The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Unique view of that time in our history
  • The Race Beat
  • Absorbing and instructive
  • Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History
The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation
Gene Roberts , and Hank Klibanoff
Manufacturer: Knopf
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0679403817
Release Date: 2006-10-31

Book Description

This is the story of how America awakened to its race problem, of how a nation that longed for unity after World War II came instead to see, hear, and learn about the shocking indignities and injustices of racial segregation in the South—and the brutality used to enforce it.

It is the story of how the nation’s press, after decades of ignoring the problem, came to recognize the importance of the civil rights struggle and turn it into the most significant domestic news event of the twentieth century.

Drawing on private correspondence, notes from secret meetings, unpublished articles, and interviews, veteran journalists Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff go behind the headlines and datelines to show how a dedicated cadre of newsmen—first black reporters, then liberal southern editors, then reporters and photographers from the national press and the broadcast media—revealed to a nation its most shameful shortcomings and propelled its citizens to act.

We watch the black press move bravely into the front row of the confrontation, only to be attacked and kept away from the action. Following the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision striking down school segregation and the South’s mobilization against it, we see a growing number of white reporters venture South to cover the Emmett Till murder trial, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the integration of the University of Alabama.

We witness some southern editors joining the call for massive resistance and working with segregationist organizations to thwart compliance. But we also see a handful of other southern editors write forcefully and daringly for obedience to federal mandates, signaling to the nation that moderate forces were prepared to push the region into the mainstream.

The pace quickens in Little Rock, where reporters test the boundaries of journalistic integrity, then gain momentum as they cover shuttered schools in Virginia, sit-ins in North Carolina, mob-led riots in Mississippi, Freedom Ride buses being set afire, fire hoses and dogs in Birmingham, and long, tense marches through the rural South.

For many journalists, the conditions they found, the fear they felt, and the violence they saw were transforming. Their growing disgust matched the mounting countrywide outrage as The New York Times, Newsweek, NBC News, and other major news organizations, many of them headed by southerners, turned a regional story into a national drama.

Meticulously researched and vividly rendered, The Race Beat is an unprecedented account of one of the most volatile periods in our nation’s history, as told by those who covered it.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Unique view of that time in our history.......2007-10-05

The Civil Rights Movement of the `50s and `60s was a significant and well-known period of American history. But have you ever thought about why it is so well known, or even why it had so much success?

The Race Beat is a story, not only of the well-known players of the Civil Rights Movement, but also the men who covered it in the media. These men poured their hearts and souls into covering the stories that would make the people of the United States stand up and take notice of the injustices being done in the name of "separate but equal," "justice," and "liberty." Many of these men had battled against Hitler over his racial elitism. Once they came home, they were quick to jump into the front lines of our own battle for racial equality before we descended into the depravity that Hitler is known for.

This is a fascinating insider's look at how the civil rights battle was brought to the forefront of the United States' attention. Blending well-known events with the stories of the men who were there writing about it, you get a whole new perspective of what these men were feeling and fighting for. Not just as outside observers, but compatriots.

This book is well written and well researched, but it is slow to start. I picked it up expecting the jump into the civil rights movement, but found myself in the `40s as they laid the groundwork for what the journalists were to become. It is also heavily journalist-centric. That is to say, there are references the non-journalists among us won't understand. But all in all, it is a great read.

Armchair Interviews says: If you are looking for a new perspective on the civil rights movement, this book is for you.

4 out of 5 stars The Race Beat.......2007-06-27

A very good review of how the Civil Rights movement was covered and influenced by news media.

5 out of 5 stars Absorbing and instructive.......2007-04-27

I have read a lot on the civil rights struggle, including Taylor Branch's trilogy, and Simple Justice, by Richard Kluger, and have appreciated all the reading I have done on that momentous struggle. But this account of how newspapers and television chronicled the exciting events told me a lot I did not know or had not remembered. The book is carefully footnoted and has a 26 page bibliography, in addition to the footnotes (thus avoiding the unfortunate lapse of some books which are well-footnoted but omit a bibliography). The book not only tells of newsmen and media sometimes going to great, even heroic lengths, to tell the story of the events in the clash between aspring blacks and the status quo, but also tells of the media which sought to uphold segregation. As with other books on the struggle, when one is appalled by the violence and murders which marked the history, it is some comfort to realize that in the end right triumphs. This book is an astoundingly interesting survey of an important aspect of the civil rights efforts of the 1950s and 1960s.

