Media and the Civil Rights Movement

Paper Summary:

This paper examines several aspects of the Civil Rights Movement and discusses how the media made an impact on American's perception and eventual acceptance of equal rights. The writer makes use of Anne Moody's autobiography, "Coming of Age in Mississippi", as reference is made to aspects of one of the most volatile eras in American history. Through a comparison of Moody's memories with the broader history provided by resources, the writer concludes that the success of the Civil Rights Movement was affected by the involvement of the media.

From the Paper:

"Indeed, the coverage of race riots, violence, and desegregation controversies in the south, when coupled with the televised coverage of civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr., made the civil rights movement hard to ignore, and even harder to remain aloof. Moody recalls the televised march on Washington, in which thousands of people participated and were mesmerized by King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The participants in the march were not alone in their wonder, as "aided by the national media, especially network television, King's powerful presence and religiously rooted rhetoric carried the message of the antidiscrimination movement in the South to the entire nation."
As the increased media coverage inspired open support from thousands of white Americans, blacks, too, began to demonstrate more openly against the social injustices of segregation. Moody describes her NAACP branch's early failures in interesting blacks in Canton, Mississippi, in the movement."

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