Arthur D. Morse, School Desegregation, and the Making of CBS News, 1955–1964

Abstract

Arthur D. Morse (1920–1971) served as a reporter-director on numerous CBS News documentaries on public school desegregation during the 1950s and 1960s, but he has been overshadowed by the stars with whom he worked—Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly. This article documents the critical role that Morse played on key programs, including “Clinton and the Law,” “The Lost Class of ’59,” and “The Other Face of Dixie.” Through an examination of these and other documentaries, the authors show that Morse both reflected and rejected the standard parameters put forth by network executives when it came to the controversial issues of racial equality and justice. Although he made great efforts to treat African American subjects with respect in his programs, black activists and students often remained in the background, whereas white moderates received a privileged place that was popular with Morse's bosses.

Notes

Arthur D. Morse, “Biographical Notes,” Arthur D. Morse Papers, New York Public Library, New York, New York (hereafter Morse Papers), Box 17, Folder “Publicity Morse”; “Arthur D. Morse Named CBS Reports Executive Producer by CBS News President Fred W. Friendly,” CBS News Release, April 2, 1964, Morse Papers, Box 17, Folder “Publicity Morse”; Michael Curtin, Redeeming the Wasteland: Television Documentary and Cold War Politics (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995). Morse's work won two Sylvania Awards, a George Peabody Award, two School Bell Awards, an Ohio State University first prize for television, and a commendation from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

Aniko Bodroghkozy, Equal Time: Television and the Civil Rights Movement (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012), 42.

Bodroghkozy, Equal Time; Curtin, Redeeming the Wasteland; Steven D. Classen, Watching Jim Crow: The Struggles over Mississippi TV, 1955–1969 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004); Tom Mascaro, Into the Fray: How NBC's Washington Documentary Unit Reinvented the News (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2012).

Bodroghkozy, Equal Time, 44.

Robert J. Donovan and Ray Scherer, Unsilent Revolution: Television News and American Public Life, 1948–1991 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 4.

“Biography of Arthur D. Morse,” Morse Papers, Box 1, Folder “Who's Trying to Ruin Our Schools.”

Arthur D. Morse, “Jackie Wouldn't Have Gotten to First Base,” Better Homes and Gardens, May 1950.

Ibid; Arthur D. Morse, “Who's Trying to Ruin Our Schools,” McCall's, September 1, 1951, 26–27, 94, 102, 108–109. Allen A. Zoll, “They Want Your Child! The Real Meaning of Federal ‘Aid’ to Education—Showing Its Relation to the Whole Marxist Movement,” in Morse Papers, Box 9, “Truth about 3 Rs.” For the context of Morse's article, see June Melby Benowitz, “Reading, Writing and Radicalism: Right-Wing Women and Education in the Post-War Years,” History of Education Quarterly 49, no. 1 (February 2009): 89–111.

Morse, “Who's Trying to Ruin Our Schools,” McCall's, September 1, 1951, 109.

Amilcar Shabazz, Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 126.

Arthur D. Morse to H. J. Williams (of Corpus Christi, Texas), August 13, 1953, Morse Papers, Folder “Corpus Manuscript and Late Info.”

Russell Lynes to Arthur Morse, July 16, 1954, Morse Papers, Box 2, Folder “Corpus Manuscript and Late Info.”

Arthur D. Morse, “When Negroes Entered a Texas School,” Harper's, September 1, 1954, 47–49. For the original twenty-page draft of the article, see Arthur D. Morse, “It Happened in Texas,” Morse Papers, Box 2, Folder “Corpus Manuscript and Late Info.”

“A Few Facts Harper's Forgot,” Richmond News Leader, August 26, 1954, 10.

Arthur D. Morse, “Biographical Notes,” Morse Papers, Box 17, Folder “Publicity Morse.” David Lowe, another figure with the unusual title of reporter-producer, did the groundwork on Murrow's landmark documentary “Harvest of Shame” and also deserves additional study.

