Piercing the Paper Curtain: The Southern Editorial Response to National Civil Rights Coverage

Abstract

As journalists from around the world descended on the South during the civil rights movement, the local southern press served largely as an ally to segregationists and the campaign for massive resistance to integration. Despite the best efforts of pro-segregation propagandists, the visiting press often presented perspectives and realities deemed a threat to the “southern way of life.” In response, outside journalists and news organizations became the targets of segregationist backlash, including sustained editorial attacks from within the southern press aimed at their alleged integrationist anti-southern agendas, affiliations, and motives. As outside journalists repeatedly experienced intimidation, ridicule, and even violence while covering the movement, southern editorials cultivated and fanned the flames of this already hostile environment.