NOTES
- The choice of Birmingham was strategic, since it had been the site of twenty unsolved bombings and unrestrained violence against Freedom Riders. See Lee E. Bains Jr., “Birmingham, 1963: Confrontation Over Civil Rights,” in David J. Garrow, ed., Birmingham, Alabama, 1956–1963: The Black Struggle for Civil Rights (Brooklyn: Carlson, 1989), 175; and Kenneth O'Reilly, “The FBI and the Civil Rights Movement during the Kennedy Years: From the Freedom Rides to Albany,” Journal of Southern History 54, 2 (May 1988): 201–32.
- Protest demonstrations have long been a way to resolve social problems because a primary goal of protest is to gain media coverage to foster public awareness. See, for example, Clarice N. Olien, George A. Donahue, and Phillip J. Tichenor, “Media and Stages of Social Conflict,” Journalism Monographs 90 (November 1984): 99; and Aldon D. Morris, “Birmingham Confrontation Reconsidered: An Analysis of the Dynamics and Tactics of Mobilization,” American Sociological Review 58, 5 (October 1993): 621–36.
- Glenn T. Eskew, But For Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 46–47.
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Why We Can't Wait (New York: Harper and Row, 1963), 63.
- Eskew, But for Birmingham, 261.
- Richard Lentz, “Snarls Echoing ‘Round the World: The 1963 Birmingham Civil Rights Campaign on the World Stage,” American Journalism 17, 2 (Spring 2000): 72.
- Ibid.
- Bains, “Birmingham, 1963,” 239.
- See, for example, John Walton Cotman, Birmingham, JFK and the Civil Rights Act of 1963: Implications for Elite Theory (New York: Peter Lang, 1989); and Michael J. Klarman, “How Brown Changed Race Relations: The Backlash Thesis,” Journal of American History 81, 1 (June 1994): 81–118. “Project C” also provided a basis for King's receipt of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.
- See Barnett Wright, “Civil Rights Photos Shine New Light on Turbulent Era,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, Feb. 28, 2006; and Barnett Wright, “From Negatives to Positives,” Birmingham News, Feb. 26, 2006.
- Linda B. Blackford and Linda Minch, “Front-Page News, Back-Page Coverage: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Kentucky,” Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, July 4, 2004. Prior to 1983, the Herald and Leader were separate weekday papers. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, prohibited discrimination in public places, and made employment discrimination illegal. The full text of the Act is available online at http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/laws/majorlaw/civilr19.htm.
- Blackford and Minch, “Front-Page News, Back-Page Coverage.”
- Joe Treen, “Southern Man: Klan-Busting Journalist Jerry Mitchell,” Mother Jones, Jan. 24, 2007, at www.motherjones.com/news/update/2007/01/jerry_mitchell.html (accessed Aug. 6, 2007).
- See, for example, Shaila Dewan, “Ex-Klan Figure in 1964 Killings Is Freed on Bail,” New York Times, Aug. 13, 2005. In April 2007, the Mississippi Supreme Court upheld Killen's conviction.
- See, for example, “Book Is Closed in Case of Boy Slain for Whistling at White Woman,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 31, 2007. Although no one was charged when the Till case was reopened, the House of Representatives passed the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act in June 2007, authorizing up to $13.5 million a year in federal spending for investigations into cold cases from the civil rights era. See David J. Garrow, “Unfinished Business,” Los Angeles Times, July 8, 2007.
- See, for example, Angie Cannon, “And Justice for All, Many Years Later,” U.S. News & World Report, March 13, 2000, 21; and David Oshinsky, “Should the Mississippi Files Have Been Reopened?” New York Times, Aug. 30, 1998.
- See, for example, Phillip J. Tichenor, George A. Donahue, and Clarice N. Olien, Community Conflict and the Press (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1980).
- Herman Gray, “Race Relations as News,” American Behavioral Scientist 30, 4 (March/April 1987): 385.
- Tichenor, Donahue, and Olien, Community Conflict and the Press. See also Douglas Blanks Hindman, Robert Littefield, Ann Preston, and Dennis Neumann, “Structural Pluralism, Ethnic Pluralism and Community Newspapers,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 76, 2 (Summer 1999): 250–63.
