POWER, INTERSECTIONALITY AND NEWS PHOTOGRAPHS: A CASE STUDY OF DETROIT FREE PRESS AND MICHIGAN CHRONICLE NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY BETWEEN 1963 AND 1967

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A Thesis

presented to

The Faculty of the Graduate School

at the University of Missouri-Columbia

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In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

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By

TOM HELLAUER

Dr. Keith Greenwood, Thesis Supervisor

DECEMBER 2020 © Copyright by Tom Hellauer 2020

All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the Associate Vice Chancellor of the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, have examined the thesis entitled

POWER, INTERSECTIONALITY AND NEWS PHOTOGRAPHS: A CASE STUDY OF DETROIT FREE PRESS AND MICHIGAN CHRONICLE NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY BETWEEN 1963 AND 1967

Presented by Tom Hellauer, a candidate for the degree of master of visual editing and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance.

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Dr. Keith Greenwood

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Dr. Cristina Mislán

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Dr. Keona Ervin

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Dr. Berkley Hudson TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter

1. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………..…1

Visual Media Research……………………….……………………………..…….5

2. LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………………..……….19

Visual Media, Intersectionality and Relevant Social Movements….……………27

Relevant Existing Literature…………………………….…………………….…35

3. METHODS..….……………………………………….………………………………38

Sample…………………………………………..……………………….……….38

Coding Shortcomings..………….……………………………………………….42

News Photography………….……………………………………………………43

4. FINDINGS…………….………………………………………………………………44

5. DISCUSSION……..…………….………………………………………………….…52

Building Visual Narratives…………………………………………………….…60

Big Events………………………………………………………………………..66

6. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………..74

Areas of Further Research……………………………………………………….82

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………….………………………….85 POWER, INTERSECTIONALITY AND NEWS PHOTOGRAPHS: A CASE STUDY OF DETROIT FREE PRESS AND MICHIGAN CHRONICLE NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY BETWEEN 1963 AND 1967

Tom Hellauer

Dr. Keith Greenwood, Thesis Supervisor

ABSTRACT

This study seeks to examine the ways in which existent power structures of intersection- ality influence visual media through a historical case study of news photography. Photography, a less subjective visual media than painting and drawings, is often perceived as truthful. News photography, among other visual media, has been shown to influence opinion, publicly define its subjects and possess other important qualities of characterization. A deep historical analysis of intersectional differences of news photography from two similar sources, the mainstream

Detroit Free Press and black newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle should help illuminate the ways visual media can be influenced by the intersectionality of its creators, despite photography’s pre- sumed authenticity.

News photographs from the two publications between 1963 and 1967 were selected for the setting’s pointed racial conflicts, protests and more attributes offering insight to intersectional visual media. Photographs and captions were coded for intersectional identity values such as race and gender, as well as examined for thematic trends among other qualities. The study’s results demonstrated firm parallels to intersectional press theory, conforming numerically and themati- cally to previously identified research.

iii Chapter 1: Introduction

One of the unique aspects of photojournalism that I enjoy is the profession’s spontaneity; its inherent ability to connect photographers with subjects in all types of social roles, areas and more that I likely would have little interaction outside of these specific photojournalism assign- ments. For me, a couple memorable instances were photographing an Army parachute team flight, spelunking through a cave system and many more that I would not have done by myself.

In this way, the profession offers an intimate look into seemingly foreign slices of life, many of which are close geographically but otherwise far away from my own routines and circles. Repor- ters for example never truly have to meet their subjects face to face, with technological capabili- ties to interview over phone, email, tweet or any multitude of online communications. The need to produce visuals in person demands a presence that is not a pre-requisite in similar fields.

Sometimes these photojournalistic meetings outside of my normal social orbit take a more serious tone, and I likely am not the only photojournalist to feel that way. I, a white, mid- dle-class, college-educated, man, am naturally unfamiliar with aspects of life that those holding other intersectional identities hold. Intersectionality, and its various identities, can be defined as the “interaction between gender, race, and other categories of difference in individual lives, so- cial practices, institutional arrangements, and cultural ideologies and the outcomes of these inter- actions in terms of power,” (Davis, 2008 p. 68). Class, religion and other identities can be inter- sectional identities as well, as well as every given aspect of a person’s social identity.

Despite these differences, I and other photojournalists, have to best tell the stories of those with other intersectional identities, with some encounters more memorable than others. On

1 my first day of a photography internship for the Riverfront Times (RFT), I was headed with re- porter, Doyle Murphy, from our downtown St. Louis office to cross the Mississippi River into

Illinois, pulling off in East St. Louis, Mo. Murphy was writing a story about new Circuit Attor- ney, Kim Gardner’s tumultuous first few months in office. We were headed to meet a man whom she had pushed carjacking charges on despite exculpatory evidence, leading to his inability to post bond on his $250,000 bail before being acquitted six long months later (Murphy, 2018).

Named Darnell Murray, he had been staying in a transitional facility in East St. Louis since the incident. Murphy and Murray had already spoken on the phone, but they would do a short fol- low-up and I would get a chance to take some portraits. However, Murray was not answering his phone when we arrived to the facility’s small complex of ranch-style homes and office buildings.

There was not an obvious guest entrance and it had begun raining, complicating the matter.

Murphy got a hold of the facility staff on the phone who told us where to enter. Although the staff had previously agreed to host us, they wanted to vet us a little further on our intentions with Murray, the piece in question and more. After a brief conversation, their hesitance turned into a reserved optimism. To the staff, publishing Murray’s story could raise attention to in- equities in the criminal justice system that they see firsthand but other readers may not know about. A staff member led us to a small conference room and agreed to fetch Murray. While wait- ing for Murray, I tried to figure out the right camera settings, taking a few test shots on Murphy and looking at the room’s layout. The room was tight for photography, cluttered with office ob- jects; a motivational poster and ferns made most potential compositions feel dreary.

Murray appeared ten minutes or so later, apologetic for missing our calls and excited to talk to us. He took the last seat of three at our conference table and we began. Murray was re-

2 laxed but not necessarily clear on what we wanted from him. He had already spoken to Murphy over the phone though, and they quickly began re-discussing elements of the case as well as his life before and since. I tried to take some photographs of the conversation, however the physical space as well as group dynamic proved awkward. Something I had always been taught was not to include a sign of yourself or your team’s presence, such as the reporter Murphy. An old photo- journalism professor listed leaving your camera bag in the shot as one of photojournalism’s dead- ly sins; a perfect calling card to broadcast your presence to the audience from an otherwise undisturbed slice of life. Including Murphy in the shot was out of the question, so I turned to

Murray. Seeing his mannerisms in photographs I thought could be useful, but the shots were somewhat confusing without seeing who he was speaking to.

I began to pivot to the thought of suggesting portraiture after our interview to ensure I had some wider options later on editing. Murray again agreed to our request for portraiture after their talk, and I began to give him some instructions. There was a small section of wall with nothing on it I thought would make a good background, and I led Murray over to it. I took a few photographs of Murray against the wall, but they felt flat, not dynamic and looked more like

LinkedIn profile photo than a newsworthy portrait. The same professor from earlier called these sorts of front-on, headshots of sources “Mugs” for their eery resemblance to mugshots often run- ning in the same newspapers. I photographed from below Murray’s eye level to mix up some of these compositional issues, but I wanted to go further and have Murray do a more relaxed or flu- id pose. I do not remember my exact wording, but I somehow or other asked Murray to rotate a little to the side. Murray’s response was one of the foundational experiences leading me to want to study intersectional press theory and news photographs. Instead of slightly turning, Murray

3 stiffened up and turned directly into a side profile, having appeared to interpret my request as one for a straightforward, side-angle mugshot or lineup. I quickly tried to correct him, bringing him back maybe 30 or 40 degrees and asking him to again make eye contact with the camera, howev- er the damage was done. The portrait of Murray that ultimately ran with the story (Fig. 1) came from after I corrected him and brought him back a few degrees. It ran small in print and was buried near the bottom of the article’s web version.

I never asked Murray about his interpretation of our exchange; if he really just kind of freely rotated or thought I actually just wanted to take a side mugshot from him. Still, the optics were not great regardless of how it happened, with certainly enough visual overlap in symbolism for that pose to be problematic if that image were taken and then used. Murray, who has bipolar disorder, never sued for his wrongful imprisonment and just went back in Illinois, (Murphy,

2018). “[Murray] said he tries not to dwell on it. ‘I guess they had to stick somebody with it,’ he says. ‘May have been one of those ‘tough on crime’ things,” (Murphy, 2018). I fear that Murray thought that I wanted to take a mugshot of him and that it may have just been quicker and easier for him to agree because that might get me out of his hair sooner. Later on, I will explore the is- sues surrounding news photographs and representations of criminality, but this incident stressed the importance of practitioner knowledge to me. If I am going to making photographs of individ- uals like Murray, whose interactions with dominant intersectional power structures are vastly dif- ferent than my own, I need to understand how these differences can impact my and others’ pho- tography.

This responsibility photographers hold is substantial as it turns out. American portrait photographer, John Loomis, described this innate power photographers hold with an anecdote of

4 some Native American tribes’ early interactions with photography to a class of mine. Certain tribes were inherently distrustful of photography in their early interactions with it, calling the practice a “shadow catcher”. The phrase speaks to photography’s “seemingly magical ability to appropriate and remove some sort of essence of a person’s character,” (Jacknis, 1996 p. 1).

Loomis added that he did not know if Native Americans were right, “but they weren’t wrong.”

There is a natural vulnerability on the part of photo subjects, intrinsic to the relationship that comes with allowing someone to control the creation and reproduction of your likeness. Scholars have noted that in Western culture, control over reproduction of news photographs and other vis- ual media has been predominantly held by white, male, middle-class, heteronormative view- points (Gilens, 1996; hooks, 2003). Other scholars have noted inherent biases and stereotyping against other intersectional identities from this dominant viewpoint (Abraham & Appiah, 2006;

Entman, 2005). Therefore, visual journalists, particularly those of socially-advantageous inter- sectional identities, such as myself, must better understand different viewpoints to achieve accu- rate, honest portrayals of their subjects. This study will therefore seek to explore the ways in which intersectionality influences news photography, as a means of better educating myself and others in similar positions.

Visual Media Research

Showing a photograph to an audience can be an extensive, sometimes convoluted process. The decisions made by those involved such as photographers, photo editors, etc. can significantly alter the meaning of visual media. Capturing and selecting specific images, choos-

5 ing accompanying caption text, formatting designs and more decisions made throughout different visual processes greatly affect the final product seen by audiences (Barthes, 1977; Duncan,

1990). Yet, despite evidence demonstrating the overwhelming influence visual producers hold over the final product, there remains a perceived sense of realism around photography.

Imagery is often taken at face value, with presumed authenticity superseding uncertain- ties. Scholars attribute this aura of realism to the fact that, “a photographic image is an actual register of the light waves reflected by objects. Photographs, we know, are material traces of people in a way that drawings or paintings can never be,” (Duncan, 1990 p. 23). Philosopher

Stanley Cavell expands on the matter. “Photography satisfied a wish, it satisfied a wish not con- fined to painters, but the human wish, intensifying since the Reformation, to escape subjectivity and metaphysical isolation… by automatism, by removing the human agent from the act of re- production,” (Snyder, J. & Allen N. W., 1975 p. 145).

Despite this unconscious notion of authenticity attached to images, many scholars have identified areas where inaccuracies, disagreements and other errors occur. One contested area in particular is the realm of visual representation. In fact, marginalized groups have critiqued main- stream visual depictions of themselves in the U.S. media landscape for centuries, with illustra- tions reinforcing racial, sexual and other social boundaries before those boundaries were repeat- ed in photographs and videos (Calhoun, 1992; Dawson, 1995; Robbins, 1993). While illustra- tions and paintings may be more easily dismissed as biased or incorrect, photographs are fre- quently perceived as truthful depictions due to the mechanical nature of cameras. These wide- spread critiques suggest the opposite, highlighting discrepancies between mainstream visual me- dia produced by cameras and actual behavioral or social patterns.

6 In some instances, visual media produced by cameras can also be intentionally mislead- ing. In one contemporary instance, United States Department of Agriculture official, Shirley

Sherrod, was fired from her post after the right-wing news site Breitbart posted deceptively edit- ed video of Sherrod speaking (Thompson, 2012). In the video, Sherrod’s speech was edited to appear to say that she did not help a white farmer to the best of her ability based on his race while she was an agency official in Georgia (Thompson, 2012). While Sherrod told her superiors that the video was edited in a disparaging fashion, she was fired nonetheless as conservative news voices such as Bill O’Reilly mounted public pressure (Jencks, Obie, Schwen & Schroeck,

2010; Thompson, 2012). Shortly thereafter, the damaging Breitbart video was debunked with the spread of the unedited video. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack publicly apologized and offered

Sherrod another job (Thompson, 2012).

The timeline of Sherrod’s firing succinctly demonstrates the perceived truthfulness of visual media. Sherrod’s words and assurances did not vindicate her, but the release of the entire unedited clip did. Sherrod turned down the new job offer and would sue for libel, settling out of court for an undisclosed amount with Breitbart’s widow in 2015 (Jencks et al, 2010). Even though Sherrod is just an individual, and should not be considered a large enough sample size to necessarily be indicative of broader trends in visual communication, the Breitbart video and sub- sequent fallout shows visual media’s uncanny ability to influence opinion, despite its potential inaccuracies.

Workers throughout United States history have been fired for their depictions in different visual media, such as Civil Rights Movement (CRM) protesters being let go after appearing in images of protest (Garrow, 1989). Still, loss of employment is just one societal or personal outc-

7 come to depictions in visual media. Visual media has often been credited with much more far reaching social changes. Stabile and Kumar (2005) found that visuals in the mainstream media contributed to helped paint a pro-war image in the lead up to the Iraq War, potentially fostering a conflict-oriented audience attitude. Lewis Hine’s photography of child labor has been accepted as a precursor to wide-sweeping labor reforms (Freedman, 1994). Images can influence social change, debate, opinion and more (Raiford, 2007). More research has shown that images are used in coordination with pushes for a wide social actions (Duncan, 1990).

