MACON, Ga. (ABP) — Walker Knight, founding editor of Baptists Today, will be honored April 3 as part of the independent news journal’s 25th anniversary celebration.
Knight launched the national publication first known as SBC Today in 1983, shortly after he left the editorship of the Southern Baptist Convention Home Mission Board’s magazine, Home Missions.
Members of Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., where he has been a member since 1959, supported his endeavor, and 45 fellow church members — 12 with journalism experience — offered their time and talents to the fledgling publication.
Oakhurst provided office space and $5,000 to purchase the needed equipment to begin publication. In 1983, Knight published the first issue of the journal. It aimed to serve moderates in the struggle over control of the Southern Baptist Convention, which in 1983 was at its peak.
Knight grew up around the newspaper business in Henderson, Ky., and worked as a reporter at night while completing high school.
After military service, Knight graduated with a journalism degree from Baylor University and worked as editor of a county newspaper in Marlin, Texas. In 1950, he became associate editor of the Baptist Standard, the Texas Baptist newspaper.
He finished his tenure as editor of what became Baptists Today in 1988, when Jack Harwell began a nine-year tenure as editor. Knight continued as publisher during the early part of Harwell’s service and returned as interim editor in 1997.
The April 3 award celebration will be in Atlanta. Daniel Vestal, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, will speak at the event.
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