- See Warren Breed, “Social Control within the Newsroom: A Functional Analysis,” Social Forces 33 (May 1955): 326–35; Gaye Tuchman, “Objectivity as a Strategic Ritual: An Examination of Newsmen's Notions of Objectivity,” American Journal of Sociology 77, 4 (January 1972): 660–79; Pamela J. Shoemaker, “Building a Theory of News Content: A Synthesis of Current Approaches,” Journalism Monographs 103 (June 1987); and J. Herbert Altschull, Agents of Power (New York: Longman, 1984).
- David L. Paletz and Robert Dunn, “Press Coverage of Civil Disorders: A Case Study of Winston-Salem, 1967,” Public Opinion Quarterly 33, 3 (Autumn 1969): 328–45.
- Laura Richardson Walton, “In Their Own Backyard: Local Press Coverage of the Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner Murders,” American Journalism 23, 3 (Summer 2006): 29–51.
- Jinx C. Broussard, “Saviors or Scalawags: The Mississippi Black Press’ Contrasting Coverage of Civil Rights Workers and Freedom Summer, June-August 1964,” American Journalism 19, 3 (Summer 2002): 65.
- Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of a Nation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).
- Stuart Hall, “The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media,” in Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez, eds., Gender, Race and Class in Media (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2003), 89–93.
- See, for example, Robert M. Entman, “Representation and Reality in the Portrayal of Blacks on Network Television News,” Journalism Quarterly 71, 3 (Autumn 1994): 509–20; Robert M. Entman, “Blacks in the News: Television, Modern Racism and Cultural Change,” Journalism Quarterly 69, 2 (Summer 1992): 341–62; Robert M. Entman, “Modern Racism and the Images of Blacks in Local Television News,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 7, 4 (December 1990): 332–45; Franklin D. Gilliam Jr., Shanto Iyengar, Adam Simon, and Oliver Wright, “Crime in Black and White: The Violent, Scary World of Local News” in Shanto Iyengar and Richard Reeves, eds., Do the Media Govern? Politicians, Voters and Reporters in America (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 1997): 287–95; and Daniel Romer, Kathleen H. Jamieson, and Nicole J. deCoteau, “The Treatment of Persons of Color in Local Television News: Ethnic Blame Discourse or Realistic Group Conflict?” Communication Research 25, 3 (June 1998): 286–305.
- Douglas M. McLeod and James K. Hertog, “The Manufacture of ‘Public Opinion’ by Reporters: Informal Cues for Public Perceptions of Protest Groups,” Discourse and Society 3, 3 July 1992): 259–75.
- Pamela J. Shoemaker, “Media Treatment of Deviant Political Groups,” Journalism Quarterly 61, 1 (Spring 1984): 66–75.
- See James W. Carey, “A Cultural Approach to Communication” in James W. Carey, Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society (New York: Routledge, 1992), 13–36; and Stuart Hall, “The Rediscovery of Ideology: Return of the Repressed in Media Studies” in Michael Gurevitch, Tony Bennett, James Curran, and Janet Woollacott, eds., Culture, Society and the Media (New York: Metheun, 1982), 56–90.
- See David Domke, “The Press, Race Relations and Social Change,” Journal of Communication 51 (June 2001): 317–44; David Domke, “Strategic Elites, the Press and Race Relations,” Journal of Communication 50, 1 (Winter 2000): 115–40; and David Domke, “The Press and ‘Delusive Theories of Equality and Fraternity’ in the Age of Emancipation,” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 13, 3 (September 1996): 228–50.
- Roy E. Carter, Jr., “Segregation and the News: A Regional Content Study,” Journalism Quarterly 34 (Winter 1957): 3–19.
- Carolyn Martindale, “Changes in Newspaper Images of Black Americans,” Newspaper Research Journal 11, 1 (Winter 1990): 40–50.
- Gray, “Race Relations as News,” 386.
- Ibid.
- Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau, 1998).
- Richard L. Morrill and O. Fred Donaldson, “Geographical Perspectives on the History of Black America,” Economic Geography 48, 1 (January 1972): 18–19. The population represents the Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area.
