Blog 3 Pushing The Civil Rights Movement Onto The National Agenda

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By the 1950s, slavery had been outlawed in the USA for nearly 100 years now, but southern racists had come up with other forms of tyranny to prevent Black Americans from exercising their rights as Americans. Poll taxes, unfairly administered literacy tests and various acts of intimidation denied African Americans their right to vote. The concept of "separate but equal" deprived African Americans of public facilities and a good quality education. They weren't allowed to go to the same restaurants or schools that white people went to and they weren't even allowed to use the same bathrooms or drink from the same water fountain. There were even signs that said "White Only" and "Colored". In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court said that "Separate education facilities are inherently unequal." Journalism, especially TV had a huge impact on the USA during the Civil Rights Movement. Northern newspapers like the New York Times and the Boston Globe covered the movement but it was television news that had a bigger impact. TV cameras showed African Americans being cursed, spit on, attacked by police dogs, and blasted with fire hoses for trying to exercise the rights that were guaranteed to them by the Constitution.

The First Great TV News Story
By the late 1950s, television was competing against newspapers everyday. The first great television news story was the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was a great TV news story but the South didn't want network journalist to repost it. Many southern newspapers refused to publish news that might halt their dominant ways. When segregationist realized that television was disrupting the system they started to see reporters as enemies. They started putting signs up on motels that read "NO DOGS, NIGGERS, OR REPORTERS ALLOWED." Many southerners came up with nicknames for ABC, NBC, and CBS. The nicknames were: Afro Broadcasting Company, Colored Broadcasting Company, and Nigger Broadcasting Company. But name calling wasn't all, violence also became a part of the Southerners fight against the journalist. Once in Alabama in 1965 NBC's reporter Richard Valeriani was hit with an ax handle and a state trooper saw the whole thing and all the state trooper did was take the ax away from the guy told him that he had done enough damage for one night and didn't even arrest the guy.

Knocking Down Walls in Little Rock

Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas was the setting of one of the biggest stories of the Civil Rights Movement. During the summer of 1957, African-American leaders in Little Rock challenged the segregated school policy by enrolling nine black students in one of the city's public high schools which was all white. When school started in September, news’s cameras were at the school to broadcast nationwide the nine students walking to school. But Governor Orval Faubus had ordered the Arkansas National Guardsmen to prevent the nine students from entering the school. That day black leaders had arranged for the students to be brought to school in a police car so they could be protected , but one of them, Elizabeth Eckford didn't have a phone, therefore she couldn't get the message. So Elizabeth walked to school alone and she was greeted by a crowd of angry segregationists yelling out "Lynch her! Lynch the nigger bitch!" President Eisenhower ordered the soldiers to protect the Little Rock Nine. So for the rest of the school year news’s cameras televised the soldiers protecting the students pointing their bayonets to the mob of angry white segregationists. Every morning and afternoon the nation would watch as military jeeps escorted the students to and from school.

Breaking Barriers at the University of Georgia
By early 1961, the U.S. had a new young president; John F. Kennedy. Civil right leaders were hoping that JFK would provide support for their pacific fight against racial equality. A federal court ruled that the University of Georgia for the first time in its 175 year history had to admit African-American students. The only two African-American students that attended the university were Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter. Since Hunter was a female she was required to live on campus and Holmes being a male was allowed to move off campus. The image of Hunter staring at the ground while being insulted and spit at by white students was transmitted on TV every night for days. One night a white girl tossed a quarter on the ground in front of Hunter and yelled at her saying "Here, nigger. Here's a quarter. Go change my sheets." Another scene of hatred and racism was when students gathered outside Hunter's dormitory holding a banner that said "Nigger, go home!" Similar scenes of violence unfolded time and time again as educational institutions in the south became desegregated. Two of these institutions were the University of Mississippi in 1961 and the University of Alabama in 1963.