Imagery, symbology and all things visual media have been deeply connected to various meaningful social movements throughout U.S. history. Relating back to the visual representation of minority groups, the Civil Rights Movement comes to mind as a memorable example of visual media’s influence on social, cultural and political outcomes. JET magazine’s photo coverage of

Jim Crow during the 1950s and 60s presented unique imagery that contributed to a wider knowl- edge of the ongoing racial violence against black Southerners.

JET was one of the lone outlets circulating the most violent images of Jim Crow, includ- ing photos of Emmett Till’s funeral and body. While many publications ran violent images of protesters faced against powerful firehoses or police dogs, JET’s coverage went further showing the, “horrors of segregation and racial violence and lynching in the American South. And the im- ages were really, really challenging. It was the kind of visual that you didn’t typically see,” Brian

Stevenson, the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, said in a video interview with TIME mag- azine (Moakley & Pollack, 2016). JET’s coverage of Till’s funeral and lynching, “made it impos- sible for white families in other parts of the country to stay indifferent, neutral,” Stevenson said

(Moakley et al, 2016). To Stevenson and many other civil rights activists, one particular image of

8 Till’s mother overlooking his open casket, “expressed the pain and anguish of a huge part of our population that is still hoping for basic recognition of their humanity,” (Moakley et al, 2016).

Author and journalist, Charles Cobb, credits his subsequent activism in part to the pub- lishing of the Emmett Till photographs when he was just 12. “Mississippi was kind of like a vague part of our family’s [conversations of racism], as kind of like the most dangerous place for black people in the world. But we had no concrete fix on what that meant until the Emmett Till photograph,” Cobb said in a 2004 audio interview (Adams, 2004). Cobb would go onto to be an influential leader of the Freedom Schools’ voter registration and education efforts in Mississippi in the early 1960s (Adams, 2004).

The photographs centered around the Freedom Schools and other CRM activists in the

Southeast during that era had a similar motivational effect both nationwide and internationally, scholars argue; with CRM imagery, “vividly and visually challenging an entire economic and social regime of power,” (Raiford, 2007 p. 1129). Internationally speaking, the United States’ positioning was weakened by their inability to deny injustice’s existence domestically while si- multaneously presenting itself as the leader of the free world (Cha-Jua, S., & Lang, C., 2007 p.

280). “Courts and Congress—prodded by a massive social movement, national embarrassment on the world stage during the Cold War, and the electoral concerns of urban politicians—extend- ed political and civil rights,” (Katz, 2012 p. 48).

Despite visual media’s profound ability to define, affect and challenge existent social structures, little attention is paid to those presenting them or their backgrounds and potential bi- ases (Entman, 2005; Hariman & Lucaites, 2008; Sontag, 1977). Yet, scholars have repeatedly concluded that the intersectionality of both visual producers, subjects and audience influence the

9 creation and comprehension of visual media (Gilchrist, 2010; Morrison, 2014; Sontag, 1977).

When applying this to imagery, the intersectionality of both the producers, subjects and con- sumers alter the content and its meaning (Gilchrist, 2010). In the case of the Emmett Till pho- tographs, JET’s status as a black publication likely influenced their desire to create and publish the Till photographs and also be the lone publication invited behind the scenes by Till’s mother.

JET had a well-known reputation as a trusted news source in the black community. “People in the black community have said for years that as a motto, ‘If it wasn’t in JET, it didn’t happen,”

Lerone Bennett Jr., a former editor of Ebony and JET magazines said in an audio interview

(Adams, 2004).

“I really do not think that any other magazine would have published [the Till pho- tographs] had JET not done it first,” journalism scholar Sammye Johnson said in an audio inter- view (Adams, 2004). These examples and countless others are likely not a coincidence, but rather indicative of intersectionality’s wide influence over visual media. Intersectional press the- ory indicates that white, mainstream visual narratives tend to overemphasize black violence, criminality and other negative stereotypes, while black press often serves as a counter narrative to these, highlighting oppositional instances such as Till’s murder (Abraham et al, 2006; Gilens,

1996).

In fact, research suggests that while photographs such as those of Till are memorable, they are not necessarily unique. In prolonged studies at times spanning decades, researchers have found repetitive, glaring discrepancies between different intersectional identities and their re- spective visual depictions (Entman, 2001; Gillman, 1996 & 1999). Entman found black criminals to be consistently portrayed in visual media in more demeaning and dangerous manners than

10 white ones (1990). Abraham and Appiah (2006) found that images in the mainstream media tend to associate blackness with negative thematic issues such as criminality, poverty, drugs, welfare and more. The white, mainstream media also over represents these stereotypical depictions of black populations (Kahle, Whiteside & Yu, 2007).

Although visual media such as a photograph can represent only one out-of-context mo- ment, it has been consistently used to make over-arching statements about actual subjects and social groups. “People and events that appear in photographs accompanying news stories are not simply indicative of isolated individuals and occurrences; rather, the photographs are symbolic of

“the whole mosaic” (Epstein, 1973 p. 5). In doing so, the photos and their subjects become em- blematic representations of the social world and the stories or trends their photos accompany

(Clawson & Trice, 2000). “Because the camera records the decor of everyday life, the photo- graphic image is capable of directing attention across a field of gestures, interaction rituals, so- cial types, political styles, artistic motifs, cultural norms, and other signs as they intersect in any event,” (Hariman et al, 2008 p. 177). Historically in the United States, mainstream uses of pho- tographs have been filtered through a white, heteronormative, male, middle-class lens (Gilchrist,

2010). Therefore, examining critiques from persons of color, women and other historically mar- ginalized perspectives should shed light on intersectional distinctions within visual media.

This study will seek to build on comparisons between mainstream visual depictions and minority created ones. Previous researchers have found that case studies allow for a rich analysis of the materials in question, rather than covering a wider array of material. Sugrue, drawing in- spiration from (Feagin, 1992), posits that case studies allow, “for a rich description and analysis

11 of the processes that are all too often left in the realm of generalizations such as discrimination, deindustrialization, and racism,” (Sugrue, 1996 p.12).

Recent social movements such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo have consistently raised questions about mainstream depictions of intersectional identities and been the focus of much discussion. However research of contemporary movements’ imagery and symbolism is by design in its earliest stages. Moreover, historical visual study of social movements offer the bene- fits of a deep body of analysis, while simultaneously providing a backdrop for which to better understand emergent, contemporary visual theory. For these reasons, a historical case study of newspaper photography in Detroit in the 1960s should provide answers to some of the aforemen- tioned issues of intersectionality’s influence in visual media.

Detroit offers a rich look into intersectional visual study, in particular through the lenses of class, race and social movements. The city saw great shifts in racial makeup, labor, housing and other areas among the highest in the nation, spurring major events during this time period.

Studies of Detroit provide understanding of the “dynamics of American industrial capitalism,” (Sugrue, 1996 p. 12). While a majority of post war depictions painted Detroit as the

“Model City”, “Motor City” and other idealist monikers, some works such as Harrington’s 1962 book, The Other America, helped show the realities of a classist social structure that left many social groups behind (Morrison, 2014). Harrington’s book is a holistic portrait of the United

States, but Detroit can serve as perhaps the quintessential microcosm of postwar industrial capi- talism, encompassing its successes and failures across intersectional identities.

In addition to the class or economic information Detroit provides, its shifting racial makeup during the time period offers a detailed look at racial press theory. For the most part,

12 immigrant communities shied away from Detroit, instead choosing to settle in international coastal hubs such as Los Angeles, New York and others (Sugrue, 1996). While simultaneously failing to attract significant proportions of Asian, Hispanic and other international populations, black citizens, primarily fleeing the South during the Great Migration came to Detroit in a mas- sive exodus. Detroit’s black population rose from 16 percent to 44 percent between 1950 and

1970 (Gibson & Jung, 2002). This influx set the stage for increased racial tensions, particularly in housing demand, the labor force, policing practices, educational institutions and virtually every aspect of social structure.

Detroit’s increased black residency also contributed to significant local and national events of the period. Two events in particular became emblematic of both Detroit, but also re- spective national social movements. The Detroit March to Freedom in 1963 saw what was at the time time the largest single protest demonstration in US history (Clemens, 2011). In stark con- trast, it also saw the Detroit Civil Violence of 1967. The March to Freedom was led by notable figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Aretha Franklin, United Automobile Workers’ President Wal- ter Reuther and many others. An estimated 125,000 activists marched to Cobo Hall, where King would give an early version of his, “I Have a Dream,” speech (Clemens, 2011). The estimated 95 percent black crowd poured into the convention center, with more masses clustered outside lis- tening through speakers to King and other speech-givers (Clemens, 2011). King would go on to say the event was, ”one of the most wonderful things to happen to America,” Clemens notes. The event was viewed positively by both black and white Detroiters. However, just four years later

Detroit’s race relations would sour, with the Detroit Civil Violence of 1967.

13 While at times called a riot, rebellion or other phrases by media and scholars alike, the event will be referred to as an event of civil violence. Scholars such as Katz (2008) use the term civil violence for two reasons. “One is to sidestep the politically charged debate over whether to refer to them as riots or rebellions or by using a term that is at once less evaluative and more ana- lytically precise. The second reason is to distinguish these events from individual violence, ter- rorist violence and criminal violence,” (Katz, 2008 p. 78). The event was sparked by a police raid of a “blind pig,” or after hours drinking establishment, that catered primarily to black communi- ties. The raid was the latest instance in a lengthy record of questionable police tactics and brutali- ty that had turned the black community against law enforcement (Emeka, 2018). Local, national and international media all covered the event extensively, often running sensationalist images of fiery buildings, clashes with National Guardsmen and more (Morrison, 2014; Ulbrich, 2011).

These two instances were undoubtedly defining moments in Detroit’s political and social histories of the 1960s, leading to drastic changes in policy both at the local and state levels (Fine,

2007 p. 322). Scholars note that the generally “good” CRM is often characterized by its dignified and peaceful protesters, celebrity participation and other traits seen in the March to Freedom

(Cha-Jua et al, 2007; Payne, 2007). On the other side of the spectrum, the Civil Violence and other similar events such as the Watts Civil Violence of 1965 can be seen as metaphors for the emergence of the Black Power Movement (BPM). “Urban race riots were perceived as outbursts of Black Power,” (Morrison, 2014 p. 5). These instances also serve as a signifier of the end of the generally “good” CRM and events like the March to Freedom (Cha-Jua et al, 2007; Morrison,

2014). These two happenings, and their parallels to literature, then fit neatly with other defining events of the CRM and BPM respectively.

14 However, previous discussion, particularly amongst mainstream sources, has tended to emphasize these individual events and their coverage and study. Much less literature has been devoted to the everyday study of Detroit life and visual media. Scholar and civil rights leader

Joyce Ladner notes a selective fixation on “Big Events,” rather than everyday or average ones

(Payne, 2007). Ladner critiques that too often it took white involvement, celebrities or violence for press and subsequent research to cover the CRM (Payne, 2007). Additionally, waves of na- tional and international media descended on the major events of the CRM and BPM without be- ing well-versed in the local political and social climates (Berger, 2011). Now frequently referred to as “parachute journalism,” the photographers and reporters from out of town often ignored the labor, housing and overall preexisting conditions that acted as catalysts for the very events they covered.

The March to Freedom, Civil Violence Event and their respective visual media have been covered extensively in this regard, whereas the time in between has received relatively little at- tention outside of select sources. Their status as Ladner’s textbook “Big Events” means that con- textual research may be limited and warrants study. There certainly was plentiful national and even international coverage of both events, however when not prompted by “Big Events”, these publications likely had little interest in Detroit. Local publications are much more likely to pro- vide these more intimate, everyday perspectives of Detroit’s citizens. Local newspapers have knowledge of their communities and do not have run wire photography or send in a “parachute” photojournalist, giving them an advantage in the creation and presentation of these defining visu- als. Overall, local publications provide a more thorough process of visual content creation of their respective communities, thus providing more informational material for analysis.

15 “A full understanding of the role of the media in shaping protest cycles requires an exam- ination of the construction of local news and the ways local politics and local protest are inter- twined with national movements and national politics,” (Oliver & Myers, 1999 p. 43). Moreover, national publications often depended on wire images from local newsmakers, perhaps amplifying

Detroit’s visual producers to a national and even international stage during the city’s larger hap- penings (Payne, 2007).

Within Detroit’s media landscape were several revealing publications. However, given the parameters of the study, newspaper photography merited study. News photography is often perceived as truthful, memorable and indicative of social events despite noted inconsistencies between visual producers. “The daily stream of photojournalistic images, while merely supple- mental to the task of reporting the news, defines the public through an act of common spectator- ship,” (Hariman et al., 2008 p. 36). While magazines would have published similar images, De- troit’s local newspapers of the era published in higher frequency. Furthermore, while television also presented similar imagery, news photographs are more uniquely able to define areas of so- cial interest. “Photographs may be more memorable than moving images because they are a neat slice of time, not a flow. Television is a stream of underselected images, each of which cancels its predecessor” (Sontag, 1977 p. 17). Visuals on television do not hold quite the same impact in collective memory and other areas and are not as readily able to become emblematic of the,

“whole mosaic,” Entman (1973) mentions.

When choosing specific newspapers, three stood out for their standing amongst Detroiters and nationally. Those were the Detroit News, Detroit Free Press and Michigan Chronicle. The

Chronicle, a black newspaper, presented an opportunity to examine race’s role in intersectional

16 visual communication and perhaps show a different narrative to prevailing coverage. While pre- vious authors such as Entman (2001) have chosen white, mainstream publications due to their increased circulation and perhaps thus broader social influence, others such as hooks (2003) have found valuable insight in studying the, “oppositional gaze,” or visual media which surfaces in critical contention to the mainstream gaze. Started by four employees of the Chicago Defender, perhaps the most influential black newspaper for its high circulation, recorded success in encour- aging the Great Migration and more, the Chronicle would beat out other black Detroit publica- tions as a primary source of information for Detroit’s black residents (Davey & Eligon, 2019;

Jackson, 2011). The Chronicle’s pro-labor stance and coverage of local or notable black Detroi- ters helped it overtake other local black publications (Jackson, 2011).

The Free Press was selected over crosstown rival the The Detroit News for its more liber- al stance and recognized photography team which won the Pulitzer for its coverage of the 1967

Civil Violence Event (Morrison, 2014). “Based in the North, [the Free Press] is generally under- stood as having a moderate liberal editorial voice,” (Morrison, 2014 p. 34) Being more liberal, the Free Press would theoretically have more in common with the Chronicle than the News. This increased overlap could help show intersectional differences in visual communication.

