2008 Woodie Awards
Caufield 2008 : The Press & Civil Rights
Cait Rohan
Issue date: 3/18/08 Section: News
Gene Roberts, acclaimed journalist and Pulitzer-Prize winning author presented "Judging Race: The Press & Civil Rights" this past Tuesday in McGuire Hall. Roberts was the keynote speaker at the 20th annual Clarence J. and Muriel Caulfield Memorial Lecture.
Roberts noted the press' prominent role in the civil rights movement. He credited the widespread circulation of black newspapers in the 1950s for spurring the mainstream press' coverage of the civil rights movement.
"There would not have been a civil rights movement if black newspapers hadn't paved the way," said Roberts.
By the mid-50s the mainstream press stepped into the civil rights movement. Roberts said that coverage by the national media and TV shocked many Americans, especially northerners, with the South's segregated practices.
Roberts flagged the events at Little Rock, Ark. in 1957, when nine African-American students were not allowed into an all-white high school, for summoning major print and TV attention. Roberts felt the televised images of Little Rock were monumental to moving the American people.
"Racial hatred beamed into living rooms and over their supper tables all over America," said Roberts. "And they didn't like what they saw."
Roberts first experienced the civil rights movement as a race beat reporter for smaller southern papers. By 1965, he was the civil rights correspondent for The New York Times.
Roberts' talk related to the "Judge, Judge Not" theme of Loyola's 2008 Humanities Symposium. Throughout the lecture Roberts painted poignant, personal pictures of his experience in covering the civil rights movement. Roberts was particularly moved by watching black students attempt to desegregate all-white schools in the South.
Roberts recalled one incident where one 15 year-old African-American girl attempted to desegregate a high school of 2,000 white students. As the girl walked alone up the long walkway, she stopped to pray.
"I have never seen anyone shake so much…she was like a leaf in a hurricane," said Roberts. "That was 50 years ago and I am still in awe of that girl and her courage."
Roberts also talked about attending a sit-in at a church that was so crowded he had to sneak through the window. He witnessed first-hand the charismatic speaking of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Roberts also talked about attending a Ku Klux Klan meeting in Mississippi.
"The meeting was full of angry white women, men and children milling about," Roberts said.
Roberts also described the Klan's flaming crosses, racial jokes and intense anger. Roberts and his fellow journalists were eventually chased from the meeting while the Klansmen hissed and booed.
Roberts, and co-author Hank Klibanoff won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History for their book, The Race Beat: The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of a Nation. Roberts has been an editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. He has also taught at the Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. The talk was followed by a question-and-answer session and book signing.
Roberts noted the press' prominent role in the civil rights movement. He credited the widespread circulation of black newspapers in the 1950s for spurring the mainstream press' coverage of the civil rights movement.
"There would not have been a civil rights movement if black newspapers hadn't paved the way," said Roberts.
By the mid-50s the mainstream press stepped into the civil rights movement. Roberts said that coverage by the national media and TV shocked many Americans, especially northerners, with the South's segregated practices.
Roberts flagged the events at Little Rock, Ark. in 1957, when nine African-American students were not allowed into an all-white high school, for summoning major print and TV attention. Roberts felt the televised images of Little Rock were monumental to moving the American people.
"Racial hatred beamed into living rooms and over their supper tables all over America," said Roberts. "And they didn't like what they saw."
Roberts first experienced the civil rights movement as a race beat reporter for smaller southern papers. By 1965, he was the civil rights correspondent for The New York Times.
Roberts' talk related to the "Judge, Judge Not" theme of Loyola's 2008 Humanities Symposium. Throughout the lecture Roberts painted poignant, personal pictures of his experience in covering the civil rights movement. Roberts was particularly moved by watching black students attempt to desegregate all-white schools in the South.
Roberts recalled one incident where one 15 year-old African-American girl attempted to desegregate a high school of 2,000 white students. As the girl walked alone up the long walkway, she stopped to pray.
"I have never seen anyone shake so much…she was like a leaf in a hurricane," said Roberts. "That was 50 years ago and I am still in awe of that girl and her courage."
Roberts also talked about attending a sit-in at a church that was so crowded he had to sneak through the window. He witnessed first-hand the charismatic speaking of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Roberts also talked about attending a Ku Klux Klan meeting in Mississippi.
"The meeting was full of angry white women, men and children milling about," Roberts said.
Roberts also described the Klan's flaming crosses, racial jokes and intense anger. Roberts and his fellow journalists were eventually chased from the meeting while the Klansmen hissed and booed.
Roberts, and co-author Hank Klibanoff won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History for their book, The Race Beat: The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle and the Awakening of a Nation. Roberts has been an editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times. He has also taught at the Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. The talk was followed by a question-and-answer session and book signing.
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