5 out of 5 stars Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History.......2007-04-17

Outstanding effort by legendary editor Gene Roberts, widely admired for turning around the Philadelphia Inquirer in the 1980s and leading it to multiple prizes in journalism, revisits, with co-author Hank Klibanoff, managing editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, both their own work in civil rights reporting and the work of colleagues to pen this precise and most interesting study of what journalists were and weren't doing when segregation was legal in the U.S.

Highly readable and fascinating history.
The Civil Rights Movement (Greenwood Press Guides to Historic Events of the Twentieth Century)
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    The Civil Rights Movement (Greenwood Press Guides to Historic Events of the Twentieth Century)
    Peter B. Levy
    Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    1. Race Matters Race Matters

    ASIN: 0313298548

    Book Description

    Designed for secondary school and college student research, The Civil Rights Movement is a one-stop guide that includes clear analysis and ready reference components. Combining narrative description, analytical essays, chronology, biographical profiles, and the text of key primary documents, this work fills a gap in the existing literature. Drawing on the most recent research, Levy, author of the acclaimed Documentary History of the Modern Civil Rights Movement, provides an outstanding introduction to the Civil Rights movement, its development, issues, and leaders. Six essays analyze the crucial aspects of the movement, including a concluding essay that assesses its legacy. Ready reference features include: a chronology of events; lengthy biographical profiles of 20 key civil rights activists; the text of 15 seminal documents valuable for student research; a glossary of selected terms; and an annotated bibliography of recommended further reading and audiovisual materials. The essays are designed to be clear and engaging; they capture the conflict and drama of the Civil Rights movement as they present an analysis of its main features. Following a narrative overview of the movement, five analytical essays address these topics: the origins of the movement; the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi; the fight for legal equality, with a discussion aimed at fostering a better understanding of the current debate over affirmative action; the role played by women in the movement; and an analysis of the legacy of the civil rights protests of the 1950s and 1960s. These essays are followed by biographical profiles of 20 civil rights activists, from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X to Ella Jo Baker and Bayard Rustin. The guide includes 15 primary documents, ranging from addresses by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, to speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokley Carmichael, Malcolm X, and George Wallace. A selection of photos complements the text. This one-stop reference source offers not only a starting point for students research but analysis that raises issues still being debated today.
    How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society (South End Press Classics Series)
    Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
    • Toward a Communist America ???
    • Long Live Socialism !!!!!!!!!!
    • How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America
    • Cogent & comprehensive analysis of race and class in America
    • Exellent analysis of black history under capitalism.
    How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society (South End Press Classics Series)
    Manning Marable
    Manufacturer: South End Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0896085791

    Book Description

    Contents

    Preface
    How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America A Critical Assessment
    Introduction to the First Edition
    Part 1 The Black Majority
    Chapter 1 The Crisis of the Black Working Class
    Chapter 2 The Black Poor
    Chapter 3 Grounding with My Sisters
    Chapter 4 Black Prisoners and Punishment in a Racist/Capitalist State
    Part 2 The Black Elite
    Chapter 5 Black Capitalism
    Chapter 6 Black Brahmins
    Chapter 7 The Ambiguous Politics of the Black Church
    Chapter 8 The Destruction of Black Education
    Part 3 A Question of Genocide
    Chapter 9 The Meaning of Racist Violence in Late Capitalism
    Chapter 10 Conclusion: Towards a Socialist America

    Reviews

    "Manning Marable examines developments in the political economy of racism in the United States and assesses shifts in the American Political terrain since the first edition....He is one of the most widely read Black progressive authors in the country."-Black Employment Journal

    "The reissue of Manning Marable's How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America confirms that this is a classic work of political history and social criticism. Unfortunately, Marable's blistering insights into racial injustice and economic inequality remain depressingly relevant. But the good news is that Marable's prescient analysis-and his eloquent and self-critical preface to this new edition-will prove critical in helping us to think through and conquer the oppressive forces that remain."-Michael Eric Dyson, author of I May Not Get Therewith You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr.