The pair of the Chronicle and Free Press come to represent a largely black and a largely white viewpoint on the events of this setting. However, other intersectional identities propose a more complex picture. Examining both newspapers’ visual representations of intersectionality should shed light onto different interpretations of race, gender and other identifiers. This study seeks to explore the intersectional patterns apparent in the two papers and to interpret what those patterns suggest about the images’ creators, narratives of the era and more. The second chapter

17 will present a theoretical overview and assessment of the literature pertaining to visuals and in- tersectionality. Chapter 3 outlines the choices for data selection and methods of analysis used in the study. Chapters 4 and 5 will outline results and discussion respectively before chapter 6 con- cludes the study.

18 Chapter 2: Literature Review

“The acts of analysis, of deconstruction and of reading “against the grain” offer an additional pleasure — the pleasure of resistance, of saying “no”: not to “unsophisticated” enjoyment, by ourselves and others, of culturally dominant images, but to the structures of power which ask us to consume them uncritically and in highly circumscribed ways,” —Annette Kuhn, The Power of Image p. 8

To better understand potential differences between the Chronicle and Free Press, differ- ences between the black and mainstream press are of interest. The black press and mainstream media1 differ extensively in their visual representations of intersectionality. In fact, scholars con- tend that the fundamental purpose of the black press is to present an alternative to the main- stream media’s interpretation of black culture and life (Hutton, 1993). Moreover, the dichotomy between the black and white press is of particular importance to this study and not only because it is a black newspaper and white newspaper being studied.

In 1960, the white and black populations accounted for 99.7% of Detroit’s residents (Gib- son et al, 2002). The city, “had a small Mexican-American population, a tiny Asian enclave, and hardly any Puerto Ricans, Dominicans or Cubans.” (Sugrue, 1996 p. 13). Detroit’s black popula- tion steadily rose with the Great Migration's promise of industrial work simultaneously mixed with escalating white flight and decentralization of industry (Sugrue, 1996). The influx of black residents, relative lack of other racial populations and de facto segregation found in Detroit em- phasizes the distinct racial divide between the two publications and city as a whole.

1 *Mainstream media may be at times used interchangeably with white press. In 1978, persons of color made up 19% of the U.S. population but accounted for only 4% of newsroom staff (McGill, 2000). From 2012 to 2016, news- room employees were 77 percent white, compared to 65 percent of the domestic workforce. (Grieco, 2018).

19 As Entman (2005) notes, in segregated societies, mass media helps inform opinion and social structures where meaningful interactions between separate races are limited. This was the case in Detroit, where the geographical racial alignment was distinct. “Nearly a third of Detroit’s black population lived on the streets clustered around St. Antoine and Hastings. Known as Par- adise Valley, the area had been the commercial center of Detroit’s black population since the

World War I era… ‘Paradise Valley is a misnomer,’ wrote Detroit NAACP president Gloster

Curent in 1946. The name was a reflection of the hope of black newcomers to the city, and an ironic comment on hopes still unmet,” (Sugrue, 1996 p. 36).

Writing of visual media’s ability to racially inform in segregated areas, scholar bell hooks writes, “Unless you went to work in the white world, across the tracks, you learned to look at white people by staring at them on the screen,” (2003, p. 95). Although hooks is specifically ref- erencing film theory, given what previous research has indicated on photojournalism’s ability to inform and define, similar effects would likely have occurred in segregated Detroit (Entman,

2005; Hariman et al, 2008).

While local subjects were predominantly black or white and in specific areas of Detroit, it is worth noting that the Free Press dedicated significant photographic coverage to national and international events such as the ongoing Vietnam War, among other topics. This focus on other geographic areas by the Free Press perhaps makes the racial makeup of photo subjects more in- tricate than that of the Chronicle, which focused almost exclusively on local news. In the few observed instances where the Chronicle showed international and national photos for topics like the Vietnam War, the photographs often had a local “angle” such as native Detroiters in other lo- cations. Soldiers from Detroit seen abroad or domestically and Michigan politicians seen in

20 Washington or other locations were typical among them. The differences in photo locale help to accentuate the main functions of black and mainstream press, particularly in relation to the

Chronicle.

The Chronicle’s hyper-focus on their immediate area coincides with black press theory.

“Within the black press, and other prominent black institutions such as the church and popular music, conversations about black publicity, rights, and interests take place and are transformed into strategies to counter the oppression of white supremacist rule,” (Squires, 2002 p. 451). The

Chronicle had extensive coverage dedicated to these local institutions like black churches, busi- ness groups and more. The Chronicle’s very existence and popularity debatably stemmed from a desire by black Detroiters for more local coverage. “The [Chicago] Defender had a Detroit edition—led by Russ Cowans—but people in Detroit wanted more local coverage. Subsequently, the Michigan Chronicle—then the Detroit Chronicle—was born,” (Jackson, 2011). Jackson notes that the Chronicle’s attention to local matters would propel them to beat out Detroit editions of other black newspapers such as the Pittsburgh Courier. Simultaneously the local focus strength- ened connections between the Chronicle and regional black institutions by giving them a plat- form to disseminate their messaging.

The Chronicle developed a unique relationship with the local community, often blurring the line between subject and creator by covering business, religious and other groups of which their staff were members. This deviates harshly from mainstream journalism, which, “tries to be objective, remains distant from her or his subject, finds information in official places, and presents that information in particular ways,” (Hindman, 1998 p. 177). Squires (2002) notes that

21 close community ties are common for black and other minority media institutions whereas main- stream media attempt to distance themselves.

Minority groups in intersectional categories such as race, gender, sexuality, religion and ethnicity, “have created coexisting counterpublics in reaction to the exclusionary politics of dom- inant public spheres and the state” (Squires, 2002 p. 446). Moreover, without the black press, such oppositional interpretations may never see the light of day in a world dominated by the white press (Huspek, 2004). Black citizens also listened and reacted to the media published by the black press. Historians credit black newspapers and publications with altering the movements of black populations, both encouraging and at times discouraging relocation in the Great Migra- tion. The Chronicle’s parent paper, The Chicago Defender, ran editorial cartoons satirizing the poor conditions of Southern blacks and led several notable pushes for black relocation through- out the 20th century (Davey et al, 2019; Jones, 1986).

As Huspek (2004) and Squires (2002) note, the editorial practices of the black press al- low for closer proximity to subject matter, visual and otherwise. The deep connections to black culture and community organizations exhibited by the Chronicle was also reflected in its reader- ship. A 1968 survey showed that Detroit’s black and inner city readers slightly favored the

Chronicle over the Free Press (Morrison, 2014). The preference of Detroit’s black and inner city communities to the Chronicle also suggests that its mainstream counterparts, the Free Press and

News, may not have presented as relevant of information or were as trusted of sources for them.

Following the aftermath of the 1967 Civil Violence Event, the Kerner Commission Report found

Detroit's black community perceived the city's white publications to not prioritize crimes and vi- olence against black citizens, particularly by white perpetrators (Report…, 1968). Scholars such

22 as Huspek (2004) note that the very existence of black newspapers such as the Chronicle signi- fies a communal desire to show a different perspective of newsworthy events, the public and more areas. Visual scholar bell hooks describes the empowerment of ‘seeing’ more succinctly.

“Spaces of agency exist for black people, wherein we can both interrogate the gaze of the Oth- er—but also look back, and at one another, naming we see,” (2003 p. 95). The ability to critique white, mainstream interpretations while simultaneously presenting a carefully constructed self- image and interpretation of the world at large encourages minority communities in various cate- gories of intersectionality to engage with and create visual media among other mediums.

While distinctions vary across publication and geography, black communities in the Unit- ed States long-held aversion to the mainstream media stems from perceived bias, lack of relevant coverage, inaccurate portrayals of black culture and other concerns (Abraham et al 2006; Gillens,

1996 & 1999). Research confirms their skepticism is well-founded and that there exists a fa- voritism of white culture in the mainstream media (Entman, 1990; Entman, R. & Rojecki A.,

2001; Gilchrist, 2010). Perhaps the most telling indication of these trends are data collected on news photographs of black populations in the United States and their deviation from actual cen- sus and statistical information. These deviations occur in the visual representation of stereotypi- cal subject matter such as poverty, drug use and other adverse topics (Abraham et al, 2006). The proportion of black and other minority subjects are often exaggerated in relation to these adverse topics.

One example is the visual representation of poverty in news photographs and other me- dia. Scholars have repeatedly found that black subjects are disproportionately represented as members of the poor or needy in visual media (Gilens, 1996 & 1999). For example, Gilens

23 (1996) concluded that while blacks made up less than one third of poor citizens, news pho- tographs portrayed them as two thirds of all poor. Gilens also noted that blacks were underrepre- sented as “deserving” poor, as in those deserving of welfare such as the elderly and working.

Lastly, Gilens discovered that in news photos between 1950 and 1992, black photo subjects were, “comparatively absent from media coverage of poverty during times of heightened sympa- thy for the poor” (1999, p. 132).

In these depictions, urban centers such as Detroit can at times serve as the backdrop for stereotypical portrayals of poverty. “Despite the continuing racism that has scarred American his- tory, this association of urban poverty with race is relatively new, a product of the massive mi- gration of African Americans into northern and midwestern cities after World War II,” (Katz,

2012 p. 105). Some scholars and visual producers draw from different perspectives to explain the association between poverty, urban and otherwise, with blackness. “Neither the culture of pover- ty nor the undeserving poor made sense, other than as mystifications that hid the dynamics of power and subordination” (Katz, 2012 p. 107).

Some other stereotypical areas of visual representation are those of criminality and vio- lence. Minority subjects are frequently cast as criminals in visual media, while being portrayed as violent or non-violent for varying reasons (Berger, 2011; Entman, 1990). Contemporary main- stream media tend to overemphasize black criminality and violence, often juxtaposed to white victimization (Dowler, Fleming & Muzzatti 2006; Buckler & Travis 2005). Entman and Rojecki

(2001) found in a study of television news in Chicago that white victims of crimes received three times as much coverage as black victims of crimes. In a separate study, Entman (1990) con- firmed that in multiracial stories, news tended to favor white perspectives over minority ones.

24 When incidents of crimes involving multiple races were covered by the media, “the white’s per- spective on the event dominated the story,” (Entman, 1990 p. 337).

While at times portrayed as violent in varying portrayals, simultaneously there exists a resistance in the mainstream media to present an overly empowered black subject (Berger, 2011;

Entman, 1990). Although the liberal news media ran photographs of the black activists of the

CRM, they often ran sensational images of black protestors being brutalized by police and dogs, relegating white sympathy to the image of helpless black subjects (Berger, 2011). The violent and non-violent black subject both appear to be different visual narratives with a common goal; enforcing white dominance.

Gender often can influence depictions of these same stereotypes, particularly when com- bined with racial connotations. News stories and photographs also exaggerate the “risks of vio- lent crimes faced by high status white women” (Reiner [1995] 2003, p. 386). Gilchrist (2010) found that murdered aborigonal women in Canada received substantially less photo coverage than murdered white Canadian women. “If photographs [of aboriginal victims] were shown at all, they were less visible, not often centrally placed, and less intimate, as they rarely included images of victims’ families and never included childhood photographs. The lack of visual im- agery in these cases denied readers the same opportunity to identify with or become emotionally invested in the Aboriginal women’s cases as they unfolded,” (Gilchrist, 2010 p. 12).

White women’s place in common Western visual literacy has been that of the damsel in distress or victim needing saving, particularly from other races. “Politics of race and gender were inscribed into mainstream cinematic narrative from Birth of a Nation on. As a seminal work, this film identified what the place and function for white womanhood would be in cinema,” (hooks,

25 2003 p. 97). Slotkin (1973) traces this visual frame back to 17th century accusations of kidnap- ping and violence of European women by Native Americans, which were then used to justify at- tacks on Native American tribes.

Intersectional majorities, such as the white, male, heteronormative, middle-class ones dominating Western visual media narratives, present disproportionately high representations of negative stereotypes to maintain power over subgroups. These unequal representations, “[under- line] the ability of those holding power to determine how to portray those who do not,” (Mick- iewicz, 1994 p. 8). Complicating the matter, these stereotypical depictions are rarely overt, but are rather subliminal or unconscious. Abraham and Appiah (2006) defined one such subliminal method of connecting visual cues of blackness to stereotypical topics as implicit visual proposi- tioning. The authors define and characterize the method as, “the juxtaposition of images with verbal or written statements to comment or propose new meanings… News stories make implicit links between Blacks and negative thematic issues and concerns—such as violent crime, drugs, poverty, prisons, drug-addicted babies, AIDS, and welfare—by predominantly juxtaposing or illustrating stories with images of African Americans,” (Abraham et al, 2006 p. 184).

Although these mainstream visual representations are consistently inaccurate, inflated or flat out wrong, they still leave lasting impressions with their intended audiences. Visual portray- als of poverty dramatically alter attitudes towards affirmative action and other policy areas

(Kahle et al, 2007). Zillman, Gibson and Sargent (1999) found that news photographs left con- siderable impressions on their viewers. In several experiments, the researchers found that pho- tographs that were partial to one facet of a seemingly neutral story caused readers to view the event through the same perspective. Other research has confirmed that audience members’ per-

26 ceptions were influenced depending on media frames (Clawson, Oxley, Nelson, Rosalee & Ox- ley, 1997).

Visual Media, Intersectionality and Relevant Social Movements

Given photography’s ability to sway identity, memory and perception of subjects, charac- terizing and defining social boundaries within its four corners, it is fair to question its creators.

How close to reality are portrayals of social groups and social movements in various media?

What do differences amongst visual producers and deviations from statistical data suggest? In relation to this study, two visually distinct forms of black activism were present in the news. The news photographs of the CRM and the BPM frequently appeared in newspapers, television and in popular culture during the 60s’ (Phu, 2008; Raiford, 2007). Both were visually distinct in their symbologies, albeit connected.

A 2011 book by Martin Berger, Seeing Through Race: A Reinterpretation of Civil Rights

Photography, proposes a more intersectional picture of viewing the CRM through news pho- tographs, offering some implications for the visuals of the BPM as well. While photography cer- tainly played a powerful role in garnering attention to the CRM, Berger suggests that the white press failed to cover its happenings in meaningful and empowering ways, frequently rejecting symbols of the empowered BPM and often only covering stories that fell into Ladner’s cate- gories of “Big Events.”

