Resources on Race, Violence, and Journalism (2d edition)
Compiled by Prof. Chris Daly
Boston University
June 2020
Every crisis presents an opportunity to learn. In the present moment, we all have reasons to engage at the intersection of race, justice, and media. From the start of the country, white-owned media have written about people of color. Since 1827, black-owned media have “plead[ed] our own cause” and confronted America with a tradition of witnessing injustice and demanding justice.
Prompted by an inquiry from a student and assisted by my colleagues in the Journalism Department at Boston University, I have compiled this preliminary list of resources as an aid to anyone who wants to learn more. Consider it a work in progress, and please send suggestions to Prof. Chris Daly: chrisdaly44@gmail.com.
19th CENTURY
Thanks to recent generations of scholars, there is a rich and growing literature on the issue of race and the news media. The long history might begin with one of the fine biographies of Frederick Douglass (Blight) or Ida B. Wells (Giddings). Also see Wells’ book “Southern Horrors,” which documented lynching in Jim Crow America and called for an end to the practice, by armed resistance if necessary.
Overviews:
A History of the Black Press, Armistead S. Pride and Clint C. Wilson II
Howard University Press, Washington, D.C.
Gonzalez and Torres, News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race & the. American Media.
Anthologies:
The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, (2 vols.) edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The Black Press: New Literary and Historical Essays, edited by Todd Vogel (Rutgers)
There is also a history of white media owners operating in sympathy and solidarity with the cause of racial justice, beginning at least with the white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (see biography All on Fire)
20th CENTURY
BOOKS:
1905: Founding of the Chicago Defender newspaper serving the black community and recruiting migrants from the Deep South. (Michaeli, The Defender)
Journalist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois wrote many of the editorials in the NAACP’s monthly publication “The Crisis” Also see: “Souls of Black Folks.”
Classic Civil Rights period:
Simeon Booker, Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter’s Account of the Civil Rights Movement.
Taylor Branch, America in the King Years trilogy.
David Garrow, Bearing the Cross
James A. Geschwender. The Black Revolt: The Civil Rights Movement, Ghetto Uprisings, and Separatism. (1971)
David Halberstam, The Children
Gilbert King: Devil in the Grove, Beneath a Ruthless Sun, The Execution of Willie Francis
Richard Kluger, Simple Justice (on the role of SCOTUS in the Brown decision)
Carolyn Martindale, The White Press and Black America. (1986)
Kenneth O’Reilly, Racial Matters: The FBI’s Secret File on Black America (1989)
Howell Raines, My Soul is Rested.
Roberts and Klibanoff, The Race Beat.
— There’s a great video called “Dateline Freedom” in which black and white journalists who covered Civil Rights get together and reflect on the experience.
1960s+70s:
Kerner Commission Report on racial conflict (1968)
Also see: Hrach, The Riot Report and the News
Earl Caldwell’s memoir is a great resource: Black American Witness
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time.
VIDEOS:
Sarah Burns, “The Central Park Five.” (2012)
Stanley Nelson, “Freedom Riders,” “Mightier than the Sword”
PBS: “Eyes on the Prize.” (American Experience) Also see book by Juan Williams.
PBS: “Freedom Never Dies”
“Before His Time: Harry T Moore”
Contemporary:
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Between the World and Me.” He writes movingly about the extra-judicial killing of his friend by police.
Robin D’Angelo, White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism.(2018)
Eric Deggans, Race Baiters: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation. (2012)
Roxane Gay, “The Last Day of a Young Black Man.” American Prospect, 7/13/13
Gwen Ifill, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama
Harold Isaacs, Scratches on our Minds: American Views of China and India. (2015)
Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. (2017)
How to be an Anti-Racist.
Matt Taibi, Hate Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes us Despise one Another. (2019)
Online:
Columbia Journalism Review, special issue: “Unfinished” (Fall 2018)
CJR & Columbia’s Tow Center, “The Pittsburgh Problem: race, media and everyday life in Steel City” (CJR, Oct. 25, 2018)
Ibram X. Kendi’s list.
Resources on Civil Rights and the press, from Prof. Bill Kovarik
(includes many links)
Equal Justice Initiative. Great resource on lynching and Jim Crow.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. (NYPL)
National Museum of African American History. (Smithsonian)
[With thanks to Bill McKeen, Anne Donohue, Bill Kovarik]