    "For those of us who came of political age in the 1980s, Manning Marable's How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America was one of our bibles. Published during the cold winter of Reaganism, he introduced a new generation of Black activists/thinkers to class and gender struggles within Black communities, the political economy of incarceration, the limitations of Black capitalism, and the nearly forgotten vision of what a socialist future might look like. Two decades later, Marable's urgent and hopeful voice is as relevant as ever."-Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Yo' Mama's DisFunktional!:

    Customer Reviews:

    1 out of 5 stars Toward a Communist America ???.......2004-10-29

    I don't know anyone would like to read this book unless they are Afrian Americans. In "How Capatalism Underdeveloped Black America," the author writes the only way to achieve economic, political and social development for Blacks is to overthrow Captalist system in United States. As the author said, since the country is dominated by racist, and sexist white Americans, a bloody revolution has to be acted. The first phase of the socialist revolution is voting for progressive and anticapitalist politicians. The second phase is creating a chaotic living condition in America so that government has to cooperate with revoluntists. After the success of the socialist reforms, and totally eliminated captalism in the nation. They are going to support other countries to achieve "equality", too. Our country is going to be working class based nation, with universal health care, volunteer military officers, and equal-paid wage.

    5 out of 5 stars Long Live Socialism !!!!!!!!!!.......2004-04-08

    I read this book 1 year ago and has since then enhanced my knowledge of black society here in America. At the end of his book (Towards a Socialist America) Manning pulls all the punches and fortells that the only way blacks and quite possibly other oppressed ethnic groups can get out our situation is through working together and defeat the ruling elite that now has its foot on our backs !!!!!!!!!!! This book is a must read.

    5 out of 5 stars How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America.......2003-01-04

    This at times slightly difficult to read book is very relevant even if the text of the book was published in 1983. Let me give you an idea of the discussion in the book below.
    This January 2000 edition contains a new intro by the learned professor. He tries to correct in it a few observations and predictions he believes he got wrong in the original addition. He points out that spectacular growth of the prison-industrial complex since 1981 with an increase of the prison population from 500,000 in 1981 to almost 2 million today. He points out that as jobs with livable wages continue to disappear and with the stock market casino which drove the economy of the 90's getting wrecked, thousands more poor and even middle class whites along with blacks and other minorities will turn up in the prison system. One in five Americans, he writes, now has a criminal record.

    In any case, this book is about how Capitalism is black Americans greatest enemy. Racism is an integral part of American capitalism, he stresses. Blacks enslaved because of their race created the wealth which gave this country its economic foundations. Blacks in the South, imprisoned justly or unjustly, provided an ultra-cheap source of labor in the convict-work system under conditions not too far from Nazi concentration camps. He writes that in the 1880's, the mortality rate for blacks in prison in Mississippi was 11 percent. In Arkansas it was 25 percent.

    he notes that blacks and white workers combining their power could have made great gains. That they did not is perhaps he says why the standard of living has been so low in the South relative to the rest of the country. White workers apparently were more comfortably keeping blacks down to maintain their status in the white supremacist culture. One interesting thing the author notes about Southern whites is their widespread ownership of firearms. He quotes C. Vann Woodward as saying that Alabama Whites spent more combined on firearms than on farm equipment and tools combined. Firearms were a unique part of the Southern culture and whites carried them everywhere they went and never avoided a chance to use them. He gives interesting statistic that while the national homicide rate of 1926 was 10.1 per 1,000 in Jacksonville Florida it was 75.9, in Birmingham 58.8, Memphis 42.4, Nashville 29.2.

    He writes extensively about the idea of "black capitalism" empowering black progress. He spends alot of time writing about Booker T. Washington. Washington is portrayed as an opportunist politically with some bad ideas though he did give covert aid to civil rights activists while he was preaching accomodation with white supremacy in public. Marable says that the black so-caleld conservatives of today like Thomas Sowell are not even fit to carry his mantle. The latter are simply vulgar apologists and obfuscators of the racist/capitalist order.