Whereas historical visual depictions frequently emphasized the violent nature of non- whites dating back to at least America’s colonial period, at times to justify white supremacy, in- creased law enforcement or military action, photographs in the popular media of CRM present a

27 docile, often victimized black subject hood (Bauer, 2017; Berger, 2011). Berger argues that the repetitive symbology of noble black victims popular in the mainstream depictions of the CRM does more to reduce black agency than empower it (2011). “By placing blacks in the timeworn positions of victim and supplicant, the photographs presented story lines that allowed magnani- mous and sympathetic whites to imagine themselves bestowing rights on blacks, given that the dignified and suffering blacks of the photographic record appeared in no position to take any- thing from white America,” (Berger, 2011 p. 8). In the early 1960s, progressive and center-lean- ing white publications wished to gently promote the causes of the CRM without alienating their white reader base, Berger notes. Conservative white papers often did not publish these photos at all (Berger, 2011). Even liberal or Northern white newspapers shied away from the most graphic sights of violence such as lynching imagery that appeared in JET and other black publications

(Berger, 2011; Moakley et al, 2016). By all appearances, white audiences subscribed to these narratives, focusing on white violence or wrongdoing rather than black empowerment. President

John F. Kennedy famously said that Bull Connor, the notorious Birmingham official who direct- ed dogs and firehoses at CRM protesters, did as much for civil rights as Abraham Lincoln (Nun- nelley, 1981).

Black press and visual creators also portrayed violence, but created a visual counter-nar- rative that obfuscated or turned the dynamics of power despite often relying on the same wire photography. Black press constructed, “a distinctive visual record of civil rights that was rarely glimpsed by whites,” (Berger, 2011 p. 7). One key distinction Berger makes is the dynamics of power and race. As previously mentioned, white press often portrayed black subjects as victims.

“[Liberal white] outlets published photographs throughout the 1960s that reduced the complex

28 social dynamics of the civil rights movement to easily digested narratives, prominent among them white-on-black violence,” (Berger, 2011 p. 4 ).

Despite overlap in setting and subject matter, black visual producers created disparate work. Instead of white-on-black violence, black press often presented a chaotic or neutral scene that did not empower a specific race. Image choice and implementation of textual understanding cues were two methods used by black press to present alternative meanings. The Chicago De- fender’s coverage of Selma featured a photo of both police and protesters alike knocked to the ground with the caption, “Negroes and state troopers alike fell to ground in Selma, Ala., as troopers moved in to break up a march,” (Berger, 2011 p. 7). While demonstrating the frenzy and violence of the scene, the image and caption do not as clearly reinforce white superiority, author- ity and power. Morrison (2014) noted that the most circulated images in the Free Press’ 1967

Civil Violence Event coverage, “followed the perspective of rattled Detroit police and state and federal troops,” (p. 34). Morrison goes further, concluding that while the Free Press presented a more introspective assessment of blame for the Civil Violence of 1967 than most national media, they still emphasized in photo coverage, “individual acts of criminality rather than the systemic criminality of a deeply racist northern city,” (2014, p. 3). Free Press photo captions followed these perspectives, often by quoting or mentioning authorities and describing individual acts of criminality.

The Chronicle’s photographs were somewhat similar to the Free Press’, however their use of text reinforced vastly different meanings of accountability for the civil violence. “Taken out of context, these images could be pulled from the Chronicle and placed in the Free Press without a noticeable deviation from the latter’s editorial voice. The content of the articles appear-

29 ing alongside these images, however, provides an entirely different context for these pho- tographs,” (Morrison, 2014 p. 35). “The Chronicle’s editorial voice argued that personal ac- countability must extend beyond black communities in Detroit, a position the Detroit Free Press did not as clearly express,” (Morrison, 2014 p. 8). In that vein, the Chronicle specifically men- tioned police brutality and structural inequalities as catalysts for the event. “While the Chronicle didn’t specifically blame whites for the uprising, the paper did mention recent instances that might have contributed to the overall feeling of discontent among blacks,” (Ulbrich, 2011 p. 67).

Both examples demonstrate a propensity among black media to present their own version of events in a fashion inconsistent with that of the mainstream, white media’s. A further inspec- tion of race in the popular social movement photos of the era demonstrate deeper trends, includ- ing well-defined white selectivity and subject favoritism in the white press. Student Nonviolent

Coordinating Committee (SNCC) staff photographer Danny Lyon noted that the white press of- ten relegated their coverage to the actions of other whites, whether those were of confrontation or solidarity (Berger, 2011). Historian Charles Payne uses several anecdotes to describe this phe- nomenon. In one instance, a middle age white man, Bob Zellner, reluctantly and at the last minute joined SNCC and other young activists in a march in McComb, Miss., because, “if the kids were going to put their lives on the line, he had to go too” (Payne, 2007 p. 403). While a peripheral figure uninvolved with organizing and planning of the march, McComb was described by the New York Times as the leader of it. McComb would attribute his sex, race and age to the descriptions of his leadership, saying that, “if a white man is around he must be in charge,” (Payne, 2007 p. 403).

30 Raiford (2007) recounts how SNCC, which was mostly young and black demographical- ly, used photography differently than white visual producers. While SNCC produced images of police brutality and other familiar topics to viewers, they also, “used photography to tell a story of gradual and procedural change, the hard work of consensus building, the development of col- lective leadership and leadership from below, community organizing, and the possibility of a bet- ter society, perhaps the civil rights movement’s most important legacies,” (Raiford, 2007 p.

1130).

White liberal media typically avoided such topics, often by latching onto specific, charismatic leaders or less substantive embodiments of activism. When the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference (SCLC) gathered to announce the accords that had been agreed upon with Birmingham officials, it chose Fred Shuttlesworth to speak first at its press conference. Pre- viously, Shuttlesworth had led a human rights organization, survived multiple bombings attempts on his life and served as an officer in the NAACP when it was outlawed by Alabama officials.

Although he announced the accords, the press corps hardly assembled and instead chose to cover

King who would speak later on. “In deciding Shuttlesworth was not a part of the story, the press missed an opportunity to learn something about the historical depth of the struggle and the vari- ety of leadership styles that sustained it,” (Payne, 2007 p. 401). When the white press did decide to cover voices of the CRM, they often misconstrued messaging or over emphasized less sub- stantive actions.

For example, Martin Luther King Jr. 's, “I Have a Dream,” speech was well-received and lauded by white audiences. Progressive black politicians and activists criticized the speech for its intangible language and failure to address specific policy measures to be taken (Berger, 2011).

31 On the same day that King gave perhaps his seminal speech, John Lewis delivered one which laid out material points of legislation and social critique. It went largely unremembered by white audiences (Berger, 2011). The highly selective appetite for progressive black causes among the white press likely represented some foreshadowing for the imagery and symbolism of the BPM, whose emboldened and empowered black subjects challenged dominant cultural norms even fur- ther.

While the BPM happened concurrently with the CRM, many historians and media ig- nored early happenings and consider the classical period to be between 1966 and 1975 (Joseph,

2008). “Malcolm X led a movement for Black Power that paralleled and intersected with the civ- il rights movement's high tide. Conventional civil rights historiography largely ignores this story.

Instead, it begins its coverage of Black Power in 1966, with Stokely Carmichael's fiery declara- tion on a humid Thursday evening in Greenwood, Mississippi” (Joseph, 2008 p. 10). The relative inattention to the BPM’s evolving symbols, imagery and messaging made for a jarring transition as it came into the national spotlight in the late ‘60s. “The media generally seemed to have been surprised by Black Power, suggesting they did not have a very clear sense of how the thinking of people in the movement was changing” (Payne, 2007 p. 393). These growing forms of imagery heavily featured black nationalism, anti-imperialist attitudes, black political agency, armed self defense and more changes that represented a visual shift from the popular symbolism of the

CRM (Cha-Jua et al, 2007; Stanford, Umoja & Young, 2018). The BPM was subsequently met harshly by mainstream, white media.

“Both liberal and conservative scholars contrasted normatively ‘good’ southern civil rights struggles of the early 1960s with ‘nihilistic’ northern Black Power militancy during the

32 ‘bad’ late 1960s,” (Cha-Jua et al, 2007 p. 268). In their portrayals of characters of the BPM, such as the Black Panther Party, the mainstream media tended to emphasize the armed, militant, dan- gerous nature of the subjects through imagery. “Mass media images showing the aftermath of police shoot-outs, bullet-ridden neighborhood blocks, and communities in disarray did little to dispel the moral panic aroused by this call to arms” (Phu, 2008 p. 168). These images and cri- tiques left lasting impressions with their viewers. “The ‘excesses’ of Black Power and the rise of affirmative action fueled white suburbanization and justified a newfound white backlash against the urban poor, “ (Sugrue, 1996 p. 4).

While portrayed unfavorably by the white press, some black visual producers such as the

Black Panther Party’s own internal visual communications presented a more well-rounded pic- ture of the BPM. ”Instead of focusing solely on violent dispersal and disintegration, the BPP’s self-imaging stressed coherence on a number of levels… the power promised in raised fists en- compassed both militant self-defense and community service” (Phu, 2008 p. 169). In this sense, similarities with the CRM occurred in the popular imagery of the BPM. Mainstream media tend- ed to decontextualize and sensationalize. The black press showed organizational cohesion and political groundwork rarely seen by white audiences in addition to Ladner’s “Big Events”. Fur- ther intersectional boundaries also influenced the imagery of the time.

Selective attention was not just limited to white actors, non-threatening black subjects and other similar roles in the CRM, but through other intersectional identities as well. When covering black subjects, media organizations tended to gravitate towards men as voices of au- thority or expertise. Press often sought men for photographs and interviews instead of female activists like Rosa Parks (Robnett, 1996). The resulting portrayals ignored the roles women and

33 youth activists played. Historian David Garrow notes that images of men in suits such as those at the Memphis Sanitation Strike in 1968 are perhaps the quintessential CRM images in the public mind (Fig. 2). Bolstered by lexical prompts such as repetition of the phrase “I Am A Man,” on a seemingly ocean of signs throughout the event’s photographs, Garrow notes that this picture was frequently an inaccurate representation of the CRM. In fact, “the reality of the movement was often young people and often more than 50 percent women,” Garrow wrote (Adler & Hoose,

2009).

While women like Parks were able to climb to prominent roles within the CRM, other women were excluded for various reasons including appearance, age and other variables. Adler and Hoose (2009) detail the story of Claudette Colvin to demonstrate the omission of non-con- forming women by both press and CRM leaders alike. Almost a full year before Parks had re- fused to move for a white passenger on a Montgomery bus, Colvin had done the same. However,

Colvin would never enter the national spotlight because she did not fit the image of an ideal black woman (Adler et al, 2009). Colvin was only 15 years old when she was arrested for failing to move for a white passenger. Additionally, Colvin believes Parks’ looks fit better into what public ideals were. “‘Her skin texture was the kind that people associate with the middle class’

Colvin said. ‘She fit that profile’” (Adler et al. 2009). Colvin would later become pregnant out of wedlock, leading civil rights leaders to view her as an inappropriate symbol, Adler and Hoose write.

In contrast, ideals of masculinity are less connected to physical appearance. “We are much more likely to evaluate a man on the basis of his actions and accomplishments” (Duncan,

1990 p. 25) Suppressed by both media attention and other activists, Colvin’s story went largely

34 untold until the 2000s. However, photos of Parks being fingerprinted, seated on a bus and in oth- er scenes remain influential photographs of the CRM. As Garrow notes, these pictures often hold a place in collective memory not necessarily for their accuracy in portrayals, but because they often conformed to previously held beliefs and attitudes (Adler et al. 2009).

While these memorable photographs may have helped advance some of the causes of the

CRM, Berger explains in great detail how the exclusion of the diverse characters, grassroots or- ganization and activities of the CRM do more harm than good. “Before we can “write the final page” of the civil rights era, we must reframe the iconic photographs and develop a more pro- gressive canon of images. Until we do so, the most significant social work of civil rights pho- tographs will continue to be the limits they place on the exercise of black power,” (Berger, 2011 p. 160).

Relevant Existing Literature

Two contemporary works reexamine coverage of the Detroit Civil Violence of 1967 in a similar fashion to Berger’s reevaluation of CRM photography. Both Morrison’s 2014 study,

“‘Beyond Twelfth Street’: Visual Narratives and Realities in Detroit, Michigan,” and Ulbrich’s

2011 study, “Riot or Rebellion: media framing and the 1967 Detroit uprising,” discuss both lo- cal, national and international coverage and photography of the civil violence event.

Morrison’s study focuses on how the Civil Violence of 1967, among other factors, has contributed to repetitive symbologies of victim blaming, “ruin porn” photography of Detroit’s abandoned buildings and other negative themes that have come to visually define contemporary

Detroit. Ulbrich examines media frames from original 1967 stories and contrasts them to frames

35 present in 40th anniversary coverage in 2007, finding that media framing has grown dramatically more sympathetic to protester viewpoints over time. At times still called a “riot” other, more pos- itive names such “rebellion” and “uprising” have entered the event description’s vernacular 40 years onward (Ulbrich, 2011). Both note that media tended to connect the Civil Violence event to the BPM.

In contrast, the March to Freedom could be considered a quintessential portrayal of the

CRM’s symbols. Celebrities, important white figures and more marched in relative silence as a point of non-violence in what was the country’s largest civil rights demonstration up to that point

(Clemens, 2011). The incorporation of important white subjects, massive turnout, celebrities like

Aretha Franklin and relative silence of march demonstrators coincides neatly with Ladner’s “Big

Events” and also Berger’s views of muted black agency (Berger, 2011; Payne, 2007). Similarly to a single photograph’s ability to define society-wide happenings, these two events became symbols of the BPM and CRM respectively for Detroit and nationally.

However, given the existing literature on both events and the missing context around them, it is also worth questioning the seemingly everyday coverage in between. For example, given Morrison and Ulbrich’s conclusions that the Free Press disassociated systemic racism from their coverage of the Civil Violence, how would they portray day-to-day issues of segregated housing, racist labor markets, police brutality and other topics that served as a catalyst for the event? How would the Chronicle, which created a more holistic picture of blame for the Civil

Violence, do the same? By studying this, some understanding of how the pair represented the intersectional dynamics of power in a less sensationalized setting can be gained and then applied to the “Big Events.” Perhaps information gleaned from this everyday coverage around notable

36 moments can provide insight into different time periods, forms of visual communication and var- ious other areas. This line of questioning helped lead to this study’s focus and research questions.

