Gene Roberts on the Press and the Civil Rights Movement-- Part 2

I thoroughly enjoyed this talk at the Wayne Community College this past Friday.

He decided to write a book on how the press approached the monumental Civil Rights Movement and found that he needed help and the book took 15 years to complete. 

The movement was first covered by the black press.  The first black newspaper was published in 1827 with the words, "Too long have others spoken for us."By the 1950s, there had been more than 2800 black newspapers reporting what the white press wouldn't.  The average black newspaper lasted around nine years.  They didn't cease because of readership, but because of advertising.  "Arguably, there would not have been a Civil Rights Movement had it not been for the black press."

The Emmett Till story  started the Civil Rights Movement and the funeral, with its open casket, attracted the attention of the Chicago Press which covered the trial in depth.  This was the biggest coverage of civil rights to that time. 

Then came the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott and within two years of that, the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

More to Come.  --Da Cooter