    The problem with black capitalists, the author writes, is that they are capitalists. That means they have to maximize their short-term profit at whatever cost. The well being of the black race only being incidental. Moreover, he goes through laborious statistics showing that black capitalists have had their only substantial successes only when they had captive markets in all-black communities, segregated or otherwise and mostly in "human services" such as barbering and small retail stores. So the author shows that "black capitalism" which was a main platform for Marcus Garvey (who was influenced by Washington), and extended to Elijah Muhammed to the Nation of Islam of current times and was even supported by W.E.B. Dubois until the Great Depression--really does not work.

    He writes that the "crises" of capitalism which began in the 70's has hit hard black families the most, of course. Unemployment went down dramatically for blacks in the 60's, he points out because of the government implementing affirmative action to try to eliminate discrimination in employment, migration of blacks from the south to the north to get higher pay jobs and the expanding capitalist economy. The unemployment of nonwhites was 6.4 percent in 1969 and the unemployment for nonwhite married men fell to 2.5 that year from 7.9 in 1962. However nonwhite unemployment was 14 percent by 1975 and unemployment for married nonwhites was 8.3.
    He notes that workers losing their jobs because their industries couldn't compete in the U.S. market with foreign producers were awarded substantial amounts of their former pay for 18 months. In December 1980 almost 250,000 workers were obtaining funds for this program but a year later only 12,000 were able to use it. In January 1982, only 37 percent of the unemployed were getting any form of compensation. The umemployment rate reached 17.4 percent for blacks in late 81' though this did not, as no unemployment figures do, include the workers who have stopped actively looking for work for four weeks or more.

    He notes the phenomenon of large numbers of workers unable to get employment during large parts of the year i.e. being underemployed and only getting part-time or temporary low wage work. Also he writes a little bit about the "lumpenproletariat"...

    Chapter 9 is called "The meaning of racist violence in late capitalism"...IT includes citation (see the endnote) of Daryl Gate's speculation about blood not flowing through the veins of blacks as fast as "normal people," the comment being made in response to several chokehold deaths at the hands of LAPD of minorities.

    5 out of 5 stars Cogent & comprehensive analysis of race and class in America.......2000-09-05

    How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America is an updated edition of Manning Marable's classic in black literature, and has received a new introduction and an update to the book's tables and charts to reflect the latest new data on Afro-American statistics. Marable's cogent and comprehensvie analysis of race and class in the United States down through the country's political and economic history to modern times continues to provide important food for though for a contemporary readership.

    5 out of 5 stars Exellent analysis of black history under capitalism........1999-03-14

    A wonderful critique of how blacks have been victimized and belittled in this racist/sexist state. A must read for all races. A real eye opener. Still as valid as the day it was published.
    Reporting Civil Rights, Part Two: American Journalism 1963-1973 (Library of America)
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • America's Struggle for Civil Rights (II)
    • A Priceless Documentary of America's Civil Rights Struggle
    Reporting Civil Rights, Part Two: American Journalism 1963-1973 (Library of America)
    Various
    Manufacturer: Library of America
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    Binding: Hardcover

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    ASIN: 1931082294
    Release Date: 2003-01-13

    Book Description

    From A. Philip Randolph's defiant call in 1941 for African Americans to march on Washington to Alice Walker in 1973, Reporting Civil Rights presents firsthand accounts of the revolutionary events that overthrew segregation in the United States. This two-volume anthology brings together for the first time nearly 200 newspaper and magazine reports and book excerpts, and features 151 writers, including James Baldwin, Robert Penn Warren, David Halberstam, Lillian Smith, Gordon Parks, Murray Kempton, Ted Poston, Claude Sitton, and Anne Moody. A newly researched chronology of the movement, a 32-page insert of rare journalist photographs, and original biographical profiles are included in each volume

    Vivid reports by Robert Richardson and Bob Clark capture the nightmarish Watts and Detroit riots, while Paul Good records the growing schism in 1966 between King's nonviolence and Stokely Carmichael's "Black Power" advocacy. Joan Didion and Gilbert Moore cover the Black Panthers; Garry Wills and Pat Watters chronicle the traumatic aftermath of King's assassination and the failure of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign; Willie Morris and Marshall Frady assess the early 1970s South; Tom Wolfe caustically explores new forms of racial confrontation; and Richard Margolis depicts post-integration consciousness among African American college students.