RQ 1: How do the two publications compare in their visual representation of intersectional coding values like race, gender and class?

RQ 2: How do photographs, captions and other accompanying information support similarities or differ- ences in comparisons of intersectionality?

37 Chapter 3: Methods

Solely looking at the images in both newspapers may not sufficiently provide information necessary to interpret their meaning. In Morrison’s study in 2014, she found that the Chronicle’s photography covering the civil violence event, “could be pulled from the Chronicle and placed in the Free Press without a noticeable deviation from the latter’s editorial voice,” (Morrison, 2014 p. 34). It was only with the accompanying articles, captions and headlines that Morrison found well-defined distinctions between the pair’s photography. Previous research has also indicated textual content’s ability to influence the meaning of visual media. Abraham and Appiah’s work on implicit visual propositioning demonstrates how textual information can influence the mean- ing of images as well (2006). At a more fundamental level, to encompass all of the information that can alter the meaning of this study’s images, a visual-textual analysis is needed to answer

Research Question 2 in particular.

Sample

The Detroit Free Press and Michigan Chronicle were the two publications chosen for study. While the more conservative leaning Detroit News was considered, the Chronicle and

Free Press offer important information, particularly in regards to the study’s purpose of discov- ery. The Chronicle provides valuable insight into the black press’ visual interpretation of the time period, which literature has shown varies extensively from that of the mainstream media’s (Berg- er, 2011; Hutton, 1993; Moakley et al, 2016; Morrison, 2014). The Free Press’ status as a north- ern, liberal publication and its renowned photography department additionally provide valuable

38 information. The Free Press’ Pulitzer prize winning coverage of the Civil Violence of 1967 im- plies national recognition by mainstream media as well. While viewed as more progressive than the Detroit News, the Free Press’ coverage as a mainstream media publication still differed great- ly from that of the Chronicle’s (Morrison, 2014).

Photo pages for the Detroit Free Press were obtained through the online newspaper ar- chive, newspapers.com. Microfilms of the Michigan Chronicle were loaned from several institu- tions of higher education. Only original photos and page layouts were studied for their revealing qualities. “Viewed in their original news context, [photographs] can give salience to particular framing(s) of news events offered in newspapers through their selection and omission, depiction, symbolism and lexical context (caption and headline)” (Parry, 2010). In particular, news pho- tographs were of specific importance of study, despite lengthy lifestyle and sport sections also featuring photography, ads and other visuals. News photographs are a worthy topic of study due to their ability to create a visual representation of societal structures. That’s not to say that noth- ing can be gleaned from these other photo types, however news ones best answered the research questions.

Photo pages from the March to Freedom and Civil Violence of 1967 were studied in full for as long as they regularly appeared after the respective event’s conclusion. Sampling struc- tures differed because the Detroit Free Press is a daily newspaper and the Michigan Chronicle is a weekly. For the Detroit Free Press, the time period between the two events was sampled using constructed weeks. In constructed week sampling, a random Monday, Tuesday and so forth are selected to complete a week’s worth of coverage (Cabernay, Cohen & Luke, 2011). Studying every single day’s photo coverage would have been an inefficient use of time, but a substantive

39 amount of everyday coverage is still needed for study. Researchers suggest that for complicated issues such as race, six constructed weeks is sufficient to embody a year’s worth of coverage in daily newspapers (Cabernay et al. 2011). Given that the study’s “Big Events” occurred near their respective year’s halfway point, in June and July, only half of the six recommended constructed weeks of Free Press photographs in 1963 and 1967 were analyzed. For 1964 through 1966, the full recommended amount of six constructed weeks were studied. For the weekly Chronicle, 42 of the 52 yearly issues equated to the same amount of issues as six constructed weeks worth of coverage. Again for 1963 and 1967, since the bookend dates of this study occur near or at midyear, the issue numbers were halved to 21 sampled.

For the Chronicle, at times sampling was limited by photo quality. A few sections of the

Chronicle’s microfilms had degraded to the point beyond recognizable coding traits, particularly on the front page where it likely received the most exposure to light and other elements. This fact may be in and of itself informative. Preservation, “goes hand in hand with maximizing commu- nication and dissemination. Current urgency to digitize earlier textual productions and recordings

(for example newspapers, tapes) before their very fabrics disintegrate [ensures] that generations to come can know of print text worlds freely, and as exhaustively as possible…,” (Orr, 2009 p.

17). Orr notes that preservation has often solely benefited specific privileged publications and in some regards is another form of marginalization of information.

For the Free Press, the newspaper archive used had around a four month gap between

July and November of 1965 where copies were not saved properly. For 1965, constructed weeks were made of a higher percentage of the available months than other years where more issues were available. It is unclear why those copies were not digitized correctly in the archive.

40 The selection of coding variables was driven by identifiable categories of intersectionali- ty. Photojournalism’s ability to create visual representations of civic and communal identity presents implications for defining social structures along intersectional identifiers like race, gen- der and age (Entman, 2005; Hariman et al, 2008). This era, from mid 1963 to mid 1967 in De- troit, is one known for its high levels of civic activity and engagement, providing ample material for research. Given what the literature says, the Chronicle and Free Press’ visual processes should define social structures through patterns and repetition, perhaps offering clues to their stances on intersectional social attitudes.

Coding

Photographs from each publication were coded for four visual content variables, along the lines of similar coding schemes from previous research (Herring & Kapidzic, 2014; Kahle et al, 2007).

Race. Race will be coded as a) Black, b) White and c) Other (includes undeterminable)

Age. Age will be coded as a) Child (>18), b) Young to middle age (18-60) c) and Senior (60+)

Gender. Gender will be coded as a) Female and b) Male

Location. Location will be coded as a) Detroit, b) United States and c) Abroad

Previous research recommends coding three subjects maximum per image, with those three determined by importance. Qualifications of importance include overall size in frame, so- cial cues such as paying attention to a speaker and more (Kahle et al, 2007). Other variables such as occupation/role, photo size and many more were considered. Ultimately these four were cho- sen for essentialness to answering the research questions. If three of the four visual content vari-

41 ables (race, age, gender and location) could not be determined from visual cues or caption infor- mation, the photograph was not coded.

Photographs without caption information or limited caption information such as only a name were not coded. Caption information, as scholars such as Sontag (1977), Barthes (1977) and others have argued, helps guide interpretations and secures meaning. Often times when cod- ing variables were visually ambiguous, captions provided further information such as names that helped identify individuals’ genders or ages next to minors' names. Additionally, Morrison in her analysis of photos from the Detroit Civil Violence of 1967 noted that both the Chronicle and

Free Press used similar looking images, however captions and other text helped distinguish them

(2014).

Coding Shortcomings

Sampling limitations, lack of inter-coder reliability and existent gray areas in intersec- tional coding variables make coding variable totals just the first step in a constant comparative analysis. In a constant comparative analysis, “All kinds of aids, such as memo writing, close reading and rereading, coding, displays, data matrices and diagrams support the principle of comparison” (Boeije, 2002). These accessory pieces of information have been shown in previous literature to alter meaning of photographs and serve to support and contextualize trends found in initial coding findings (Abraham et al, 2006; Morrison, 2014).

An example of a gray area within coding was mixed race photo subjects, such as Adam

Clayton Powell Jr., a congressman frequently appearing in photographs. Previous research has utilized the “other" category to avoid incorrect identification, yet some less notable subjects may

42 not have been clearly identifiable by race (Herring et al, 2014). Additionally, coding statically for age may not account for differentiations in aging processes amongst individuals. In this regard, accompanying information such a text, frequency of photo trends and more variables can serve to more clearly define each publications’ intersectional viewpoints in line with the research ques- tions.

News Photography

In both newspapers, news photography from each of the papers’ first sections was the fo- cus for several reasons. However, in certain issues of each, less than five qualifying photographs were presented. In these instances, photographs from subsequent sections were studied to identi- fy further themes for the constant comparative analysis, but not included towards coding totals.

Counting these photographs amongst coding totals would be problematic, as subsequent sections such as the sports or “Women’s" sections featured photo subjects predominantly conforming to specific coding variables. The exclusion of these sections in coding variable totals helps solidify visual representations of the public in a time and place in history with incredibly high civic en- gagement, such as 60s’ Detroit. Social structures and boundaries can be found through the local news photography of its residents.

43 Chapter 4: Findings

Upon first glance, the news photographs within the Detroit Free Press and the Michigan

Chronicle appear to have noticeable differences, ranging from the profound to the subtle. Subject matter, presentation, frequency and a plethora of other variables are distinctly unique to each of the publications despite the overlap in space and time. To generalize, Chronicle photo coverage gravitated towards predominantly local happenings in the black community, while the Free Press presented a mix of important figures, events and more in Detroit and across the globe. These trends were aptly demonstrated in photo subject quantities per issue. 1,391 Michigan Chronicle photographs were sampled for coding, only 158 more than the Detroit Free Press. Yet 1,262 more photo subjects were coded in Chronicle photographs even with a three person maximum per photo coded. Even though the Chronicle published weekly, and thus likely ran less pho- tographs and had less photo subjects overall, per issue they ran more photographs and had many more subjects visible within them. Black press theory suggests that community building is one fundamental purpose of black publications’ existence (Huspek, 2004).

While coding values did not present a nuanced examination of racial dynamics in sam- pled news photographs, they did provide some basic numbers. In 162 issues of both newspapers’ first sections, racial makeup varies drastically. The Michigan Chronicle’s photographs held a sharp majority of black subjects and the Detroit Free Press’ photographs were the opposite—dis- tinctly white.

44 Table 1

Total Black Photo Total White Photo Total Other Photo Subjects Coded Subjects Coded Subjects Coded

Detroit Free Press 135 2,055 107

Michigan Chronicle 2,679 562 318

Table 2

Total Black Photo Total White Photo Total Other Photo Subjects Coded by Subjects Coded by Subjects Coded by Year Year Year

Detroit Free Press

1963 24 233 8

1964 40 540 21

1965 36 544 25

1966 31 454 37

1967 4 284 16

Michigan Chronicle

1963 284 76 34

1964 550 91 96

1965 668 127 98

1966 764 215 63

1967 413 53 27

45 Nearly 90 percent of the Detroit Free Press’ almost 2,300 photo subjects were coded as white. The Chronicle’s photo subjects were heavily skewed in the other direction, with around 75 percent of more than 3,000 coded Chronicle subjects coded as black. The Chronicle had a much higher percentage of “Other” subjects due to loss of detail in certain images rather than a more noticeable amount of racially ambiguous subjects or those of other races. The loss of detail likely stemmed from degradation rather than a single microfilm copy of poor quality. Chronicle images used in figures in Morrison's (2014) study bear marks of degradation in the exact patterns and locations as those sampled in this study. Photographs, particularly on exterior pages such as the front page that may have been exposed to light or other causes of degradation were of less dis- cernible quality than interior ones. The Detroit Free Press also showed signs of degradation, but not nearly to the same extent.

In addition to the racial demographics of Detroit being skewed, photo portrayals of age and gender also were favored towards middle-aged men.

Table 3

Young Photo Sub- Middle-Aged Photo Elderly Photo Sub- jects (1-18) Subjects (19-60) jects (61+)

Detroit Free Press 432 1,670 195

Michigan Chronicle 351 3,155 53

46 Table 4

Young Photo Middle-Aged Photo Elderly Photo Subjects (1-18) by Subjects (19-60) Subjects (61+) by Year by Year Year

Detroit Free Press

1963 48 190 27

1964 96 450 55

1965 127 427 51

1966 97 389 36

1967 64 214 26

Michigan Chronicle

1963 50 343 1

1964 81 636 20

1965 82 794 17

1966 95 940 7

1967 43 442 8

Table 5

Female Photo Subjects Male Photo Subjects

Detroit Free Press 849 1,448

Michigan Chroni- 1,324 2,235 cle

47 Table 6

Female Photo Subjects by Year Male Photo Subjects by Year

Detroit Free Press

1963 92 173

1964 216 385

1965 233 373

1966 203 319

1967 106 198

Michigan Chronicle 1963 162 232

1964 267 470

1965 316 577

1966 358 684

1967 221 272

While differing greatly in presentation of race, both publications’ first sections painted a dominantly male, middle-aged image. Of more than 3,000 individuals coded in sampled Chroni- cle photographs, 61 percent were men and 89 percent were middle-aged. The Free Press fol- lowed similar patterns. Of the nearly 2,300 individuals coded from sampled Free Press photog- raphy, 63 percent were men and 73 percent were middle-aged.

48 In addition to the parallels in depictions of age and gender, social ones were also visible.

Besides the overt quantitative favoritism, depictions of female subjects were also driven by des- ignated social roles, accompanying text, appearance and other factors. While exact percentages of determined professional roles were not coded, female subjects in both newspapers were more likely to appear in aiding or supporting roles such as secretaries in professional environments.

Photo subjects’ body positioning often reinforced these supporting roles, with men more fre- quently depicted in positions of power such as behind a lone desk, podium or other point of em- phasis with female subjects more often on the periphery in professional settings. Further infor- mation was found in the last coding variable, location.

Table 7

Detroit United States International

Detroit Free Press 442 611 180

Michigan Chronicle 1,218 165 8

49 Table 8

Detroit by Year United States by International by Year Year

Detroit Free Press

1963 33 75 23

1964 118 145 35

1965 124 170 47

1966 96 146 47

1967 71 75 28

Michigan Chronicle

1963 134 23 0

1964 257 37 1

1965 286 55 1

1966 359 31 4

1967 182 19 8

The Chronicle’s photography was almost exclusively of local subjects. Just eight of the

1,391 coded Chronicle photographs were taken abroad and nearly 90 percent of them were taken in Detroit. When photographs were not in Detroit, they often had a local angle or remained in the state of Michigan. For example, when prominent Detroiters such as John Conyers would go to other parts of the country, the Chronicle would publish photographs. There rarely were pho- tographs without some connection to Detroit, implicit or explicit.

