The Race Beat
The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation
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Narrated by:
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Richard Allen
About this listen
Pulitzer Prize, History, 2007
Here is the story of how the nation's press, after decades of ignoring the problem, came to recognize the importance of the civil-rights struggle and turn it into the most significant domestic news event of the 20th century.Drawing on private correspondence, notes from secret meetings, unpublished articles, and interviews, veteran journalists Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff go behind the headlines and datelines to show how a dedicated cadre of newsmen - first black reporters, then liberal Southern editors, then reporters and photographers from the national press and the broadcast media - revealed to a nation its most shameful shortcomings and propelled its citizens to act.
We watch the black press move bravely into the front row of the confrontation, only to be attacked and kept away from the action. Following the Supreme Court's 1954 decision striking down school segregation and the South's mobilization against it, we see a growing number of white reporters venture South to cover the Emmett Till murder trial, the Montgomery bus boycott, and the integration of the University of Alabama.
We witness some Southern editors joining the call for massive resistance and working with segregationist organizations to thwart compliance. But we also see a handful of other Southern editors write forcefully and daringly for obedience to federal mandates, signaling to the nation that moderate forces were prepared to push the region into the mainstream.
The pace quickens in Little Rock, where reporters test the boundaries of journalistic integrity, then gain momentum as they cover shuttered schools in Virginia, sit-ins in North Carolina, mob-led riots in Mississippi, Freedom Ride buses being set afire, fire hoses and dogs in Birmingham, and long, tense marches through the rural South.
©2007 Gene Roberts (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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"This Pulitzer-winning chronicle of the role the news media played in shaping the civil rights movement makes its belated audio debut. Richard Allen undertakes the vocal depictions of the players from across the race-relations spectrum with tremendous skill. He manages to portray characters instead of caricatures as the sweeping real-life drama unfolds." (Publishers Weekly)
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The Gay Revolution begins in the 1950s, when law classified gays and lesbians as criminals, the psychiatric profession saw them as mentally ill, the churches saw them as sinners, and society victimized them with irrational hatred. Against this dark backdrop, a few brave people began to fight back, paving the way for the revolutionary changes of the 1960s and beyond.
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An outstanding book.
- By David Farley on 10-21-15
By: Lillian Faderman
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Trailblazer
- A Pioneering Journalist's Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America
- By: Dorothy Butler Gilliam
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Dorothy Butler Gilliam, whose 50-year-career as a journalist put her in the forefront of the fight for social justice, offers a comprehensive view of racial relations and the media in the US.
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Struggled to finish
- By SL41639 on 04-06-20
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30 Days a Black Man
- The Forgotten Story That Exposed the Jim Crow South
- By: Bill Steigerwald, Juan Williams - foreword
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1948 most White people in the North had no idea how unjust and unequal daily life was for the 10 million African Americans living in the South. But that suddenly changed after Ray Sprigle, a famous White journalist from Pittsburgh, went undercover and lived as a Black man in the Jim Crow South. Escorted through the South's parallel Black society by John Wesley Dobbs, a historic Black civil rights pioneer from Atlanta, Sprigle met with sharecroppers, local Black leaders, and families of lynching victims.
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Review review
- By bill steigerwald on 12-13-20
By: Bill Steigerwald, and others
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Malcolm X
- A Life of Reinvention
- By: Manning Marable
- Narrated by: G. Valmont Thomas
- Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Of the great figure in 20th-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins' bullets at age 39. Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African American man.
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invites further reading on Malcolm X
- By connie on 05-14-11
By: Manning Marable
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Waging a Good War
- A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas E. Ricks offers an utterly new perspective on America’s greatest moral revolution—the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s—and its legacy today. While the Movement has become synonymous with Martin Luther King Jr.’s ethos of nonviolence, Ricks draws on his deep knowledge of tactics and strategy to advance a surprising but revelatory idea: the greatest victories for Black Americans of the past century were won not by idealism alone, but through recruiting, training, discipline, and organization—the hallmarks of any successful military campaign.
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I was born and raised in Alabama. Jim Crow Era.
- By Moses Pitts on 10-06-22
By: Thomas E. Ricks
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The Greatest Comeback
- How Richard Nixon Rose from Defeat to Create the New Majority
- By: Patrick J. Buchanan
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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After suffering stinging defeats in the 1960 presidential election against John F. Kennedy, and in the 1962 California gubernatorial election, Nixon's career was declared dead by Washington press and politicians alike. Yet on January 20, 1969, just six years after he had said his political life was over, Nixon would stand taking the oath of office as 37th President of the United States. How did Richard Nixon resurrect a ruined career and reunite a shattered and fractured Republican Party to capture the White House?
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The comeback kid
- By Jean on 07-23-14
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Once in a Great City
- A Detroit Story
- By: David Maraniss
- Narrated by: David Maraniss
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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It's 1963, and Detroit is on top of the world. The city's leaders are among the most visionary in America. It was the American auto makers' best year; the revolution in music and politics was underway. Walter Reuther's UAW had helped lift the middle class. Once in a Great City shows that the shadows of collapse were evident even then. Yet so much of what Detroit gave America lasts.
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Great read
- By Jordanel on 01-02-16
By: David Maraniss
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Dallas 1963
- By: Bill Minutaglio, Steven L. Davis
- Narrated by: Bill Minutaglio, Tony Messano, Steven L. Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In the months and weeks before the fateful November 22nd, 1963, Dallas was brewing with political passions, a city crammed with larger-than-life characters dead-set against the Kennedy presidency. These included rabid warriors like defrocked military general Edwin A. Walker; the world's richest oil baron, H. L. Hunt; the leader of the largest Baptist congregation in the world, W.A. Criswell; and the media mogul Ted Dealey, who raucously confronted JFK and whose family name adorns the plaza where the president was murdered.
