Media's Role In The Civil Rights Movement

did. Fear of sexual relations between races was widespread as white men felt a sense of responsibility to protect the virtue of their women, just as Bryant—the husband of Emit’s trial victim—did, as they equated any offense on white womanhood with an attack on the South. The racist myth of black people’s desire to rape white women was a strategic defense of the fundamental cause of the practice of lynching. White’s feared sexual control as it could open up further opportunities to obtain white supremacy through gaining access to things such as voting rights and school integration. Prior to the advancement of technology, print media had become a primary method of communicating information. The information people were unable to learn through

During the 1960’s, African Americans who watched television became aware of the lack of representation in the entertainment industry, the bias reporting, and vehement racism. Popular culture, primarily television and film, was a powerful agent for creating change. During the period of the Civil Rights movement, television became “the chosen instrument of the revolution” (Dates & Mascaro, 50). African American activists recognized the power of television and strived to gain more access in the mass media. Activists were aware of the importance of being properly represented on television and knew what affects the violence and protests would have on the general public. Television used different forms of both segregating and misrepresenting African Americans through inaccurately representing their culture, demeaning and excluding them from narratives, and not televising the injustice that existed among their race (Bristor). While some may argue that such exclusion of blacks from television media was due to outright racism, other explanations can be provided as well. During the period spanning from the 1950’s to the 1960’s, the television networks strived to create television programs that were entertaining to the average viewer as network programmers in the past believed viewers primarily consisted of white people and that white people would not be interested in watching television shows that portrayed