50 In contrast was the Free Press, which covered national and international affairs to a much greater extent. Around 35 percent of the 1,234 sampled Free Press photographs were taken in

Detroit. Another 50 percent were of national coverage and events. International affairs such as the ongoing Vietnam War accounted for 15 percent of sampled Free Press photographs.

51 Chapter 5: Discussion

The newspapers’ differentiations and similarities in coding values offers some potential information and room for further analysis. In their presentations of race, neither publication came very close to an accurate depiction of census data and both skewed heavily towards their race.

One explanation may be the persistent segregation that divided Detroit’s inhabitants. In the study’s time period, Detroit’s black population rose to just over 40 percent of the city’s total

(Gibson et al, 2002; Sugrue, 1996). The rise can be attributed to loss of federal arms contracts, automation, real estate markets and a multitude of other factors that saw jobs leave downtown to go with white Detroiters to outer suburbs (Katz, 2008; Sugrue, 1996). In 1950, 1,545,847 white

Detroiters resided in the city. By 1970, that number was nearly halved, with only 838,877 still calling the city home (Gibson et al, 2002). As these jobs and other opportunities were leaving, the number of Black residents continued to rise, going from 300,506 individuals to 660,428 over the same time period (Gibson et al, 2006).

Detroit’s population became more concentrated, blacker and poorer, with methods of de facto segregation limiting black mobility. “Between 1930 and 1970, the neighborhood in which the average African American lived went from 31.7 to 73.5 percent black,” (Katz, 2008 p. 51).

Well-to-do African Americans weren’t necessarily as limited geographically and often followed their white counterparts to outlying suburbs, sometimes to vehement white opposition (Sugrue,

1996). Both publications’ offices were centrally located downtown during the study’s time peri- od, but their photographic locales were selectively arranged in pockets around the urban and suburban areas.

52 The Free Press’ percentage of white subjects actually slightly increased in sampled pho- tographs over the study’s time period even while white Detroiters were leaving in droves (Table

2). The slight jump in proportion of white subjects over the time while the percentage of white

Detroiters consistently declined could be mitigated by the relatively low amount of local images.

Just over a third of Free Press images actually took place in Detroit. Although image location was not coded by race as well, the Free Press’ local images were also predominantly white. It was unclear how much, if any, their local photographs’ racial makeup differed from their overall totals. A potential explanation for this trend was that while white Detroiters were moving to sur- rounding suburban areas, many positions of power in Detroit remained in white control. “Power- ful white Americans retained authority over cities [after white flight] through their influence on being elected to political office, appointed to public and social service bureaucracies, and hired in larger numbers by police forces. (Sugrue, 1996 p. 88). So while average white citizenship de- clined, powerful and perhaps “newsworthy” positions still remained largely white even though their evolving constituencies did not. The city would not get its first black mayor until eight years after the study, with the hotly contested election of Coleman Young in 1974 (McGraw,

2018).

The Chronicle went the other direction, focusing predominantly on black Detroiters. In- terestingly, their focus on black subjects was often in areas where there should have been rela- tively limited black subjects. For example, while specific professions were not explicitly coded, the Chronicle had a tendency to run images of black men who had successfully integrated into

Detroit’s police force and other areas where there were limited black employees. Historian Ja- mon Jordan noted in a 2017 interview with Michigan Radio that leading up to the 1967 Civil Vi-

53 olence Event, the Detroit police department, "was about 95% white in a city that was becoming about 40% African American,” (How the roots of Detroit’s…, 2017) Other images of police in the Chronicle such as those critical of police were predominantly white, however images of black officers, cadets and leaders were frequent.

Other areas, such as the sports section almost exclusively focused on the professional or amateur black male athletes in a time where relatively few black men had managed to success- fully integrate into major professional sports leagues. The Free Press published photographs of black athletes too, but was highly selective in those it chose, essentially only covering the most famous in sampled photographs. Muhammad Ali appeared the most frequently in the Free Press, with his opponents and other well-known black athletes like Arthur Ashe appearing occasionally.

Widespread portrayals of black athletes across different levels of professionalism and sport were distinctly unique to the Chronicle.

Another interesting component of the racial coding values was the presence of the “Oth- er” in subject counts. As mentioned, the Chronicle's deterioration was the cause of increased

“Other”-classified subjects. In comparison to the Free Press, which was already digitized in an accessible online archive and in better condition, the Chronicle’s deterioration call into question intersectional preservation practices. Orr (2009) found that minority created content is not as well-preserved at a societal level and these widespread, unequal levels of preservation are a re- flection of dominant intersectional groups decision making and resource allocation.

While varying distinctly in their presentations of race, both publications were heavily male and middle-age centric in their presentations of photo subjects. Both featured just over 60 percent male photo subjects. The Chronicle maintained a slight advantage in proportion of mid-

54 dle aged subjects shown, perhaps as the foundation of a counter narrative which strived to show involvement of community leaders. The Free Press’ extensive international and domestic cover- age at times overshadowed its representations of local community structure.

This trend was repeated amongst other age groups as well although in lesser frequency.

For example when publishing photos of youth, the Chronicle portrayed younger subjects more frequently in positive, community-based activities like volunteering, scout groups, in academic settings and more. Both newspapers had recurring teen-themed photo segments throughout por- tions of the study, the Chronicle’s titled “Teens in Action” and the Free Press’ “Teen Beat.” The

Chronicle’s segment was often accompanied by photographs of young, predominantly black sub- jects in educational settings, volunteering, organizing and other community related activities.

Whereas, the Free Press segment most often featured photographs of celebrities. Combined with the textual innuendos, the teen segments serve as a relevant example of measures of community focus and involvement. Predominant visual narratives in the mainstream media that portray mi- nority subjects, particularly young black ones, as lazy, unintelligible, criminal and more would have been directly contested by the Chronicle's repetitive photos of involved, educated black youth (Abraham et al, 2006).

Although visual narratives of youth were a noticeable example, the Chronicle’s overall photo coverage and first section were noticeably more community oriented than Free Press equivalencies. The Chronicle appeared to be actively seeking to dispel common stereotypical narratives, build community and other essential functions of the black press. The Free Press did not necessarily portray black subjects as easily identifiable stereotypes, but subjects’ racial

55 makeup as it pertained to designated social roles appear to reinforce patterns consistent with

Berger’s assessment of Northern, liberal white press during this era (Berger, 2011).

Presentations of gender also showed similarities.While describing the power dynamics of intersectionality in the workforce, Sugrue (1996) uses the term, “limited ladders of mobility,” to identify areas of selective incorporation into the public or private sectors. These limited ladders of mobility, “proved crucial, fracturing African American communities along lines of class and gender… eroding the occupational achievement and spreading a modest prosperity more widely than ever before,” (Sugrue, 1996 p. 87). Although Sugrue is specifically referencing African

American class and gender, both publications showed these rifts amongst gender noticeably.

There were powerful women working for and appearing in the photographs of both pub- lications, such as well-known activists, reappearing columnists and other significant voices. Yet, they were fewer and farther in between than their male counterparts, often fit into specific niches and were normally older. Moreover, women outside of professional settings, especially in subse- quent newspaper sections, were not depicted for their professional value. Both newspapers' use of text in connection with gender to help define roles of femininity and masculinity in particular accordance with Abraham and Appiah’s method of implicit visual propositioning (2006).

Both newspapers had a “Women’s Section” of which some popular topics were weddings, homemaking, fashion, social gatherings and more. By relegating these topics to be of women’s interest, in their very own section, the newspapers are associating femininity with these stereo- typical topics. Further use of text amplified these constructs. Physical descriptors of appearance occurred in much higher frequency in captions of female subjects than male counterparts. Terms such as beauty, charm, lovely, youthful, etc. and others with physical implications were used to

56 describe female subjects, while completely absent from similar photos of male subjects. The im- plicit connection made between text and image suggests that female role and worth were closely connected to appearance, relationship status, homemaking ability and more. Literature on the popular male gaze suggests that this is an appropriate lens through which to view both newspa- pers’ depictions of female subjects. Describing female appearance in text or with focus on physi- cal form through composition, angle and other camera techniques are common practices of the popular male gaze (Duncan, 1990; hooks, 2003). Content and social roles are also in accordance with these commonplace trends.

Both women’s sections proposed definitions for ideals of beauty that followed similar patterns of mainstream male gaze. Also appearing in less frequency in the news section, the women’s sections’ abundant “glamour” photographs reinforced stereotypical physical depictions of femininity. “Glamour is exemplified by women who have been ‘made up’ and who are there- fore different from men, who have had cosmetics applied to their faces and bodies, who are hair- less in the right places, polished, and blemish-free, and who are arranged in poses that display their physical attributes,” (Duncan, 1990 p. 25). The brides, fashion or lifestyle models, mothers, socialites, homemakers and other common roles depicted in the women’s sections mostly main- tained traits in line with Duncan’s definition of glamour. Similarly to previous observations in coding variables, the newspapers tended to deviate in race of glamourous subjects, with the

Chronicle presenting a majority of black women and the Free Press a majority of white women in their glamour photographs. This indicates that while the male gaze appeared to dictate female role, appearance and more of subjects, it did so along racial lines of publication. Other coding values helped to bring more differences and similarities to light.

57 Geography of photographs also presented important insight. The Chronicle’s editorial fixation on local subjects not only coincides with black press theory, but was also one of the rea- sons for its creation (Jackson, 2011). The stark difference in photo locale helps reinforce essen- tial functions of the white and black presses. The latter, “has an empowering role within the community. It educates its readers with information, opinion, and analysis and lays the semantic groundwork for critique of and active engagement with dominant social institutions,” (Huspek,

2004 p. 234). The Chronicle’s repeated visual presentation of leaders or members of local reli- gious, business, school, community and other institutions created a comprehensive image of res- ident social structure, perhaps promoting more engagement between audience and subject. At the same time, the Free Press’ recognition of national and international events deprioritized local happenings while perhaps seeking to inform of newsworthy events domestically and abroad.

In nearly every issue of the Michigan Chronicle’s first section sampled, photos of black churches, business, community and other were featured. For a portion of the study, the Chroni- cle’s second section consisted of sports and “Church News” often describing ongoing religious events, issues and more. Longworth Quinn, a longtime editor and subsequent publisher of the

Chronicle, had ties to both and other regional black institutions (Jackson, 2011; Keating, 2010).

“More than any other institution… the black church has been indispensable in the survival and flourishing of the Michigan Chronicle,” Quinn said in a 1976 interview (Keating, 2010). The

Free Press also covered local groups and subjects frequently, with photographs of the United

Auto Workers (UAW), politicians and more making the paper often.

The Free Press also frequently presented images of local churches often in a recurring sometimes page wide photo and text segment called “Religion Today”. The overall amount of

58 coverage and photo space suggests the Free Press also prioritized presenting local religious insti- tutions. However, the same could not be said for other business and community groups which were shown in much lesser volume. The high percentage of domestic and international pho- tographs within the Free Press could often take space from or be chosen over images of Detroit as well. Compared to the illustrative network of community organizations shown by the Chroni- cle, the Free Press has less apparent connections to local groups outside of religion in their im- ages. For example, the Chronicle covered specific groups, such as the Booker T. Washington

Business Association, of which Quinn was an active member (rtmadminmc, 2010). The Chroni- cle also broke the fourth wall more frequently, running photos of their staff, taken at work gath- erings, in community softball matches and more settings. Overall, Chronicle photographers, pho- to editors, journalists and other staff seemed to operate in a much closer proximity to their photo subjects than the Free Press in terms of geographical space but also social connection.

The differences in locale, race, age and gender between each publication guide potential visual trends in each publication. The Chronicle, by showing a high amount of local, black faces in their photography, gives them a platform to promote, organize, critique and perform other fun- damental purposes of the black press. The Free Press, by focusing on an international, predomi- nantly white worldview, somewhat overlooks the ongoing issues faced by black Detroiters and could indicate a limited understanding of and a desire to cover the conditions precipitating the city’s “Big Events”.

59 Building Visual Narratives

In conjunction with discovered coding trends, repeated segments, themes and other char- acteristics of each newspapers’ photo coverage can help construct a visual narrative correlating with each publication’s respective view of Detroit. Areas of interest for these narratives are with- in the contributory forces of the forthcoming civil violence event; housing, policing, protest or social discourse and more. Intersectional coding trends of subjects, their common social roles depicted and other distinctions that may exist within these areas should provide the contextual information for which to interpret respective coverage of the Civil Violence of 1967, the March to Freedom of 1963 and respective views of Detroit as a whole.

Detroit’s housing crisis at the time was a well visually documented area in both newspa- pers. As jobs and well-to-do white residents fled Detroit for suburbs, black residents faced multi- ple challenges in exercising the same mobility. Restrictive covenants, housing markets, highly selective public housing and other forces of de facto segregation consistent in Detroit and many other cities of the urban north disproportionately limited middle and lower class black residents to the oldest, most deteriorated housing units available (Sugrue, 1996). “White Detroiters thus reinforced African Americans’ ghettoization, trapping them in the center of the city as it was be- ing stripped of jobs,” (Boyle, 2001 p. 114). Over two-thirds of the predominantly black Paradise

Valley’s housing units were classified as substandard by federal housing officials (Sugrue, 1996 p. 37). Out of these conditions emerged a stereotype that blamed black residents for their decrepit surroundings, visually associating inner city degradation with blackness. “The decaying neigh- borhoods offered seemingly convincing evidence to white homeowners that blacks were feckless and irresponsible and fueled white fears that blacks would ruin any white neighborhood that they

60 moved into,” (Sugrue, 1996 p. 35). While both newspapers covered the housing crisis, they did so in distinct manners.

A recurring photo segment in the Chronicle exemplifies its attempts to dispel the negative associations between blackness and urban poverty. Throughout the study’s time period, the

Chronicle ran a photo segment titled the “Block Club of the Week” (Fig. 3). Block clubs were highly organized neighborhood associations that typically worked together to beautify, restore, landscape and otherwise improve their neighborhoods in a group setting. Block clubs were also photographed engaging in other neighborhood activities such as celebrations and life milestones but tended to focus on community improvement efforts. The photos were usually a posed, group image with a caption explaining their ongoing work in their communities. At times though, pho- tos explicitly showed cleanups, yard work and other actionable forms of their efforts.