- See Percy H. Tannenbaum, “The Effect of Headlines on the Interpretation of News Stories,” Journalism Quarterly 30, 2 (Winter 1953): 189–97; and Stuart Hall, “The Determinations of News Photographs” in Stanley Cohen and Jock Young, eds., The Manufacture of News: Social Problems, Deviance and the Mass Media (London: Constable, 1981), 176–90. Hall argued that photographs are particularly influential in part because, compared to text, the selective, interpretive, and ideological function is less apparent.
- Paul B. Sheatsley, “White Attitudes Toward the Negro,” Daedalus 95 (Winter 1966): 217–38. Additionally, distance, either perceived or literal, is recognized as a variable that may influence news content. See, for example, Jacob Bendix and Carol M. Liebler, “Place, Distance and Environmental News: Geographic Variation in Newspaper Coverage of the Spotted Owl Conflict,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 89, 4 (December 1999): 658–76.
- Sheatsley, “White Attitudes Toward the Negro,” 227.
- Ibid., 226.
- Domke, “The Press, Race Relations and Social Change,” 317.
- Gray, “Race Relations as News,” 386.
- Richard Lentz, “The Prophet and the Citadel: News Magazine Coverage of the 1963 Birmingham Civil Rights Crisis,” Communication 10 (December 1987): 26.
- See, for example, Tichenor, Donahue, and Olien, Community Conflict and the Press.
- Enrique DuBois Rigsby, “A Rhetorical Clash with the Established Order: An Analysis of Protest Strategies and Perceptions of Media Responses, Birmingham 1963” (Ph,D. diss., University of Oregon, 1990), 86.
- Foster Hailey, “4 Negroes Jailed in Birmingham as the Integration Drive Slows,” New York Times, April 5, 1963.
- “Birmingham Police Balk Negro Crowd,” Chicago Tribune, April 15, 1963.
- See, for example, “26 More Demonstrators Jailed Here,” Birmingham News, April 17, 1963. The reporter identified a “Negro church” and then gave the location at Sixth Avenue and 16th Street North.
- “City Chamber Condemns Efforts of King, Others,” Birmingham News, April 19, 1963.
- “Negroes Sit at Counters; Not Served,” Birmingham News, April 19, 1963.
- “Hill Asks Removal of Outside Agitators,” Birmingham News, May 10, 1963.
- See, for example, “Away from the Abyss,” Birmingham News, May 4, 1963.
- See, for example, “Chanting Marchers End in Jail,” Birmingham News, April 13, 1963.
- “End Demonstrations, Foley Urges King,” Birmingham News, May 4, 1963.
- Bains, “Birmingham, 1963,” 183.
- See, for example, “City Quiet as Troops Stand By,” Birmingham News, May 13, 1963; “Birmingham's Dark Hour,” Birmingham News, May 13, 1963; and Tom Lankford, “As Helmeted Officers Patrol, Uneasy Quiet Grips Downtown Streets,” Birmingham News, May 13, 1963.
- See, for example, “Mayor Seated in Birmingham,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 16, 1963; and “Sit-ins Jailed in Birmingham,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 6, 1963.
- “Sit-Ins Jailed in Birmingham.”
- See “Action Planned in Alabama,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 14, 1963; and Tuchman, “Objectivity as a Strategic Ritual,” 668.
- See, for example, “Pleas by Negro Leaders Halt Mixing March,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 5, 1963; and “Mixers Jailed in Birmingham,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 7, 1963.
- “Police Battle Negroes,” Chicago Tribune, May 5, 1963.
- “Dogs and Fire Hoses Turned on Negroes,” Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1963.
- William Anderson, “Troops Fly Into Alabama,” Chicago Tribune, May 13, 1963.
- “Martin King Jailed; Police Block March,” Chicago Tribune, April 13, 1963.
- “King and 26 Negroes Get Six Month Terms,” Chicago Tribune, May 9, 1963.
- See, for example, “Birmingham Police Balk Negro Crowd.” It noted demonstrators “attempted” an Easter Sunday anti-segregation march, but police “stepped in quickly and forced them back into the Negro section of town.” Also see “State Sends Troopers to Birmingham,” Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1963, which described highway patrol officers as being trained in handling riots; and “Dogs and Fire Hoses Turned on Negroes,” Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1963.