A. M. Sperber, Murrow: His Life and Times (New York: Fordham University Press, 1999).

Jack C. Ellis and Betsy A. McLane, A New History of Documentary Film (New York: Continuum International, 2005), 182.

CBS Production, “Clinton and the Law: A Study in Desegregation,” See It Now, edited and produced by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, with Arthur D. Morse as reporter-director, aired January 6, 1957, Robertson Media Center, University of Virginia; Bodroghkozy, Equal Time, 45–46.

Sperber, Murrow, 525; “Biographical Notes Arthur D. Morse,” Morse Papers, Box 17, Folder “Publicity Morse”; Dorothy Q. Wells to Edward R. Murrow, September 20, 1957, Edward R. Murrow Papers, Tufts University Archives, Medford, Massachusetts (hereafter Murrow Papers), Series 3, Part B, Box 17, Folder “Clinton and the Law.”

Sperber, Murrow, 524–525.

Ibid.

Ibid., 532. For response to the “Lady from Philadelphia,” see Murrow Papers, Series 3, Part B, Box 17, Folder “The Lady from Philadelphia.”

Arthur D. Morse, “Education's Outlook,” draft of speech given at the National Education Association Convention, July 3, 1957, Morse Papers, Box 9, Folder “NEA.”

For information on the school-closing crisis, see Jeffrey L. Littlejohn and Charles H. Ford, Elusive Equality: Desegregation and Resegregation in Norfolk's Public Schools (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012), 80–113; Alexander Leidholdt, Standing before the Shouting Mob: Lenoir Chambers and Virginia's Massive Resistance to Public-School Integration (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997); Andrew I. Heidelberg, A Personal Narrative on Desegregation in Norfolk, Virginia in 1958–1962 (Pittsburgh: Rosedog Books, 2006); Denise Watson Batts, “When the Walls Came Tumbling Down,” Virginian-Pilot, September 28, 2008, A10, 11; “Cracks in the Wall: A No-Nonsense Federal Judge Orders School Officials to Take Another Look at the Students They Have Barred from White Schools,” Virginian-Pilot, October 1, 2008, A1.

Jack Gould, “TV: Integration in Norfolk—Murrow and Friendly Offer Provocative Documentary on ‘Missing Class of ’59,’” New York Times, January 22, 1959, 63. Other reviews of “The Lost Class of ’59” include Arthur Grace, “Gracefully Yours: ‘Lost Class’ First Rate,” The Miami News, January 23, 1959, 3B; “Good Ol’ American—The ‘Greatest Show on Earth’, Evolving Backward Faster Than You Can Say ‘Massive Resistance,’” Los Angeles Tribune, January 23, 1959, 8–10; Jack Anderson, “Virginia Segregation Issue Timed Luckily by Murrow,” The Miami Herald, January 24, 1959, 15A; Harriet Van Horne, “Virginia's Lost School Colony,” New York World-Telegram and Sun, January 22, 1959, 30.

Arthur Morse to Edward R. Murrow, no date, Murrow Papers, Series 3, Part B, Box 22, Folder “The Missing Class of ’59”; Carroll H. Walker to Edward R. Murrow, January 9, 1959, Murrow Papers, Series 3, Part B, Box 22, Folder “The Missing Class of ’59”; Edward R. Murrow to Carroll Walker, January 14, 1959, Murrow Papers, Series 3, Part B, Box 22, Folder “The Missing Class of ’59”; Natalie Foster memo to Edward R. Murrow, January 6, 1959, Murrow Papers, Series 1, Box 16, Folder “1958–1959 F”; Jack L. Stone Jr. to Edward R. Murrow, January 9, 1959, Murrow Papers, Series 1, Box 21, Folder “1958–1959 Sk-Sz”; Littlejohn and Ford, Elusive Equality, 98.

CBS Productions, “The Lost Class of ’59,” edited and produced by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, with Arthur D. Morse as reporter-director, aired January 21, 1959, Old Dominion University Archives.

Ibid.; Littlejohn and Ford, Elusive Equality, 48–113.

“The Lost Class of ’59.”

Ibid.; Littlejohn and Ford, Elusive Equality, 38–41.

