Saviors or Scalawags: The Mississippi Black Press's Contrasting Coverage of Civil Rights Workers and Freedom Summer, June-August 1964

Abstract

This article reviews headlines, articles, columns, and editorials in the three largest black publications in Mississippi during the summer of 1964 to determine how they framed the issues and events that predominated during Freedom Summer, and the extent to which their coverage fulfilled the traditional advocacy role of the black press. Findings indicate that the Jackson Advocate, the Mississippi Enterprise and the Mississippi Free Press presented vastly different worldviews of that volatile period in the United States. One paper argued for the status quo in race relations, one ignored the civil rights movement, and one championed equality and social justice for African Americans.