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American lunacy, listenable as it gets
- By Philo on 10-14-17
By: Bill Minutaglio, and others
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Freedom Riders
- 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice: Oxford University Press: Pivotal Moments in US History
- By: Raymond Arsenault
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The saga of the Freedom Riders is an improbable, almost unbelievable story. In the course of six months in 1961, 450 Freedom Riders expanded the realm of the possible in American politics, redefining the limits of dissent and setting the stage for the civil rights movement. In this new version of his encyclopedic Freedom Riders, Raymond Arsenault offers a significantly condensed and tautly written account.
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excellent book
- By test on 05-05-11
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The Mayor of Castro Street
- The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Known as The Mayor of Castro Street even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk's personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.
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Excellent historical perspective of an activist.
- By Chris on 04-14-15
By: Randy Shilts
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You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
- A Personal History of Our Times
- By: Howard Zinn
- Narrated by: David Strathairn
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States, tells his personal stories about more than 30 years of fighting for social change, from teaching at Spelman College to recent protests against war. A former bombardier in World War II, Zinn emerged in the civil rights movement as a powerful voice for justice. Although he's a fierce critic, he gives us reason to hope that by learning from history and engaging politically, we can make a difference in the world.
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mind blowing
- By WILLIAM on 11-27-19
By: Howard Zinn
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Nixon's White House Wars
- The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever
- By: Patrick J. Buchanan
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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From Vietnam to the Southern Strategy, from the opening of China to the scandal of Watergate, Pat Buchanan - speechwriter and senior adviser to President Nixon - tells the untold story of Nixon's embattled White House, from its historic wins to it devastating defeats. In his inaugural address, Nixon held out a hand in friendship to Republicans and Democrats alike. But by the fall of 1969, massive demonstrations in Washington and around the country had been mounted to break his presidency.
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Interesting
- By Jean on 06-15-17
What listeners say about The Race Beat
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ultra Andy
- 06-25-21
Gripping and important
For all those misguided people that hate the media this is a must listen/read. A great and important story of the quest for civil rights and the important role of an independent media.
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- Omar W
- 07-28-18
Superb history, well read
I've studied a fair amount of the civil rights movement but still learned a ton from this book. The history is often riveting and I couldn't have asked for a better reader. Highly recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Robert B.
- 03-29-24
Relentless
Reviewed pursuit of this part of our history, difficult and challenging. I personally result the result.
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Overall
- Lynn
- 03-20-11
Civil Rights Struggle and Newspapers
Here Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff tell the story of the civil rights movement through the lense of the newspaper coverage and manipulation of same. This is an interesting approach and there is much to be learned about the working of southern and northern coverage as well as the importance of photo journalism to raising community awareness. The story contained in the text is not new, but the details of how newspapers and magazines such as Life covered the movement is informative if one is unware. There was less in this book about media influence and inner workings than about the movement and key players in it. The book is informative none-the-less and anyone interested in media in general and newspapers in particular in the context of the civil rights movement will find it interesting. The reading of Richard Allen is very good.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Noel
- 03-06-24
Should be required reading for all
This was fantastically written and informative. I couldn’t put it down. I dont understand why more people aren’t talking about this book or why its not on more black history month book lists. SO GOOD! You wont regret getting this book. I even have it in paperback now.
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Overall
- Ron
- 09-22-09
A fascinating inside look at history
Histories of the civil rights movement are abundant but this book focuses on those that wrote that history - the journalists.
The book brings their efforts alive and awakens the reader to the struggles and dangers they faced in simply getting the truth out. Reporters from the black newspapers excluded because of their race; small town editors taking brave stands that could cost them advertising; Northern writers not understanding the culture. Publications that are now respected that can not but be ashamed at their past.
All are included and all are worth your time.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Kathryn
- 10-17-15
So much important information here.
It never ceases to amaze me that, although I was well educated about the civil rights movement, I really knew so little. This book gives a very well rounded introduction and summary. Those reporters on the race beat deserve our honor as heroes and patriots along with John Lewis, Fred Shuttlesworth, and all the civil rights workers who gave their lives and suffered for the freedoms that we all claim to care about. Please read this book
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- EM Goodkind
- 07-31-10
Civil rights in perspective
In dramatic form that mirrors the best of the journalism described in the book, the authors put the civil rights movement into a perspective that would probably require reading volumes of scholarly research to replicate. I now believe I have a more insightful view of an era I lived through as a spectator.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jasen
- 06-17-19
Excellent Narrative
Thoroughly engrossing stories of one of the country's most historically significant periods. Very well done.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mara B.
- 11-29-12
Amazing.
Would you consider the audio edition of The Race Beat to be better than the print version?
The first part of the book is a bit of a slog as an audiobook because there are so many names being listed that it's difficult to keep everyone straight. However, after that initial bit I had no problems--Richard Allen does a great job with the narration and makes a lot of the scenes really come to life with his skillful use of voices.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Race Beat?
The chapter on the riots at Ole Miss was truly harrowing.
Any additional comments?
I thought this book sounded a little dry when I first saw it, but ended up loving it. Definitely worth giving a try if you have an interest in the era!
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3 people found this helpful