    Singly or together, Reporting Civil Rights captures firsthand the impassioned struggle for freedom and equality that transformed America.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars America's Struggle for Civil Rights (II).......2003-04-28

    This book is the second volume of the Library of America's documentary, journalistic history of the Civil Rights Movement. The first volume covers the years 1941-1963 and takes the story up to the March on Washington in August, 1963. The second volume covers a shorter time span, 1963 - 1973, but an equally momentous series of events. Volume II is easily important enough for its own short notice and review here.

    The centerpiece of the two volumes is the March on Washington which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Indeed, the 1963 March, led by Dr. King, may be the watershed event of the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. There are three eyewitness accounts of the March presented in this book offering three different perspectives. The 1963 March, and the moment of idealism, justice and peace it has come to represent pervades and suggests worlds of commentary upon the rest of the volume.

    The articles in this book have an emphasis on Congressional action. In 1964, following the 1963 events in Birmingham Alabama and the 1963 March, Congress passed the Civil Rights Law which, in time, would effectively end segregation in the South. In 1965, following events in Selma, Alabama and the March from Selma to Montgomery Alabama, Congress enacted voting rights legislation which at long last fulfilled the promise of the 15th Amendment to protect the voting rights of blacks. The events in Selma, and the manner in which they galvanized the nation are well documented in this book.

    The story recounted in this volume is marked by assasination, violence and discord. There are two major assassinations highlighted here. The volume describes Malcom X's break from the Black Muslim movement and his assassination in February, 1965. A great deal of space is given to the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1965 and to its tragic aftermath.

    There is much space given to the violence that haunted the struggle for Civil Rights. In particular, many articles are given over to the murder of three young Civil Rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi: Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Cheney during June, 1964. Their murder involved the FBI in a massive manhunt which ultimately led to the conviction of Klansmen and of local law enforcement officials.

    There is a great deal of material in the volume on the riots in Watts and Detroit and with the rise of Black Power and the Black Panther movement.

    There are articles in this volume that draw excellent portraits of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement, including Malcom X, Stokely Carmichael, Bayard Rustin, Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson, and, of course, Dr. King.

    There are pictures of dusty roads and small towns in the South. Many articles are given to pictures of the South before and after the victories of the Civil Rights Movement. There is a suggestion in more than a few articles that the South may have, given its past, an ultimately easier time of moving towards a unified, racially egalitarian and united society than will the North. Time still needs to tell whether this is will in fact bethe case.

    These are two indespensible volumes on the most important social movement of 20th Century America. The Civil Rights Movement is an essential component in the formation of the American dream and the American ideal.

    5 out of 5 stars A Priceless Documentary of America's Civil Rights Struggle.......2003-04-11

    America's largest, most continuous, and most pressing domestic issue has been the treatment it has accorded black Americans. Similarly, the most important and valuable social movement in our country in the Twentieth Century was the Civil Rights movement which began, essentially, in the 1940's with WW II, received its focus with the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and continued through the 1950s 60s, and 70s.

    The Library of America has published a two-volume history of the American Civil Rights Movement which focuses on contemporaneous journalistic accounts. The LOA's collection centers around the March on Washington in August 1963 which opens the second volume. The publication of the volumes, indeed, was timed to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the March on Washington. This March is best known for Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech.

    The first volume of the series, which I am discussing here, begins in 1941 and ends in the middle of 1963. In consists of about 100 articles and essays documenting the Civil Rights struggle during these momentous years. Given the centrality of the March on Washington to the collection, the volume opens with a "Call to Negro America" dated July 1, 1941 calling for 10,000 Black Americans to march on Washington D.C. to secure integration and equal treatment in the Armed Forces. Philip Randolph, then the President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters" was primarily responsible for this attempt to organize the 1941 march, and he participated prominently 22 years later in the 1963 March on Washington.

