H. Brandt Ayers, Former Publisher of The Anniston Star, Dead at 85

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H. Brandt "Brandy" Ayers, the small-town publisher who turned The Anniston Star into a voice for integration in the 1960s, died Sunday, friends and family members say. He was 85.

“For all of my life, he was at the head of a good small newspaper, a good community newspaper and just a good newspaper of any size,” said Pulitzer-winning writer Rick Bragg, a former Star reporter. “And he put out a progressive newspaper at a time when it would have been easier to pander.”

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