Riding Buses for Freedom
The Civil Rights movement's next big TV story came when the Supreme Court decided to ban segregation in interstate travel. To assure that this new law was effective, in May 1961 a racially mixed group of college students purchased bus tickets to take them from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans. These students were now known as "freedom writers". NBC cameraman Moe Levy boarded one of the buses with the students recording images of the ride. The freedom riders traveled through the Carolinas and Virginia being taunted by segregationist but this stopped as soon as they entered Alabama. But when the bus pulled into the Montgomery station a mob of 2,000 segregationists armed with bricks, bats and pipes attacked the freedom riders. There was no footage of the attack because the mob destroyed the camera. The students lost teeth, suffered broken bones and some were disfigured for life. Levy was clubbed repeatedly and one of his legs suffered permanent injuries.

Defying the Power Structure in Birmingham
In the early 1960s Birmingham became a battlefield in the civil rights struggle. It was in this city that 3000 black men an, women and children were arrested, and many of them were victims of police brutality. In 1963 the famous, one of the most if not the most influential black civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King Jr started a series of nonviolent protests with their goal being to transform the city's white power structure. The campaign began in early April. Stores were picketed and there were sit-ins at lunch counters. At the sit-ins white people would curse at the protestors and pour ketchup and syrup while the pacific protestors had to endure these attacks. In week two people started marching but the arrests count was in the triple digits figure. as the jail cells became full, black children, some still in elementary school joined the marches. Birmingham Police Officer Connor became outraged and ordered his men to use fire hoses and vicious German shepherd police dogs against the marchers. A week after these images were aired leaders reached an agreement that allowed for the first time, African Americans to shop at city stores and eat at city restaurants. President Kennedy later on went on prime time TV and spoke the words African-Americans had been waiting to hear: " We preach freedom around the world, but are we to say to the world-and much more importantly, to each other-that this is the land of the free, except for the Negroes? The time has come for this nation to fulfill its promise.

Marching on Washington
Where would be the perfect place for civil rights leaders to make their voices be heard. The answer is the nations capital. On August 28, 1963 200,000 Americans marched with their heads high and chests forward. That day the speaker that caught everyones attention was Martin Luther King Jr. He gave his famous I Have A dream Speech. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.".

Back to Birmingham
Two weeks after the march in Washington, members of the Klu Klux Klan ignited a bombed at Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on a Sunday morning. Four little girls between the ages of eleven to fourteen were killed. Television crews rushed back to Birmingham to show the red brick remains of the church. The cameras also recorded the drama and grief at the funerals.

Seeking Voting Rights in Selma
In 1964 civil rights leaders turned their attention to blacks being denied the right to vote focusing specially in Selma, Alabama. 57% of the residents were African-Americans but only 1% was registered voters. MLK Jr wanted to change these statistics so he started a voter registration campaign. MLK organized a march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery 50 miles to the east. The finale of this journey would be the delivery of a petition to Governor Wallace even though he opposed the event. On Sunday, March 7, 1965 about 600 men and women started walking down U.S. Route 80. They hadn't even marched more then 300 yards when they were greeted on the highway by 50 state troopers and 100 posse men. TV cameras captured footage of the policemen and posse men brutally attacking the marchers hitting them with nightsticks, kicking them and throwing tear gas at them. This violent event was called "Bloody Sunday."

Television Images Nourish a Social Revolution
Television played a key role in helping the Civil Rights movement get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed. The images television played of the violence on Bloody Sunday or innocent people being attacked by police dogs and attacked with fire hoses was very indignating. Television is more powerful then newspapers because when you are watching the footage you get the feeling that you are actually there.

Defying The Klu Klux Klan Blog #2

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    The KKK's original roots date back to 1866. Confederate veterans organized the KKK hoping to prevent former slaves from exercising their newly acquired rights, but within 3 years the veterans felt their work was done and the KKK took a 49 year brake.

    After the KKK's long brake they made their come back , and this time they weren't planning to stay for only three years. The KKK came back and wanted to let everyone know they were here and that they wanted to have a huge impact on American beliefs, rights, and society. Their return was in the fall of 1915 , in Atlanta,Georgia. William Joseph Simmons, a former preacher, led a dozen men up to Stone Mountain where he started burning a pine cross. While the cross was burning and William holding his Bible, he led the men in a vow of allegiance to the Knights of the KKK. This ceremony would be the start of an organization that would spread across the nation trying to do everything possible to gain power. In Texas, the KKK elected one of their members to the U.S. Senate, in Oregon a member was governor, in Colorado they won the senate race and in Indiana one of them became governor and 2 became senators. This proves to us that the KKK was serious and they had a lot of power in their hands.