Para Lee Brock to Edward R. Murrow, January 16, 1959, Governor J. Lindsay Almond Jr., Executive Department Papers, Library of Virginia, Richmond Virginia, Record Group 3.

“The Lost Class of ’59.”

Ibid.

Ibid.

Connie Sage, Frank Batten: The Untold Story of the Founder of the Weather Channel (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2011), 72–73; Littlejohn and Ford, Elusive Equality, 101–103.

“Good Ol’ American—The ‘Greatest Show on Earth’, Evolving Backward Faster Than You Can Say ‘Massive Resistance,’ ” Los Angeles Tribune, January 23, 1959, 8.

Clifford Durr to Edward R. Murrow, January 30, 1959, Murrow Papers, Series 1, Box 16, Folder “1958–1959 D”; Virginius Dabney to Edward R. Murrow, January 22, 1959, Murrow Papers, Series 1, Box 16, Folder “1958–1959 D”; “Nation's Eyes on Norfolk: Mrs. Mason, Robertson Speak for Schools on TV,” Journal and Guide, January 24, 1959, C1.

Josephine Almond to Edward R. Murrow, February 2, 1959, in Murrow Papers, Series 1, Box 14, Folder “1958–1959A.”

CBS Productions, “The Other Face of Dixie,” CBS Reports, reported by Harry Reasoner, produced by Arthur Morse, executive producer Fred W. Friendly, aired October 24, 1962, Library of Congress.

Forrest P. White, “Desegregation Film Reveals Rift in Norfolk,” Washington Post, Times Herald, October 21, 1962, D25.

“The Other Face of Dixie.”

Ibid. Margaret White became a friend of Arthur Morse, and their relationship proved important in the rediscovery of the first film on Norfolk's school desegregation process, “The Lost Class of ’59.” In March 1959, Morse sent the lone 16-millimeter copy of the film to White, and she, in turn, gave it to her associates in the Norfolk Committee for Public Schools (NCPS). From the offices of the NCPS, Dr. Forrest White thanked Morse for the film and showed it locally on at least two occasions before donating it to the library at Norfolk Catholic High School, where it sat, forgotten, until this century when Norfolk State University librarian Cynthia Lynne Harrison remembered the location of the film and shared it with the authors. In turn, Jeffrey L. Littlejohn informed both the administration of Norfolk Catholic and the City of Norfolk that the film should be professionally preserved. In 2009, the city had the film digitized for Norfolk's commemoration of the end of massive resistance (Arthur D. Morse to Margaret White, March 7, 1960, Margaret White Papers, Old Dominion University Archives, Norfolk, Virginia, Box 1, Folder 3. The letter reads: “Under separate cover I’m sending you, compliments of CBS, a print of the Lost Class for use as you see fit. It took a long time because this is the only 16 millimeter print extant. ‘Send it to Margaret,’ said Friendly, so you see how you rate.” For the second letter, see Arthur D. Morse to Forrest P. White, March 31, 1960, Forrest White Papers, Old Dominion University Archives, Box 1, Folder 4. The letter reads: “I assure you that it was a pleasure to send you the film. After all it was you and your colleagues in the Committee who gave the program its quality.” On the 2009 commemoration, see Littlejohn and Ford, Elusive Equality, 1–7).

“The Other Face of Dixie.”

Ralph Engelman, Friendlyvision: Fred Friendly and the Rise and Fall of Television Journalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 184–185; “CBS Reports: 1959–1964,” Fred Friendly Papers, Columbia University Archives, Box 173, Folder “CBS Television”; “Arthur Morse, Author and Journalist, Dies at 50,” New York Times, June 3, 1971, 42.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeffrey L. Littlejohn

Jeffrey L. Littlejohn is an associate professor of history and director of graduate studies in history at Sam Houston State University, SHSU Box 2239, Huntsville, TX 77341, [email protected].

Charles H. Ford

Charles H. Ford is a professor of history and department chair at Norfolk State University, Department of History, 700 Park Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23504, [email protected].