    The volume documents other ways in which Civil Rights activities in the 1940s foreshadowed subsequent events. For example, there is an article detailing how Howard University students used the "sit-in" technique to desegregate Washington D.C. restaurants beginning in 1942. (see Pauli Murray's article on p. 62 of this volume). The sit-in technique was widely used beginning in the early 1960s to desegregate lunch counters in Southern and border states. There are many articles in this volume documenting these later sit-ins and their impact, as well as the original sit-in organized by Pauli Murray.

    Among the many subjects covered by this book are Thurgood Marshall's early legal career for the NAACP, the Supreme Court's decision in "Brown", the lynching of Emmett Till in 1954 and the acquittal of the guilty parties by an all-white Mississippi jury, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in which Martin Luther King first gained prominence, of 1956, the integration of Little Rock High School in 1957, the lunch counter sit-ins that I have already mentioned, the "Freedom Rides" the admission of James Meridith to the University of Mississippi in 1962, the Birmingam riots, and the murder of Medgar Evars, Missippi Field Secretary for the NAACP. on June 12, 1962. There is a great deal more, and the articles given in the volume address Civil Rights in the North as well as in the South.

    There is an immediacy and an eloquence to this collection that gives the reader the feel of being there and participating at the time. The cumulative effect of reading the book through is moving and powerful. By reading the book cover-to-cover and as the articles are presented the reader will get a better feel for the Civil Rights Movement and Era that can be gotten anywhere else. The book records a seminal Era in our Nation's history and an idealism and a sprit that is difficult to recreate or recapture.

    I would like to point out some of the longer articles that the reader should notice in going through the book. I enjoyed James Poling's 1952 essay "Thurgood Marshall and the 14th Amendment" which chronicles Marshall's early career. Another important essay is William Bradford Huie's "Emmett Till's Killers Tell their Story: January, 1956." which recounts the confession to Till's murder of the individuals acquitted by the Mississippi jury. Robert Penn Warren's 1956 book-length essay "Segregation: the Inner Conflict in the South" is reprinted in the volume in full. There is a lengthy excerpt from James Baldwin's 1962 "The Fire Next Time" which recounts Baldwin's meeting with Elijah Muhammad and his thoughts about the Black Muslim Movement. Norman Podhoretz's 1963 essay "My Negro Problem and Ours" remains well worth reading. Probably the most significant single text in this volume is Martin Luther King's "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" written in 1963. In this famous letter, Dr. King responds eloquently to criticism of his movement and his techniques voiced by eight Birmingham clergymen. The letter is a classic, not the least for Dr. King's writing style.

    The book contains a chronology which will help the reader place the articles in perspective, and biographical notes on each of the authors. I found myself turning to the biographies and the chronology repeatedly as I read the volume. The Library of America has also posted excellent study material for this book and its companion volume on its Website.

    This is a book that documents American's history and our country's continuing struggle to meet and develop its ideals.
    Black Journals of the United States (Historical Guides to the World's Periodicals and Newspapers)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Black Journals of the United States (Historical Guides to the World's Periodicals and Newspapers)
      Walter C. Daniel
      Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
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      Binding: Hardcover

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      ASIN: 0313207046

      Book Description

      "Well written and offering solid historical content, Black Journals . . . discusses popular magazines as well as little-known or short-lived scholarly journals. . . . Highly recommended for academic, community college, high school, and public libraries." Choice
      Black Newspapers and America's War for Democracy, 1914-1920
      Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
      • smart and important
      Black Newspapers and America's War for Democracy, 1914-1920
      William G. Jordan
      Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

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      Similar Items:
      1. When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America
      2. To Serve My Country, to Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African-American WACS Stationed Overseas During World War II To Serve My Country, to Serve My Race: The Story of the Only African-American WACS Stationed Overseas During World War II
      3. Hard Road to Freedom: The Story of African America Hard Road to Freedom: The Story of African America
      4. Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow

      ASIN: 0807826227
      Release Date: 2000-12-05

      Book Description

      During World War I, the publishers of America's crusading black newspapers faced a difficult dilemma. Would it be better to advance the interests of African Americans by affirming their patriotism and offering support of President Wilson's war for democracy in Europe, or should they demand that the government take concrete steps to stop the lynching, segregation, and disfranchisement of blacks at home as a condition of their participation in the war?

