Retired AP reporter Hoyt Harwell dies at 93; covered key events in the American South

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Hoyt Garland Harwell, a longtime reporter for the Associated Press who covered key events in the American South, has died. He was 93. Harwell died June 12 at his home following an illness and his funeral was held Monday. Harwell worked at the AP for 42 years, including stints in Atlanta as well as Mobile and Birmingham in Alabama. He covered the aftermath of the 1963 bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham and the civil rights activists protesting against segregation in the South. As an AP reporter in 1988, Harwell voluntarily walked into a hostage situation with another journalist to help secure the release of elementary school students and a teacher being held by a gunman.