John Ross Baughman, known as J. Ross Baughman, is an American photojournalist who won a Pulitzer Prize for his portfolio showing the brutal treatment of prisoners by Rhodesian Security Forces personnel in the fall of 1977.
Early life and photographic career
Baughman was born in Dearborn, Michigan to Charles T. Baughman, an executive for the Ford Motor Company and Patricia Baughman. He attended Marion L. Steele High School in Amherst, Ohio, where he worked on the school newspaper staff and was the salutatorian of his graduating class in 1971.
After graduating from Kent State University in 1975, where in his junior year he became editor of the school yearbook, The Chestnut Burr, Baughman started work as a photojournalist for The Lorain Journal of Lorain, Ohio, about 30 miles west of Cleveland (now The Morning Journal). In 1976, while at The Journal, he infiltrated a branch of the American Nazi Party in Cleveland called the United White People's Party, and spent seven months recording both its activities and those of an affiliated group in Chicago called the National Socialist Party of America, headed by Frank Collin.
The resulting investigative series "Nazis in America" was initiated June 4, 1977, with a front page story on the murder of Chicago-area businessman Sydney Cohen by Raymond Lee Schultz, who had ties to the American Nazi Party in the 1960s and then became affiliated with the National States' Rights Party. The story also contained details about possible other murders and bombings being planned by Nazi groups. A series of five more front-page stories ran from June 12 to 16, 1977.
The Journal was invited by Richard T. Baker, professor at Columbia University and secretary to the Pulitzer Prizes advisory board, to submit the series for the 1978 Pulitzer Prizes. The series won a first place award for investigative reporting in the Ohio division of the Associated Press Managing Editors competition.
Upon leaving The Journal in 1977, Baughman moved to London and accepted a contract with the Associated Press (AP). From there he was sent to Salisbury, Rhodesia to cover the Rhodesian Bush War. While in Rhodesia, he obtained permission to accompany the Grey's Scouts, a Rhodesian Security Forces mounted infantry unit established in 1975 to combat nationalist guerrilla forces. During the two weeks he spent with the Scouts he captured photographs of troops brutalizing their prisoners. Much of his film was confiscated by Rhodesian government officials but he successfully hid several rolls and smuggled them out of the country. Three of the photographs were submitted by AP for the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography, which Baughman won—at age 23, the youngest professional to win a journalism Pulitzer.
Rhodesian photo debate
The release of the photographs on December 2, 1977 created a furore among both Rhodesian government officials and Baughman's fellow journalists, with the government claiming inaccuracies in the written report that accompanied the photos and journalists questioning both the means by which the photos were acquired and their authenticity.
In order to accompany the Scouts, Baughman had to prove he could ride a horse and was required to carry a weapon and wear an Army uniform, thus making himself indistinguishable from the troops. In addition, he presented himself as sympathetic to the aims of the Rhodesian government and military. While the AP stood behind the authenticity of the photographs, and Rhodesian government officials never questioned them, AP General Manager Keith Fuller expressed doubts about Baughman's methods of acquiring them. Enough speculation was raised that the photographs were withdrawn from consideration for the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award of the Overseas Press Club after the Club's Annual Awards Committee meeting in February 1978. When the same photos won the Pulitzer only weeks later several members of the Overseas Press Club jury apologized for their decision, stating that lack of information about the circumstances under which the photos were taken led them to their conclusion.
In September 2010 Baughman donated his Pulitzer Prize certificate, one of the cameras he used in Rhodesia and a number of prints made from the film he shot there to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History, along with other photos and artifacts collected from his career.