Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff
The Race Beat: the Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation
(Knopf)
$24

While the history of the Civil Rights movement is already an enormous body of work, the relationship between the press and the struggle for racial equality turns out to be a rich source for historical narrative in this fine new book. In an era when the times are changing for journalism (largely because of technology), it is more important than ever to look into the recent history of media, when journalists helped change their times. Many well-known reporters of the last half of the 20th century had their careers jump-started or their reputations enhanced by work on what was then called the race beat. Though clearly, thankfully, biased toward those newspapers whose editorial departments came down on the side of freedom, this new book also tells the story of the segregationists and white supremacists. Such wretched figures as James J. Kilpatrick of The Richmond News-Leader and Thomas R. Waring at The Charleston News & Courier fought to the bitter end to insure African-Americans remained under the bondage of Jim Crow. On the other hand, there were such ground breaking writers as Atlanta’s own Ralph McGill at The Atlanta Constitution. His words seem timid today, but at the time he was one of the few editors in the South speaking sanity. Less well known but equally as important as McGill was the brave African-American journalist L. Alex Wilson who fought against racism generally using nothing but his typewriter. On one occasion, at Central High in Little Rock, he passively fought with his body. He died not many months later as a result of his injuries. Other journalists, black and white, died or received grave injuries reporting on the fight for civil rights. Roberts and Klibanoff tell their story with clarity and detail.

– Glen Thrasher