Overview

This compelling book offers important new insights into the connections among radio, race relations, and the civil rights and black power movements in the South from the 1920s to the mid-1970s. For the mass of African Americans - and many whites - living in the region during this period, radio was the foremost source of news and information. Consequently, it is impossible to fully understand the origins and development of the African American freedom struggle, changes in racial consciousness, and the transformation of southern racial practices without recognizing how radio simultaneously entertained, informed, educated, and mobilized black and white southerners. While focusing on civil rights activities in Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and the state of Mississippi, the book also draws attention to less well-known sites of struggle such as Columbus, Georgia, and Columbia, South Carolina, where radio also played a vital role. It explains why key civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King and organizations such as the NAACP, SCLC, and SNCC put a premium on access to the radio, often finding it far more effective than the print media or television.

Full Product Details

9780813027296

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Reviews

A very important contribution to the history of radio, of the civil rights movement, and of the relationship between the mass media and social change.

Author Information

Brian Ward, associate professor of history at the University of Florida, is the editor of Media, Culture and the Modern African American Freedom Struggle (UPF, 2001) and the author of Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black consciousness, and Race Relations, which won the 1999 James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians.

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