- “750 Arrested in Alabama Race March,” Chicago Tribune, May 3, 1963.
- “Birmingham Police Balk Negro Crowd.” See also “March Routed by Cops, Dogs,” Chicago Tribune, April 8, 1963.
- “Negroes Win 3 Points,” Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1963.
- “Birmingham Negroes Halt March on Jail,” Chicago Tribune, May 7, 1963.
- Ibid.
- “Dogs Rout Negroes,” Chicago Tribune, April 8, 1963.
- See “Four Churches Let Negroes into Services,” Chicago Tribune, April 22, 1963; “Birmingham Quiet as State Police Move In,” Chicago Tribune, April 9, 1963; and “Martin L. King Sentenced to 5 Days in Jail,” Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1963.
- “Birmingham Police Balk Negro Crowd.”
- See “Dogs and Fire Hoses Turned on Negroes;” and “King and 26 Negroes Get Six Month Terms.”
- “King Reports Goals Won in Birmingham,” Chicago Tribune, May 11, 1963.
- “Alabama Riot Broken Up by Police Dogs,” Los Angeles Times, April 8, 1963.
- “Contempt Count Sought on Martin Luther King,” Los Angeles Times, April 14, 1963.
- “New Mayor Takes Over in Birmingham, Ala.,” Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1963.
- “Whites in Birmingham Willing to Compromise,” Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1963.
- “Fire Hoses, Dogs Quell Alabama Racial Protest,” Los Angeles Times6, May 4, 1963.
- Ibid.
- “Hundreds of Children Go to Jail in Racial Protest,” Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1963.
- “Fire Hoses, Dogs Quell Alabama Racial Protest.” See also “Racial Struggle,” Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1963. “The photograph shows a police officer restraining a woman during an Easter Sunday demonstration.
- “Hundreds of Children Go to Jail in Racial Protest,” Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1963.
- “3,000 Negroes Repelled After Outflanking Police,” Los Angeles Times, May 8, 1963.
- “Birmingham Crusade,” New York Times, April 21, 1963. Also see “Violence in Alabama,” New York Times, May 5, 1963; and Foster Hailey, “Birmingham Talks Pushed; Negroes March Peacefully,” New York Times, May 6, 1963.
- “Bombings in Birmingham,” New York Times, May 13, 1963.
- See, for example, “Insistent Integrationist: Fred Lee Shuttlesworth,” New York Times, May 11, 1963; “Racial Peacemaker: Burke Marshall,” New York Times, May 10, 1963; and Hedrick Smith, “A Dozen Men Hammered Out Birmingham Agreement in Home of Negro Executive,” New York Times, May 11, 1963.
- “Chief Alabama Trooper: Albert Jennings Lingo,” New York Times, May 13, 1963.
- Hailey, “4 Negroes Jailed in Birmingham as the Integration Drive Slows.”
- Anthony Lewis, “U.S. Sends Troops into Alabama after Riots Sweep Birmingham; Kennedy Alerts State's Guard,” New York Times, May 13, 1963.
- See, for example, Foster Hailey, “Negroes Uniting in Birmingham,” New York Times, April 11, 1963.
- Birmingham's Use of Dogs Assailed,” New York Times, May 7, 1963.
- See, for example, Foster Hailey, “Dogs and Hoses Repulse Negroes at Birmingham,” New York Times, May 4, 1963; and Claude Sitton, “Rioting Negroes Routed by Police at Birmingham,” New York Times, May 8, 1963.
- “Outrage in Alabama,” New York Times, May 5, 1963.
- “Racial Peace in Birmingham,” New York Times, April 17, 1963.
- Roberts and Klibanoff, The Race Beat, 399.
- Ibid., 263.
- Sheatsley, “White Attitudes Toward the Negro,” 217–38.
- Lloyd Wendt, Chicago Tribune: The Rise of a Great Newspaper (New York: Rand McNally, 1979), 720–74.
- Ibid., 748.
- Ibid., 750.
- Tichenor, Donahue, and Olien, Community Conflict and the Press, 51.
- Roberts and Klibanoff, The Race Beat, 306–09.
- Jack Shafer, “Profiles in Smugness,” Slate, July 14, 2004, at www.slate.com (accessed Dec. 18, 2007).
- Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1922), 80.