For quite some time now, I have been reading non-fiction almost exclusively. Most of it is history. Recently, I have been thinking of posting brief commentaries on the books I have liked best because I think many of them would be of interest to the readers of this blog. So here we go:
THE RACE BEAT: THE PRESS, THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE, AND THE
AWAKENING OF A NATION. By Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, pub. 2006.
Won the Pulitzer Prize.
This is one of the very best books I have ever read. The sub-title is an accurate summary of its contents. The early chapters describe the valiant efforts of the black press to trace and document the violence against blacks which was occurring in the south during the earlier part of the century. By and large their reports of white riots and lynchings went unnoticed by white America. The rest of the book is about the civil rights movement people of my age are familiar with.
The pivot between these two eras is Emmett Till and his mother. Till was fourteen years old when he was abducted, tortured, and murdered in Money, Mississippi, in 1955. His mother was determined that this atrocity would not be ignored. She handled his funeral in such a way that the white press was compelled to pay attention. That white press would go to Money for the trial of two men who, after their acquittal by a jury which required just shortly over one hour to determine their innocence, would not merely admit to but boast of the crime they had committed.
From then on the national media was on the story.
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