Television News and the Civil Rights Struggle:
The Views in Virginia and Mississippi
The Views in Virginia and Mississippi
William G. Thomas III, University of Virginia
Essay Sections:
Abstract | Introduction
| Print Media and Segregation | Birmingham
and Danville, 1963 | Local Television News and the
Breakdown of Segregation | The March on Washington
and Television News | WLBT and Pro-Segregation TV
| Conclusion | Notes | Bibliography
The March on Washington and Television News:
Few civil rights events reached the
national television audience as did the March on Washington. Looking back
on the summer's action just before the March, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
in an ABC television interview, argued that the events of the spring and
summer "brought all these issues out into the open and brought them
to the surface where everybody could see them." As the date for the
March on Washington grew closer, the extent of television coverage became
part of the story. Over five hundred cameramen, technicians, and correspondents
from the major networks were set to cover the event. More cameras would
be set up than had filmed the last Presidential inauguration. One camera
was positioned high in the Washington Monument, to give dramatic vistas
of the marchers. 46
Television networks interviewed participants in the march, carried the speeches, offered news commentary on the events, and queried Congressmen. A. C. Nielson recorded huge jumps in television viewing for the March on Washington. Europeans saw it as well, in coverage "that rivaled that given astronaut landings." The BBC devoted major evening programming to the march and broadcast live coverage as received from the Telestar satellite. Southern senators and representatives gave terse comments that the march would have no effect at all on voting in Congress and would not influence the Civil Rights Bill's passage. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina believed that the telecast to Europe was misleading to people there because they would be led to conclude that African Americans have no freedom. 47
The local news channels in Virginia, perhaps flooded with national programming and coverage of the march, focused on local stories. At the Southern Governor's Conference held at the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia, WDBJ television crews filmed press conferences and statements from the participants. With protestors outside the gates of the Greenbrier carrying signs denouncing Alabama Governor George Wallace and Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, the group's chairman Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus wanted no grandstanding. In his opening remarks Faubus argued that consideration of controversial topics would only dampen the group's effectiveness. While Faubus warned against "playing to the press," Alabama Governor George Wallace puffed on a long cigar and prepared to introduce resolutions condemning the March on Washington.
But the southern governors were decidedly moderate in their views by August 1963. West Virginia Governor W. W. Barron went out to the gates of the Greenbrier to greet protestors and shake hands with them. Most of them were students at Marshall University and West Virginia State College. Wallace meanwhile scoffed that "they're just practicing up for Washington." Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett pushed his colleagues to champion a "relocation" plan to spread African Americans across the states to achieve a 90 percent white majority everywhere. Barnett's fanciful scheme drew little support. 48
Television networks interviewed participants in the march, carried the speeches, offered news commentary on the events, and queried Congressmen. A. C. Nielson recorded huge jumps in television viewing for the March on Washington. Europeans saw it as well, in coverage "that rivaled that given astronaut landings." The BBC devoted major evening programming to the march and broadcast live coverage as received from the Telestar satellite. Southern senators and representatives gave terse comments that the march would have no effect at all on voting in Congress and would not influence the Civil Rights Bill's passage. Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina believed that the telecast to Europe was misleading to people there because they would be led to conclude that African Americans have no freedom. 47
The local news channels in Virginia, perhaps flooded with national programming and coverage of the march, focused on local stories. At the Southern Governor's Conference held at the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs West Virginia, WDBJ television crews filmed press conferences and statements from the participants. With protestors outside the gates of the Greenbrier carrying signs denouncing Alabama Governor George Wallace and Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett, the group's chairman Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus wanted no grandstanding. In his opening remarks Faubus argued that consideration of controversial topics would only dampen the group's effectiveness. While Faubus warned against "playing to the press," Alabama Governor George Wallace puffed on a long cigar and prepared to introduce resolutions condemning the March on Washington.
But the southern governors were decidedly moderate in their views by August 1963. West Virginia Governor W. W. Barron went out to the gates of the Greenbrier to greet protestors and shake hands with them. Most of them were students at Marshall University and West Virginia State College. Wallace meanwhile scoffed that "they're just practicing up for Washington." Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett pushed his colleagues to champion a "relocation" plan to spread African Americans across the states to achieve a 90 percent white majority everywhere. Barnett's fanciful scheme drew little support. 48
Video:
 George Wallace Press Conference, Greenbrier Hotel,
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, WDBJ Collection, University
of Virginia.
|
Alabama Governor George Wallace condemned the March on Washington
as communist-directed and disturbing the peace. Wallace cultivated
an appearance of sympathy for southern African Americans and a paternalistic
expression of concern that "our fine Negroes" are being "misled."