      This study of their efforts to resolve that dilemma offers important insights into the nature of black protest, race relations, and the role of the press in a republican system. William Jordan shows that before, during, and after the war, the black press engaged in a delicate and dangerous dance with the federal government and white America--at times making demands or holding firm, sometimes pledging loyalty, occasionally giving in.

      But although others have argued that the black press compromised too much, Jordan demonstrates that, given the circumstances, its strategic combination of protest and accommodation was remarkably effective. While resisting persistent threats of censorship, the black press consistently worked at educating America about the need for racial justice.

      Customer Reviews:

      5 out of 5 stars smart and important.......2001-06-05

      Dr. Jordan examines an important source of American cultural history with his study of Black newspapers during WWI. Its well researched, well written and well worth reading.
      Mr. Justice Black and His Critics
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Mr. Justice Black and His Critics
        Tinsley E. Yarbrough
        Manufacturer: Duke University Press
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

        Civil ProcedureCivil Procedure | Procedures & Litigation | Law | Subjects | Books
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        ASIN: 0822308665
        "Smoked Yankees": And the Struggle for Empire : Letters from Negro Soldiers, 1898-1902 (The University of Arkansas Press Reprint Series, Vol. 4)
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          "Smoked Yankees": And the Struggle for Empire : Letters from Negro Soldiers, 1898-1902 (The University of Arkansas Press Reprint Series, Vol. 4)

          Manufacturer: University of Arkansas Press
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback

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          Similar Items:
          1. The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography The War of 1898: The United States and Cuba in History and Historiography

          ASIN: 0938626884
          Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media
          Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
          • A Tough Read
          • Excellent
          Within the Veil: Black Journalists, White Media
          Pamela Newkirk
          Manufacturer: NYU Press
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Hardcover

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          Similar Items:
          1. News and Sexuality: Media Portraits of Diversity News and Sexuality: Media Portraits of Diversity
          2. The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America (Harvard Univ. Kennedy School of Gov't Goldsmith Book Prize Winner; Amer. Political Science ... in Communication, Media, and Public Opinion) The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America (Harvard Univ. Kennedy School of Gov't Goldsmith Book Prize Winner; Amer. Political Science ... in Communication, Media, and Public Opinion)
          3. News: The Politics of Illusion (7th Edition) (Longman Classics in Political Science) News: The Politics of Illusion (7th Edition) (Longman Classics in Political Science)
          4. The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American Media The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American Media
          5. The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (Vintage) The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (Vintage)

          ASIN: 0814757995
          Release Date: 2000-07-01

          Amazon.com

          On the surface, the increase of African American reporters in the media may signal that they have made significant gains in that arena. But as Professor Pamela Newkirk of New York University outlines in her valuable book Within the Veil, race is still an issue that blacks have to deal with. Riffing on W.E.B. Du Bois' use of "the veil" in his classic book The Souls of Black Folk, Newkirk writes: "Behind the obvious, albeit small, numerical gains, a wide and deep racial and cultural chasm still divides blacks and whites in the newsroom. Despite their heightened visibility, African-American journalists and their minority counterparts, woefully underrepresented in the industry and in news management, are far from integrated into newsroom culture." Charting the development of the black press with the publication of Freedman's Journal in 1827, Newkirk chronicles the endless struggle of blacks to challenge the racist stereotypes that permeate American thought. She details the ordeals of several blacks in the '60s who desegregated TV networks, the most well known example being the late Max Robinson, brother of civil rights leader Randall Robinson. There's also the case of the disgraced Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke, who had to give back her Pulitzer Prize for writing a false story, while white writers guilty of the same crime are given jobs elsewhere. Newkirk also highlights the pressures black reporters feel from their racial group to tell the truth about Afro-American life, which at times goes against what their white counterparts believe. Newkirk also examines Black Entertainment Television and Net Noir, an Internet company, and writes, "African-Americans must use the power of praise and punishment to call attention to the ways in which they are portrayed." --Eugene Holley Jr.

          Book Description

          Winner of the National Press Club Prize for Media Criticism.