The Chronicle also ran photographs of lawn contests, cleanup parades and gave awards for best household Christmas light decorations. These instances of the Chronicle displaying black Detroiters actively improving their neighborhoods ran counter to prevailing stereotypes that blamed black residents for the urban decay surrounding them. Furthermore, these images not only suggest that black residents are not at fault for urban decay, but are in fact beneficial to its alleviation. The high frequency of these images, combined with repeated editorial columns say- ing as much, indicates that the Chronicle prioritized dispelling this stereotype and simultaneously raising attention to the housing crisis’ wide reaching, unequal effects.

The Free Press did run photographs, articles and captions covering and criticizing sys- temic forces contributing to the housing crisis, including landlords using loopholes, restrictive covenants and more topics. Yet, these images were in much lower frequency in comparison to the

61 Chronicle’s near weekly commitment to the subject. The Free Press also more commonly ran images of the housing crisis without any reference to external, systemic forces' contributions in it. The sensationalist nature of these images and lack of context looked similar to images of dis- aster appearing in both publications. Both publications tended to show photos of car crashes, natural disasters and other accidents. Without the context of ongoing problems Detroit had in providing safe, affordable housing, some Free Press images of the issue tended to display simi- larities to these sensational images appearing in both publications. As in most other areas, the

Free Press showed a higher share of white subjects than the Chronicle and vice versa. This may suggest that Gilen’s image of “deserving poor” as disaster and accident victims may likely fall into, differed along lines of race (Gilens, 1999). Without the broader context of a biased housing system, the Free Press’ poor and black housing subjects are perhaps grouped into this larger trend of displaying victims of random misfortune, rather than seen as individual combatants of structural inequality.

Noticeably absent from Free Press coverage were images of community cleanups and beautification efforts. The grassroots organizational structure to combat urban decay so frequent- ly appearing in the Chronicle was not shown in sampled Free Press photo coverage. With the

Chronicle often focused on resident action and needs, the Free Press at times drew from a differ- ent set of characters to explain the housing crisis. Appearing in conjunction with affected resi- dents, the Free Press also ran photographs of politicians, landlords and other positions of power to cover housing issues. In their selective, limited presentation of black subjects in housing, the

Free Press does not construct an active agent, but rather a victim. The Chronicle’s visual presen- tation of an empowered black resident is strengthened by depictions of critique of dominant

62 housing institutions as hooks (2003) suggests. Examples included Chronicle photos and captions of residents complaining in a public eminent domain hearing, housing picketers and more forms of social commentary. While housing was perhaps the most widely covered contributory factor to

Detroit’s deteriorating race relations, photographs of policing bore similarities.

The Free Press had comparatively limited coverage of the police in the buildup to the civil violence event of 1967 and throughout sampled photographs in the study’s time period.

Only a handful of sampled photographs contained or related to police activity in the Free Press, while it was a somewhat common topic of the Chronicle. The quantitative difference present was not as striking as the content differences of visuals. These differences illuminated a wide spec- trum of community police interactions. In sampled Free Press photographs, local police are typi- cally not shown interacting with community members and often have some form of novelty about them i.e. accompanied by police animals, riding a moped, etc. In rare instances of commu- nity police interaction, police are typically detaining subjects, controlling crowds or otherwise exerting authority in some form. One last image shows an officer sweeping streets with a short broom and is captioned “This is Mr. Clean in a police uniform.” It was run next to an article ti- tled “Dearborn Police Sweeping Grime Off the Streets,” in April 24, 1965’s news section. Over- all, the Free Press’ visual presentation of policing, local and otherwise, is of lesser quantity and does not include critiques of policing like those seen in the Chronicle’s coverage.

The Chronicle’s respective visuals detail a complex spectrum of community police inter- actions hardly visible in sampled Free Press images, specifically as community policing tactics pertained to black Detroiters. While some Chronicle photographs cast police, even white officers, in a positive light, the Chronicle was distinct from the Free Press in its sharp criticisms of local

63 police and policing tactics. In perhaps the most notable instance, two captions beneath published photos on Dec. 19, 1964’s third page state that Chronicle photographer Ed Taylor was held by two officers while a plainclothes officer smashed his camera and struck him (Fig. 4a). A large photograph in the July 24, 1965, news section shows around 135 Detroiters marching in protest of “unjustified arrests,” and a diptych in the Sept. 5, 1964, news section shows before and after photographs of Barbara Jackson’s injuries, a local resident described in the caption to have been,

“arrested and assaulted by police officers (Fig. 4b & 4c).” Other criticisms of police were com- mon in Chronicle photo coverage, editorial cartoons, articles and columns. The Chronicle also ran images for police fundraising and other pro-police imagery but was unique in its denouncing of police brutality and enforcement.

Captions and other forms of text also tended to reinforce differing perspectives in pho- tographs of policing. As Morrison (2014) found in her analysis of the civil violence event cover- age, Chronicle captions often were written sympathetically to civilian, detainee or otherwise non authoritative perspectives while the Free Press tended to explain imagery from the opposite; a police, authoritative point of view. The Free Press in particular tended not include quotes or names of detainees and often gave authority figures exclusive use of verbs, making them more active agents. A Free Press Civil Violence photo spread on July 24’s B10 page shows extensive authority-community interaction (Fig. 5). In it, captions read, “police firmly led him away,” “po- lice carry off,” “a knot of people is held at bay by a riot-trained officer.” When Free Press cap- tions focused on citizen action, rather than authoritative, verbs at times reinforced potential crim- inality or other negative attributes. The Chronicle took an oppositional viewpoint to the Free

Press, making a point to emphasize negative authority-community interaction in photo selection

64 and textual cues. A June 25, 1966 Chronicle photo shows Stokely Carmichael being grabbed by police and is captioned “ARREST SNCC Leader—Armed with billy clubs, Greenwood, Miss. police move in on Stokely Carmichael (Fig. 6).” Both publications use of text in conjunction with policing photographs guided potential interpretations of various scenes and is reflective of broader trends.

Similar to the housing crisis, the Chronicle’s police coverage utilizes its photographs and captions to critique dominant social institutions that are not often clearly articulated in the Free

Press and perhaps other dominant narratives. The varied forms of social criticism repeatedly de- picted in each publications’ visuals of housing and policing were seen elsewhere too. The Chron- icle’s robust picture of underlying social commentary and critique was mirrored by the Free

Press’ limited, mild criticisms in other areas. For example, the Free Press rarely gave moral judgements of the Vietnam War during the study’s time period of 1963 to 1967 despite covering it much more extensively than the Chronicle. However, the Chronicle intermittently ran images of anti-war protesters where there were not any observed in sampled Free Press photographs. In the workforce, both publications ran frequent images of picketers of multiple demographics.

Again however, the Chronicle’s use of text in captions, editorial voice and more presented a harsher critique of labor inequalities from more diverse voices. As this information applies to understanding “Big Events” that research shows can become symbols for movements and peri- ods of time, it suggests that the Chronicle had a much greater appreciation for the causes and po- tential fixes of Detroit’s inequalities.

65 Big Events

Coverage from both publications of the March to Freedom in 1963 and Detroit Civil Vio- lence of 1967 differed along previously identified lines, as well as some new ones. Selection of photo subjects, image frequency, captions and many other factors varied extensively. Both publi- cations tended to promote the generally “good” peaceful protests embodied by the March to

Freedom while condemning the violence and theft of the generally “bad” Civil Violence of 1967, finding little other common ground outside of those moral opinions.

During the March to Freedom coverage, photographs themselves looked for the most part visually similar between the two publications. Both presented a significant amount of crowd shots of the estimated 125,000 participants and tended to gravitate towards images of the visiting

Martin Luther King Jr., whether speaking, marching, seated, etc. While the images for the most part looked the same, with a few noticeable exceptions, other characteristics of photo coverage suggest that both newspapers saw the events strikingly differently.

The few instances where photographs themselves diverged greatly were in photo subject selection, which was bolstered by captions and other lexical cues. Similarly to the respective publications’ everyday coverage leading up to big events, both newspapers found different sub- jects outside of King to define the country’s largest demonstration in history up to that point.

This trend was particularly evident when sharing concerns for potential violence before, during and after the March. Coming on the 20th anniversary of the 1943 Detroit Civil Violence event which saw open racially motivated gang violence, both publications expressed concerns about the chance for repeated behavior, with some distinctions.

66 The Chronicle, for its part, was concerned about the potential for hate groups or far right violence. Coming mere weeks after the assassination of activist Medgar Evers, their concerns were well-founded. This position was clearly defined two issues prior to the March, with the

Chronicle’s cover story reading, “FBI to Check Hate Groups For June 23 Freedom March.”

During the March itself, hate violence did present itself in the form of Joseph Laliberte, a 39- year-old white man at the event who demanded to speak to King to, “tell him to slow down on the integration of the suburbs” (People Are, 1963 p. 42). A JET image from their following issue shows an image of Laliberte being tackled by police and is captioned, “city police and bystanders grapple with frenzied pistol-toting white man who single-handedly attempted to halt 125,000- strong “Walk” led by Dr. M. L. King Jr.,” (This Week’s Best Photos, 1963 p. 32).

A photograph of Laliberte ran on the Chronicle’s front page in their following issue, men- tioning he was arrested “naturally” by police (Fig. 7). While the Chronicle and other black press covered the disruption extensively, Laliberte would not appear in the Free Press coverage of the event, photographic or otherwise. That week’s JET magazine also stated that Laliberte had even jumped in front of a car of press photographers, although it was not clear of which publications

(People Are, JET, 1963 p. 42). The Chronicle’s image of Laliberte and previous expressed con- cerns for hate violence were clearly articulated, but the Free Press’ concerns were much more vague. In one caption and one article accompanying March-related photos, the Free Press quoted non-Marchers who were anxious about the potential for “trouble.” By quoting a worried shop owner along the March route and a random Detroiter, the Free Press suggests that March partici- pants were capable of violence. The exclusion of Laliberte and other advanced coverage of the

67 FBI probe suggests that potential violence against Marchers was not newsworthy to the publica- tion.

Differences in character selection were observed in one other instance, which was the

Chronicle’s repeated tendency to show images of white Marchers. The only two Chronicle im- ages of individuals within the crowd besides King with or of other leaders were of white

Marchers. One image shows a white teenager holding the sign, “I AM ASHAMED TO LIVE IN

DEARBORN.” Dearborn’s Mayor at the time, Orville Hubbard, ran on a campaign of segrega- tion, promising to keep the Detroit suburb “lily white” (Sugrue, 1996 p. 76). The focus on white subjects runs counter to previous trends observed in the Chronicle, which aggressively found black subjects in otherwise predominantly white spaces, i.e. major, white professional sports leagues, Detroit’s police force, etc. Captions of these photos explicitly stated the white subjects’ race, with all these components appearing to suggest that the March was a diverse, widespread coalition rather than just a subsection of disaffected Detroiters. White marchers were not shown in the Free Press, although white leaders like Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh and United Au- tomobile Workers leader Walter Reuther appeared in both publications' March coverage. Outside of these specific instances, other strictly visual attributes of coverage remained fairly similar be- tween publications as previously mentioned.

Textually however, the publications painted drastically different pictures from the same subject matter and similar looking images. Background research on the March had previously indicated that the Marchers were orderly, moving in “relative silence,” as they cascaded through the streets (Clemens, 2011). The Free Press echoed this sentiment, commending the quiet, peace- ful nature of participants. However, the Chronicle’s photo coverage specifically contradicts these

68 descriptions. In one Chronicle photograph, King is shown seated in conversation with local lead- ers at the March’s destination—Cobo Hall. It is captioned, “FIRST OPPORTUNITY—Although they marched the entire route together principals were unable to converse because of the roar of the crowd...” The Chronicle just once describes the event as quiet or muted in any capacity, to describe those actively listening to King while he spoke at Cobo Hall.

Other Chronicle descriptors of the crowd include, “mighty,” and say they “surged” through the streets. The Free Press found the crowd’s behavior differently and emphasized their calm demeanor. Their next day's headline read, “125,000 WALK QUIETLY IN RECORD

RIGHTS PLEA.” The Free Press would use language like “quiet”, “orderly”, “calmly moved” and other similar words to describe Marchers in captions. The Free Press interpretation is per- haps best encapsulated in a few sentences describing a photo spread (Fig. 8). Titled, “Detroit-

Style Protest—Peaceful,” the short article states, “Downtown merchants muttered about

‘trouble,’ and closed their shops. The police department doubled its Sunday afternoon force.

People spoke anxiously of the 1943 race riot, and its 20th anniversary. And then 125,000 persons massed at Montcalm and marched down Woodward to Cobo Hall. It was quiet and dignified. It was the Freedom March of 1963.” Photographs in both publications do show an orderly crowd, however the dichotomy between the descriptors of Marchers is stark.

Berger’s findings on Northern white, liberal newspapers appear to explain the separation.

When running sympathetic images of the CRM such as the Free Press’ March images, Northern white newspapers presented gentle, calm black subjects, “given that the dignified and suffering blacks of the photographic record appeared in no position to take anything from white

America,” (Berger, 2011 p. 8). The Chronicle’s descriptors do not present quiet subjects, but

69 rather empowered ones. The language used to explain virtually identical images outside of a few differences in subject choice creates accounts of Detroit’s March existing in different realities.

Trends seen in the March’s representations of black agency, white involvement and other themat- ic differences would reappear in the coverage leading up to the Civil Violence Event.

In the weeks and months leading up to Detroit’s civil violence event in 1967, Detroit’s black residents began to scrutinize characterizations of ongoing events in the city’s white dailies

—Free Press included. The events in question revolved around violence committed against blacks, especially at the hands of the city’s police officers. The brutality and various abuses were so widespread that around 200 black community leaders “debated filing a lawsuit against the po- lice because of constant complaints from residents about brutality and the failure of the depart- ment to take black crime victims seriously” (McGraw, 2017). Residents began to critique white dailies for overplaying the inverse—black on white crime while selectively ignoring these same issues. Two events in particular turned black Detroiters against the white dailies. About a month prior to the event, 12th Street resident Vivian Williams was fatally shot. Community members believed an undercover police officer to be the culprit, while police and the dailies attributed the shooting to her “pimp” or “two men” (Morrison, 2014). A week prior to William’s shooting, black Detroiter Danny Thomas was murdered by a white gang (McGraw, 2017). Free Press and

News coverage, or lack thereof, of these two instances left many black Detroiters unimpressed.