WDBJ probably broadcast this statement on its nightly news, though
neither WSLS nor WDBJ records indicated coverage of the March on
Washington. (1:09 min.)
|
All of the television stations in
Roanoke broadcast their national network programming covering the March
on Washington. WDBJ broadcast it from 10-10:30, 12-12:15, and 7:30-8:30,
WSLS from 2-2:30, 4:30-5, and 11:15-11:30. This intense national coverage
by the networks and broadcast over the local affiliates might explain
why local news crews at WDBJ and WSLS might not have covered the event
in great detail. The Roanoke newspapers were filled with the local story
of two trapped coal miners in the days just before the march and their
heroic rescue by crews working feverishly against long odds. This story
captured the attention of the local press. 49
Summing up the march as a televised event, Jack Gould of the New York Times claimed it was "something that had to be seen to be felt." The march was an "editorial in movement" whose "eloquence could not be the same in only frozen word or stilled picture." Gould argued that television was "proving an indispensable force in the Negro's pursuit of human rights." Measuring the medium's impact, Gould thought, was "hardly possible," but it did have remarkable ability to "personalize the Negro appeal" and to reach into individual American homes. The problem, Gould wondered, was whether television was essentially escapist or whether news could stimulate Americans to act differently. Television was in some respects exactly what the civil rights leaders needed. They had talked to the converted and they had talked to the irreconcilable, but it was the vast mass of Americans who either had no opinion of the matter or did not yet care that they needed to reach. Gould called them "the throngs that attended the adventures of 'the Beverly Hillbillies.'" Gould worried whether television news could sustain American interest in the spectacle of civil rights demonstrations and advocacy. Television viewers wanted fresh faces and new acts, and Gould thought that the political and protest scene might not be able to deliver them. If it could not, he feared viewers would tune out. That television news coverage would get Americans off of the couch and into the streets was unlikely, but it might reveal stories and perspectives most Americans had never before seen or heard. 50
The March on Washington was something to be seen not read about. It barely registered in the Roanoke newspapers. A cartoon in the August 27th Roanoke World News depicted marchers with placards headed toward a big barrel labeled "Washington, D.C." with the title "Powder Keg" above it. A handful of articles described the march in sketchy detail, and much of the commentary considered it ineffective because it "did not change a vote" in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill. Nearly all of the Virginia Congressional delegation told reporters that they did not see or watch the march, and they had little reaction to it. Democratic Congressman J. Vaughan Gary, however, watched the march on TV and "was astonished, certainly, by the size of the crowd." Congressman Thomas N. Downing also watched it, saying "it was orderly, well done, and well coordinated. It gave those participating an excellent opportunity to voice their opinion." Gary, in an attempt to dismiss the march, said it struck him "as a giant pep rally." Gary and Downing, and all who had seen the march on television, were trying to categorize the visual experience. Only those who had seen it could even attempt to do so, and millions had watched this national event on local stations across the nation. What they saw and experienced as viewers contrasted sharply with what they read about it in their newspapers. 51
Summing up the march as a televised event, Jack Gould of the New York Times claimed it was "something that had to be seen to be felt." The march was an "editorial in movement" whose "eloquence could not be the same in only frozen word or stilled picture." Gould argued that television was "proving an indispensable force in the Negro's pursuit of human rights." Measuring the medium's impact, Gould thought, was "hardly possible," but it did have remarkable ability to "personalize the Negro appeal" and to reach into individual American homes. The problem, Gould wondered, was whether television was essentially escapist or whether news could stimulate Americans to act differently. Television was in some respects exactly what the civil rights leaders needed. They had talked to the converted and they had talked to the irreconcilable, but it was the vast mass of Americans who either had no opinion of the matter or did not yet care that they needed to reach. Gould called them "the throngs that attended the adventures of 'the Beverly Hillbillies.'" Gould worried whether television news could sustain American interest in the spectacle of civil rights demonstrations and advocacy. Television viewers wanted fresh faces and new acts, and Gould thought that the political and protest scene might not be able to deliver them. If it could not, he feared viewers would tune out. That television news coverage would get Americans off of the couch and into the streets was unlikely, but it might reveal stories and perspectives most Americans had never before seen or heard. 50
The March on Washington was something to be seen not read about. It barely registered in the Roanoke newspapers. A cartoon in the August 27th Roanoke World News depicted marchers with placards headed toward a big barrel labeled "Washington, D.C." with the title "Powder Keg" above it. A handful of articles described the march in sketchy detail, and much of the commentary considered it ineffective because it "did not change a vote" in Congress on the Civil Rights Bill. Nearly all of the Virginia Congressional delegation told reporters that they did not see or watch the march, and they had little reaction to it. Democratic Congressman J. Vaughan Gary, however, watched the march on TV and "was astonished, certainly, by the size of the crowd." Congressman Thomas N. Downing also watched it, saying "it was orderly, well done, and well coordinated. It gave those participating an excellent opportunity to voice their opinion." Gary, in an attempt to dismiss the march, said it struck him "as a giant pep rally." Gary and Downing, and all who had seen the march on television, were trying to categorize the visual experience. Only those who had seen it could even attempt to do so, and millions had watched this national event on local stations across the nation. What they saw and experienced as viewers contrasted sharply with what they read about it in their newspapers. 51
Essay Sections:
Abstract | Introduction
| Print Media and Segregation | Birmingham
and Danville, 1963 | Local Television News and the Breakdown of
Segregation | The March on Washington and Television News |
WLBT and Pro-Segregation TV | Conclusion |
Notes | Bibliography
