John Ray Skates
{{Short description|Mississippi historian (1934–2009)}}
John Ray Skates Jr. (October 14, 1934 – February 18, 2009) was an American historian in Mississippi. He chaired the history department at the University of Southern Mississippi.{{Cite web|url=https://wwnorton.com/author/SKATESJOHNRAY/john-ray-skates|title=John Ray Skates|website=wwnorton.com}} He wrote a history of the Mississippi Supreme Court, and his research into the history is held at USM's McCain Library and Archives.{{Cite web |title=Skates (John Ray)/ History of the Mississippi Supreme Court Research Collection |url=https://lib.usm.edu/spcol/collections/manuscripts/finding_aids/m130.html |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=lib.usm.edu}} He also wrote a book about planning for an invasion of Japan towards the end of World War II arguing it was not the preferred alternative to an atomic bomb attack and that justifying the bombing by setting it against such an invasion as the other alternative is ahistorical.{{Cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/100/3/973/20979|title=}}{{Cite journal |last=James |first=D. Clayton |date=1995-06-01 |title=The Invasion of Japan: Alternative to the Bomb. By John Ray Skates. |url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/82/1/340/737578 |journal=Journal of American History |volume=82 |pages=340|doi=10.2307/2082126 |jstor=2082126 }}{{Cite journal |last=Prados |first=John |date=1994-07-01 |title=The Invasion of Japan: Alternative to the Bomb by John Ray Skates (Book Review) - ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/5539d3a1f79ac5485a4a17b1c2eb766e/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819215 |journal=The Journal of Military History |language=en |volume=58|doi=10.2307/2944163 |jstor=2944163 }}
Life and career
Skates was born in Catchings, Mississippi in Sharkey County on October 14, 1934.{{Cite web |title=MWP: This Month in Mississippi Literary History ~ October |url=http://mwp.olemiss.edu//onthisday/october/index.html |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=mwp.olemiss.edu |archive-date=2022-05-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220512181757/http://mwp.olemiss.edu//onthisday/october/index.html |url-status=dead }} In 1956 he married Kathleen Craig Barnwell.{{Cite web|url=https://lib.usm.edu/spcol/collections/manuscripts/finding_aids/m130.html|title=StackPath|website=lib.usm.edu}} He was a colonel in the Army Reserve.{{Cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-abstract/82/1/340/737578|title=}}
Skates earned his PhD from Mississippi State University where he wrote his thesis on Frederick Sullens and the Jackson Daily News.{{Cite thesis |title=A SOUTHERN EDITOR VIEWS THE NATIONAL SCENE: FREDERICK SULLENS AND THE JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI 'DAILY NEWS' - ProQuest |degree=PhD |publisher=Mississippi State University |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/2baeceb54bb7809e1b1e0607dd22310b/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y |language=en}} He continued to publish and his writings were published in journals including: Journal of Military History and Southern Quarterly.{{Cite journal |last=Skates |first=John Ray |date=1967-07-01 |title=FROM ENCHANTMENT TO DISILLUSIONMENT: A SOUTHERN EDITOR VIEWS THE NEW DEAL - ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/73b1f51feebea53cfb7a88c98fa5124e/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2029886 |journal=Southern Quarterly |language=en |volume=5}}{{Cite journal |date=1967-10-01 |title=MISSISSIPPI HISTORY: A THEME - ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/35595c58125b681a4c3e7e418a01270a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2029886 |journal=Southern Quarterly |language=en |volume=6}}{{Cite journal |date=1971-07-01 |title=FRED SULLENS AND THE GROWTH OF ORGANIZED LABOR - ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/7c12fc40e5750783bd37eabbb5cb31bd/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=2029886 |journal=Southern Quarterly |language=en |volume=10}}{{Cite journal |date=1999-10-01 |title=The Final Months of the War with Japan: Signals Intelligence, U.S. Invasion Planning, and the A-Bomb Decision - ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/5e5d33b7a4a7c772846f9cb5bcb75c45/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=32579 |journal=Journal of Military History |language=en}}{{Cite journal |date=1998-04-01 |title="Warriors of the Rising Sun: A History of the Japanese Military", by Robert B. Edgerton (Book Review) - ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/003636a38821d49004a7533048c9efb2/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819215 |journal=Journal of Military History |language=en |volume=62}} He occasionally collaborated with David G. Sansing, another Mississippi historian, whom he'd taught as a grad student.{{Cite news |last=Hoops |first=Jana |title=Author Q&A: David Sansing |language=en-US |url=https://www.clarionledger.com/story/magnolia/books/2016/11/27/author-interview-david-sansing-mississippi-governors/94202950/ |access-date=2022-03-20}}{{Cite book |last=Eagles |first=Charles W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vnYLDgAAQBAJ&q=%2522John%2520Ray%2520Skates%2522%2520University%2520of%2520Southern%2520Mississippi%2520-skating&pg=PA225 |title=Civil Rights, Culture Wars: The Fight over a Mississippi Textbook |date=2017-02-02 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-3116-5 |pages=225 |language=en}}
Skates died in Ocean Springs, Mississippi on February 18, 2009, at the age of 74.{{cite web |title=Time Line |url=https://www.oceanspringsarchives.net/book/export/html/202 |website=Ocean Springs Archives |access-date=19 October 2024}}
Books
- Mississippi's Present and Past (1973)
- Mississippi: A History (1979){{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/mississippibicen00skat|title=Mississippi, a Bicentennial history|first=John Ray|last=Skates|date=March 20, 1979|publisher=New York : Norton|via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite news |last=Gordon |first=Mac |title=As we near 200 years of statehood, who has mattered most in Mississippi? |language=en-US |work=Clarion Ledger |url=https://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/09/14/we-near-200-years-statehood-who-has-mattered-most-mississippi/668769001/ |access-date=2022-03-20}}
- Mississippi's Old Capitol: Biography of a Building (1990){{Cite news |last=Henderson |first=Kim |date=2017-10-14 |title=The Old Capitol Bowl — Letting history students show what they know |language=en |work=The Daily Leader |url=https://dailyleader.com/2017/10/14/the-old-capitol-bowl-letting-history-students-show-what-they-know/ |access-date=2022-03-20}}
- Invasion of Japan: Alternative to the Bomb (1994).{{Cite book |last=Skates |first=John Ray |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJLtAAAAMAAJ |title=The Invasion of Japan: Alternative to the Bomb |date=1994 |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-87249-972-0 |language=en}}
- A History of the Mississippi Supreme Court, 1817-1948 (1973)
References
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Category:Historians of Mississippi
Category:Historians from Mississippi
Category:20th-century American historians
Category:University of Southern Mississippi faculty