William A. Emerson Jr., 86, a journalist and author who covered civil rights flashpoints as part of a cadre of gutsy Southern reporters and later served as editor in chief of the Saturday Evening Post, died Tuesday at his home in Atlanta following a stroke. A boisterous, outsize figure in an era of colorful New York magazine editors, Emerson's gifts as a phrasemaker made him a sought-after speaker for years. A veteran of the China-Burma-India theater in World War II, Emerson took up journalism at Collier's magazine after graduating from Harvard in 1948. AP