nonfiction, twice he has been awarded the James Sulzby Book Award for best works on Alabama history by the Alabama Historical Association, and twice the University of Alabama Press has bestowed the McMillan Prize on his manuscripts as the best received in history.

Dr. Flynt is also a community activist, having served for a decade on the American Cancer Society’s Committee for the Socioeconomically Disadvantaged, as a founder of the Alabama Poverty Project, and as a member of Voices for Alabama’s children. These involvements resulted in his selection by the Mobile Resister as Alabamian of the Year in 1992 and for the Friend of Children Award by the Children’s Hospital of Alabama in 1994. He was also asked by Gov. James. E. Folsom Jr. and Judge Eugene Reese to act as the official facilitator of Alabama’s school equity funding lawsuit, which was an attempt by three groups of plaintiffs to ensure adequate and equitable funding for Alabama’s public schools.

Professor Flynt has spoken around the world on problems of the poor, including a lecture tour of India sponsored by the U.S. Information Service. In addition, he has been a visiting scholar and lecturer in Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China. He has served as a consultant to major newspapers, wire services, broadcast media, and professional groups worldwide.

One source summed it up by stating: “Wayne Flynt is the conscience of Alabama.”