          "A compelling look at the power of the media from an award-winning journalist who fearlessly and passionately addresses critical issues confronting African-American journalists working for mainstream newspapers and magazines."
          --Essence

          "In her eloquent take on media Eurocentrism, Pamela Newkirk observes that anti-African exclusion very much characterizes the major media. . . . An hermeneutical tour-de-force."
          --New York Amsterdam News

          "Newkirk's account is well-grounded historically and anecdotally, and she mangaes to be both fair and accurate at a time when those values seem to have lost their luster in the profession"Kirkus

          Companion website: http://www.nyupress.nyu.edu/authors/veil.html

          Thirty years ago, the Kerner Commission Report made national headlines by exposing the consistently biased coverage afforded African Americans in the mainstream media. While the report acted as a much ballyhooed wake-up call, the problems it identified have stubbornly persisted, despite the infusion of black and other racial minority journalists into the newsroom.

          In Within the Veil, Pamela Newkirk unmasks the ways in which race continues to influence reportage, both overtly and covertly. Newkirk charts a series of race-related conflicts at news organizations across the country, illustrating how African American journalists have influenced and been denied influence to the content, presentation, and very nature of news.

          Through anecdotes culled from interviews with over 100 broadcast and print journalists, Newkirk exposes the trials and triumphs of African American journalists as they struggle in pursuit of more equitable coverage of racial minorities. She illuminates the agonizing dilemmas they face when writing stories critical of blacks, stories which force them to choose between journalistic integrity, their own advancement, and the almost certain enmity of the black community.

          Within the Veil is a gripping front-line report on the continuing battle to integrate America's newsrooms and news coverage.

          Customer Reviews:

          5 out of 5 stars A Tough Read.......2002-01-08

          This is a very thoughtful and provocative read. Depending upon where one sits, it may not be easy to stomach. It is sobering, nontheless. It created in me a cynicism about the media, and it's purpose and meaning as holders of a public trust.

          5 out of 5 stars Excellent.......2001-06-11

          This is a must-read book about the ways race influences the news we read in the newspapers and see on television. Everyone who cares about race and the future of our country should read this book!
          Ted Poston: Pioneer American Journalist
          Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
          • Recommended for those interested in History & Journalism
          • Excellent account of a man struggling to succeed.
          Ted Poston: Pioneer American Journalist
          Kathleen A. Hauke
          Manufacturer: University of Georgia Press
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Hardcover

          African-American & BlackAfrican-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
          JournalistsJournalists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
          GeneralGeneral | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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          JournalismJournalism | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books
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          ASIN: 082032020X

          Customer Reviews:

          4 out of 5 stars Recommended for those interested in History & Journalism.......1999-08-30

          Anybody who is interested in Black Culture and History should read TED POSTON, PIONEER AMERICAN JOURNALIST, by Kathleen A. Hauke. Hauke did excellent research in this well-written book about Ted Poston's life, his time, and his work. I think it should be mandatory reading for all students of journalism, and it would be interesting for anyone interested in American history.

          4 out of 5 stars Excellent account of a man struggling to succeed........1999-04-16

          As a minority journalist myself, I have been the sole person of color on three of the six newspaper staffs I have worked on. So it was refreshing and exciting for me to learn about a journalism pioneer who broke the barriers that had previously kept minorities out of mainstream newspapers. Ted Poston comes across as a proud man, striving to reserve his dignity in a world that spits in his face. He is shown to be quick-witted and dedicated. But the author, Kathleen A. Hauke, doesn't pull any punches. She also reveals Poston's dark side, how his drive for professional success eroded his personal happiness. As a background, we see Poston at his best as he works in the Jim Crow world of the 1930s and 40s and uses humor as a weapon to win acceptance. Heavily detailed, the book authoritatively discusses Poston's life and career through his body of work and the memories of those who knew and worked with him.

          Books:

          1. The Road (Oprah's Book Club)
          2. The Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air about Global Warming
          3. The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work : A Collection from the Washington Post Book World
          4. Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years
          5. Up from Slavery (Dover Thrift Editions)
          6. Walter: The Story of a Rat
          7. Way of Aikido, The: Life Lessons from an American Sensei: Life Lessons from an American Sensei
          8. What Jesus Meant
          9. When God Winks at You: How God Speaks Directly to You Through the Power of Coincidence
          10. Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

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