SWEEPING the NATION

• Edward Young Clarke and Elizabeth Tyler, two enterprising promoters, persuaded William to pay them 1/4 of the $10 each new Klan member paid.
• Klan membership sky rocketed to 4 million  by 1924.
• Clarke and Tyler urged their 200 recruiters to fill their rhetoric with phrases like "pure womanhood," "100 percent Americans," and "the tenets of the Christian religion", the Klan wanted to let their members know that the country was being overrun by enemies within.
• KKK recruiters promised to provide betters schools and improve law enforcement.

THE NEW YORK WORLD HURLS a HAND GRENADE

• The first journalistic crusade in defiance of the Klan was an expose in the newspaper NEW YORK WORLD.
• The opening article characterized the Klan's growth as a financial scam that had stolen $40 million in initiation fees and Klan regalia.
• One article recorded the names and addresses of  214 Klan recruiters,which was very similar to an FBI most wanted list.
• The WORLD published another story in which there was a 1919 raid on a house of prostitution in which Tyler and Clarke were found on the same bed and charged with disorderly conduct.
• The WORLD editors later found out that their brilliant plan to embarrass and destroy the KKK had backfired.
• The WORLD gave the Klan free publicity and informed potential members of the Klan's acts of bigotry and violence and it also published a copy of the Klan's application form.

THE  COMMERCIAL APPEAL in HAND-to-HAND COMBAT

• The next Klan vs newspaper battle would take place in Memphis in 1923, where KKK membership exceeded 10,000, against the city's major newspaper, the COMMERCIAL APPEAL.
• The editorial page of this newspaper condemned the Klan's use of vigilante violence against African-Americans, Catholics, and Jews.
• This newspaper included many cartoons against the Klan, portraying them as cowards and unAmerican.
• The Commercial Appeal  played a key role in the 1923 Memphis  elections.
• Mayor Rowlett Paine defeated the hooded society's nominee, W. Joe Wood.

THE MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER WAGES WAR

• Editor Grover Cleveland Hall wanted to encourage a state law to be passed that prohibited people from wearing masks and disguises in public places and make it a felony for men that were disguised to attack citizens of Alabama. Hall wanted this law to be passed because of the KKK's violent crimes of physical punishment to people just because of their skin color or religion and in some cases just because of their gambling and drinking habits.
• Progressive representatives from both houses introduced tough anti-mask bills outlawing masks and robes like the ones used by KKKers, stipulating that masked floggers would be tried as felons.

As we can see the KKK had alot of power in their hands, having member occupate Senate seats and form a part of the legislature. But it was proved to us that journalism is even more powerful and helped stopped the KKK's rise to power. Thanks to 3 big newspapers: MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER,  COMMERCIAL APPEAL, and NEW YORK WORLD the Klan was stopped and defeated and we can thank journalism for this.

Blog 1 Sowing The Seeds of Revolution

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Dissension Takes Root

Ÿ         The 1763 British victory over the French meant that the French were finally kicked out of the American Colonies, leaving the fur trade only for the British.

Ÿ         The high cost of a decade of fighting left the British nearly bankrupt so officials in London decided to make the colonists should pay the war debts.

Ÿ         Economics wasn’t the only factor for the colonists to start a revolution, the contrast of ideas between the British and the colonists was also a big factor.

Ÿ         The colonists wanted the citizens to make the laws not King George . They wanted to be in charge of the colonies themselves.

Sam Adams: Firebrand of the Revolution

Ÿ         Sam Adams was the cousin of John Adams. Sam organized the Boston Tea Party. In the 1760s he wrote hundreds of essays and news article for the Boston Gazette. Other newspapers also printed his work helping  spread his thoughts throughout the colonies.

Ÿ         In 1764, Sam argued that the British Parliament was imposing too many taxes on the colonists. Sam insisted that the colonists’ liberty was in jeopardy. “ If our Trade may be taxed?” “Why not our Lands? Why not the produce of our Lands & every thing we possess or make use of? This we apprehend annihilates our Charter Rights to govern & tax ourselves.” Adams’s protests were against taxation without representation.

Ÿ         Adams and other radicals believed that the only way the colonies could resolve their disputes with Britain was to secure home rule.

Ÿ         They wanted the colonists to make their own laws not the British.

Ÿ         “Where there is a Spark of patriotic fire, we will enkindle it.”

“Journal of Occurrences” as News Service

Ÿ         Adams’s  service the “Journal of Occurrences” quickly became a communication network that spread his anti-British rhetoric to every corner of the colonies. Articles and stories for the journal were written by Adams and other Boston agents before being reprinted in the 35 weekly newspapers being published in the colonies at the time. Adams and the other writers would send accounts of events to John Holt, publisher of the New York Journal , and Holt would print the events in the next edition.

Ÿ          Adams’s impetus to establish the news service was Britain’s decision to send a large numbers of troops to Boston, because they were concerned that they were losing control of the colonies. The British concern rised when the number of protest over tax initiatives also rised.

Ÿ         The British sent four regiments of soldiers to Boston to maintain order and to remind the colonist that they were ruled by Britain.

Ÿ         The “Journal of Occurrences” began in September 1768, the same month the British troops arrived.

Ÿ         Adams’s published all the brutal attacks of the British against the colonists. Some of these acts were rape, burglary, and beating colonists.

Boston Massacre: Not to Be Forgotten

Ÿ         During the summer of 1769 British officials withdrew four regiments of militiamen from the streets of Boston, but they still left a few guards roaming the streets. The presence of these guards angered the colonists, and they decided to do something about it. On March 5, 1770 a few young colonists started throwing snowballs at the guards outside the British Custom House. What some colonists and these youngsters may have considered a childish and funny prank it escalated into something deadly for them. After they stopped throwing the snowballs one of the colonist boys hit one of the guards. One of these strikes knocked a soldier to the floor provoking him to fire his musket and the bullet struck a colonist. Then a huge fight broke out with colonist swinging clubs and the British firing their guns. After everything cleared up five colonists were dead. Colonial newspapers made this known to everyone as the Boston Massacre.

Tom Paine: Voice of Inspiration

Ÿ         The Writer of the pamphlet Common Sense Thomas Paine was a voice of inspiration for the colonist. This pamphlet encouraged and inspired all the Patriots to fight for their rights and independence. Thomas Paine had to convince colonists, because most patriots advised him not to mention independence because they weren't thinking of going to war. Paine wrote in Common Sense that if colonists gained their independence it would be the start to a new world.

Common Sense Ignites a Nation

Ÿ         More than 150,000 copies of Common Sense were sold and by the end of one year 25 editions of the pamphlet were made. This pamphlet was read in coffeehouses, taverns, and town squares throughout the colonist encouraging the colonists even more to fight for their independence. Thomas Paine's words were now describing the feelings of all the colonist it was like if he was The Voice of the colonist expressing his wrath to King George.

Crisis Essays Inspire an Army

Ÿ         Paine joined the Continental Army in August 1776. Him and his fellow soldiers felt the might of a much bigger and well trained British Army . The British defeated the Americans in many battles.

Ÿ         The Winter, poor food, and inadequate uniforms began to have a negative effect on the soldiers.

Ÿ         General Washington asked Paine to write a motivational essay to encourage the soldiers to keep on fighting.

Ÿ         In December 1776, the first Crisis papers were printed in the Pennsylvania Journal.

Ÿ         George Washington read the papers to his soldiers and a week later they won a crucial battle at Trenton.

Stunning Impact

Ÿ         The American Revolution was the first event in American History in which journalism had a huge impact on. News has helped shaped American History. Sam Adams’s “Journal of Occurrences” and Thomas Paine’s Common Sense were a big help in motivating colonist fight and gain their independence from the British.