“Some Negroes believed that the daily newspapers' treatment of the story was further evidence of the double standard: playing up crime by Negroes, playing down crimes committed against Ne- groes” (Report.., 1968 p. 48).

70 While Detroit’s dailies downplayed these instances, the Chronicle dedicated a leading cover story to Thomas’ killing and significant coverage to Williams. The Kerner Commission report of the civil violence suggested that dailies buried these stories in the hopes of quelling any tensions that may have arisen from them (Report.., 1968). These attempts would backfire, with another instance of police-community conflict igniting the Civil Violence event in the early hours of the morning on July 23, 1967. Similar to the March to Freedom, both publications’ images shared some visual attributes, differing only slightly in appearance but greatly in voice.

Both publications tended to show images of destruction, looting and other sensational photographs. The characters chosen by each publication to guide viewers through the Detroit

Civil Violence of 1967 again differed, in terms of both demographic and role. Free Press photog- raphers and reporters spent considerable time with authoritative figures whether police or the Na- tional Guard that was deployed to Detroit. This was demonstrated through their photographs, which were often guided by police or troops in the foreground with citizens in the background.

While in previous areas of subject matter, the Free Press tendency to interpret stories through authoritative figures may have been by editorial choice, during the Civil Violence it may have been a necessity of protection as Free Press and other media members were attacked by civ- il violence participants. A photograph of bloodied Free Press reporter William Serrin ran on the first day of coverage. The photo accompanied an article titled “7 Newsmen Hurt by Mob.” In a photo spread from the same day’s coverage ran a photograph captioned “Youth hurls rock at a

Free Press photographer” and showing a group of teenage men smiling while one throws a rock in the direction of the camera lens. The Chronicle similarly ran limited, specific imagery of ac- tive participants, but also rarely showed authoritative figures.

71 Moreover, in the rare instances the Chronicle did present imagery of authorities, demo- graphic coding values substantially altered the meaning between the two publications. The only observed image of police by themselves shown in the Chronicle was of three black policemen captioned to be standing “guard at a key spot on the west side.” Two Chronicle images show po- lice arresting participants, and in both instances the detainees were white. One such image ac- companied an editorial column titled, “Integrated Lawlessness,” and another image ran with the caption beginning, “WHITES WERE ARRESTED.” While the Civil Violence originally stemmed from black citizens retaliating against a mass arrest by the predominantly white Detroit Police

Department, white Detroiters would join in quickly. Ulbrich (2011) cites a Chronicle article by reporter Aretha Watkins on July 29th front page which stated “All through the inner heart of the city looters, both Negro and white, continued to wreak havoc, undeterred by the blazing light of day.”

The racial shifts in authority and criminal portrayals also reflect part of a larger trend of differences in analysis, culpability and overall understanding of the event. While photographs shared visual themes across publication, previous researchers concluded the Chronicle was dis- tinct from the town’s white newspapers from its inclusion of social criticism contributing to the event. “In the Free Press, the theme of moderate liberal politics blames, condemns, and crim- inalizes members of the black community — especially in images of crimes such as arson and looting. In the Chronicle, however, the editorial voice posits these photographs as manifestations both of the intentionally futile failures of the DPD in the Twelfth Street neighborhood and of the physical consequences of a lack of accountability in the area,” (Morrison, 2014 p. 36). The

72 Chronicle was highly critical of participants as well but did not reduce its narratives to daily re- caps of violence and theft, as the Free Press did.

The Free Press also dedicated much more photo coverage overall to the Civil Violence event than the Chronicle. While the Free Press photo team was considerably larger in manpower, space in the paper that was typically reserved for international and national coverage became re- purposed exclusively for Civil Violence coverage. The Chronicle also saw a dramatic uptick in photo coverage of the event, however it was standard for the Chronicle to focus on local happen- ings. Furthermore, while the Free Press almost exclusively showed Civil Violence imagery in their local news, the Chronicle continued to run photographs from local business gatherings and elsewhere. These factors suggest that the Free Press editorial decision makers prioritized sensa- tional, "Big Events" local happenings much more so than average, daily local stories throughout the study’s time period.

73 Chapter 6: Conclusion

While their headquarters were situated only a mile apart for the duration of the study’s time period, the Chronicle and Free Press photojournalism departments portrayed vastly differ- ent versions of Detroit, the country and the world at large to their audiences, largely along lines of race. Contrasting visual narratives were built by drawing upon oppositional sets of characters, operating in divergent geographies and using distinct perspectives to explain events, making the overlap between publications limited, particularly during everyday coverage in the absence of

“Big Events” which drew the attention of both photo teams. These respective photo departments collectively presented tens of thousands of images of Detroiters to their readers throughout the study’s time period. Previous research indicates that news photography helps to build identity, memory, an image of the public and can influence opinion on important matters (Hariman et al,

2008). For these reasons, the publications’ news photography merits analysis.

The Free Press and Chronicle can come to be considered a predominantly white and pre- dominantly black Detroit publications respectively during the study’s time period. These classifi- cations are supported by the publications’ employees themselves but also through identified trends in coverage which paralleled literature on the function of race in the press. Demographic coding metrics, textual analysis and other variables revealed patterns consistent with intersec- tional press theory. The Chronicle’s photo coverage repeatedly portrayed black subjects engaged in specific behaviors. The Chronicle's use of image repetition continually challenged mainstream stereotypes, gave space for community building, critiqued dominant social institutions and per- formed other essential functions of the black press in accordance with intersectional press theory.

74 The Chronicle made concerted efforts to show stereotypical negative imagery in a mul- tiracial manner, with their civil violence editorial, “Integrated Lawlessness,” serving as a notable example, featuring a photograph of a white civil violence participant being escorted by a police officer with hands raised in accompaniment with several anti-authority editorial columns (Fig.

9). The Free Press, while the liberal white paper in town, notably buried negative white coverage such as crime and simultaneously played up the same negative coverage for black subjects. This was observed in sampled photo coverage but also explicitly expressed in several ways by many

Detroiters, particularly black ones (Morrison, 2014; Report…, 1968). In this manner, the two publications often found themselves at odds when simply covering the local news—from a dis- tinctly black and white viewpoint.

Geographical location of images observed in coding helped reinforce the natural racial distinction between publications and bolstered connections to intersectional press theory. The

Chronicle’s decidedly more local imagery reflected its community building efforts and continu- ously challenged depictions of black Detroiters that often blamed them for decrepit in- frastructure, unfair policing and more. The sprawling network of black photo subjects shown en- gaged in positive community activities in the Chronicle remained widely if not completely un- seen in Free Press coverage. Oftentimes, when the Free Press prioritized local happenings over their national and global coverage, it was strictly “Big Events.” When “Big Events” like the

March or Civil Violence occurred, the Free Press gave noticeably more page space, photo cover- age and other metrics than normal to local matters. Whereas the Chronicle was originally created to provide more local coverage to black Detroiters, the Free Press sought to inform beyond the local and even national level, at times downplaying local instances that may have been picked up

75 by the more locally attuned Chronicle. Even when photographing and reporting on the same sub- ject matter, such as “Big Events” the publications were still generally recognizable in racial dy- namics.

While divergent in many areas, the publications were not entirely dissimilar along other areas of intersectionality in their photo coverage. Both photo teams and perhaps publications at large were male-dominated institutions. As the Free Press did for black photo subjects overall, women in both publications were shown less, in specific roles and otherwise more suggestively.

Photo composition and textual cues helped reinforce objectification of female subjects, gender roles and ideals of femininity or womanhood. Implicit visual propositioning connected feminini- ty to stereotypical roles like homemaking, marriage, childbirth, fashion and more in each publi- cations’ respective women’s sections. The very existence of the women’s sections, not entirely unlike the black press, perhaps indicates that dominant narratives exclude their subgroup, requir- ing an independent space of expression. However, unlike the black press, these women’s sections in particular granted limited agency. It could be argued that the women’s sections did serve as a form of feminine self-expression, however the highly selective manners of said self-expression were consistently in accordance with historical gender roles and did little to contest, question or otherwise challenge male dominance as other counter

Women appearing in news sections were not as firmly connected to well-defined gender roles, but more subtly reinforced them. Women photo subjects shown in professional environ- ments tended to be in supporting roles like secretaries. Labor data suggested that women who broke into the workforce during World War II were more frequently relegated to these roles postwar (Sugrue, 1996). However, neither publication was a mirror of accuracy in other aspects

76 of representation in labor. The Chronicle made concerted efforts to show the few black Detroiters who had defied color barriers in the police force, professional sports leagues, automobile manu- facturing and many other industries where black professionals were few and far between. On the other end of the spectrum, The Free Press consistently showed positions of power like union leaders, politicians and others disproportionately held by white, male photo subjects in compari- son to overall labor force. In this regard, the exclusion or professional, powerful women appears to be more a conscious repression than accidental. Furthermore, the few women who were shown in influential, meaningful positions, tended to conform to Adler and Hoose’s noted ideals of fem- ininity (2009).

One potential cause of the dominant male gaze appearing in both publications was the lack of female visual creators, editors and other positions of power at both publications. In sam- pled photographs in the Free Press, 16 names had at least two bylines beneath photographs, pre- sumably all of them male based on conventionally male-gendered names such as Jimmy, Tom,

Ray, Walter, Tony, etc. One Free Press photographer received only one byline in sampled pho- tographs—a reporter who was also presumably male. The Chronicle did not put bylines beneath photographs, however written references to two Chronicle photographers, Ed Robertson and

Edward Taylor, were observed. Without bylines it is difficult to quantify how many Chronicle photographs were made by their team as opposed to wire or handouts. Still, it appears that every photographer mentioned in both publications was male. Literature indicates that the observed characteristics in portrayals of women in both publications characteristics were typical, if not identical, to those of the popular male gaze.

77 The popular male gaze transcends race, as scholars such as bell hooks (2003) have assert- ed. hooks, while studying early black male filmmakers, observed this trend of female objectifica- tion. When black men gained ability to create visual media, similarly to white men, they, “could enter an imaginative space of phallocentric power that mediated racial negation. This gendered relation to looking made the experience of the black male spectator radically different to that of the black female spectator,” (hooks, p. 96). “It is transference without transformation,” hooks adds later in her essay of the dominant black gaze’s adoption of female objectification (2003 p.

101). The transference of male gaze across race, must be contextualized as such, “or we risk making it appear that the problems of misogyny, sexism, and all the behaviors this thinking sup- ports and condone, including rape, male violence against, women, is a black male thing.” (hooks,

2003 p. 116). Transference, as hooks calls the multiracial, male gaze, certainly appeared in both publications, with glamour photographs of female subjects appearing neatly across racial lines, overlap in content between respective women’s sections and other observed trends supporting this assertion.

The publications’ overlap did not stop in sexualized gaze, with overlap in class reinforc- ing power in line with an upper class viewpoint. In both publications, there was tendency to run imagery that was sensational and not necessarily informative. Celebrity, violence, spectacle, novelty and similarly sensational areas appeared to be for attention grabbing rather than commu- nity news and storytelling. Morrison (2014) noted that Chronicle and Free Press photographs of the Civil Violence were somewhat indistinguishable on the surface level—with fires, looting and other dramatic scenes captivating attention. These attributes seemingly were not unique to these publications but a characteristic of the news business and competitive era of study. The Detroit

78 Historical Society wrote in its online Encyclopedia of Detroit that between 1960 and 1980, “the competition for market dominance continued amongst a number of local papers, ultimately leav- ing two papers in the Detroit market,” (Encyclopedia…). While excluding the Chronicle from its assessment, which still publishes a weekly print edition, the Encyclopedia of Detroit and other sources of the time period paint a cutthroat picture of the industry. The Chronicle faced chal- lenges from the Courier, a local branch of a Pittsburgh-based black newspaper, the black-owned

Correspondence and others. Albert Dunmore, the Chronicle’s managing editor from 1963 to

1968, wrote that the Courier and Chronicle, “went at each other with a vengeance,” in a letter

(Jackson, 2011). The Free Press likewise had to compete with crosstown rival the News—until a merger in 1988. The urge and need to sell newspapers in this highly competitive setting may have driven some editors to run sensational or more entertaining and less substantive photo cov- erage.

The overlap in upper class preference was also observed in character selection, especially when not confined to the setting standards of the news section. For example, both women’s sec- tions tended to show socialite gatherings, weddings and other events of influential Detroiters.

Other sections showed local business and union leaders at luncheons, fundraising and in other similar spaces. These subjects were much more often posed or smiling than those of the news sections and nearly always had their names in the captions, suggesting a higher subject control over self presentation not reserved in other settings. The continued presence at these types of events and manner of doing so steers each publications’ intended audiences to these influential, middle or upper-class directions.

79 The legacy of the Chronicle and Free Press images is thus a complicated one. The Chron- icle, while consistently advocating for change through photographs, reporting and editorials in the areas black Detroiters experienced inequity, also, perhaps unconsciously, promoted a class system which restricted this very group’s class mobility. While serving as a counter-narrative for black Detroit, the Chronicle’s partial acceptance of a predominantly male, middle or upper-class perspective reduces its ability or desire to challenge existent power structures it simultaneously critiqued. The Free Press, by largely limiting the same faces of Detroit the Chronicle was draw- ing from, to similarly upper-class, male, but also majority white ones, perhaps does more to en- trench power among the already powerful than do anything to challenge it. Allowing this specific intersectional group to tell Detroit’s story between 1963 and 1967, the Free Press, also perhaps unconsciously, restricts the disempowered’s ability to connect to audiences, challenge stereo- types and otherwise self express.

The findings of this study suggest that both publications' visual coverage was a reflection of different intersectional viewpoints. Race, gender, class and other variables significantly altered the product seen by 60s’ Detroiters. Although historical, these conclusions offer implications for contemporary visual news practices. The media environment which demanded the Chronicle’s presence as a racial counter narrative—a white, male dominant, upper class visual climate—is still well intact today. Duke (2009) found racial minorities, in particular, black, female journal- ists, “have made few inroads into middle and upper management positions available in news- rooms,” (p. 59). A five-year study conducted by the Pew Research Center found that news com- panies still more heavily employ white and male journalists than other candidates. The analysis, spanning from 2012 to 2016, found newsroom employees to be 77 percent white, compared to 65

80 percent of the domestic workforce. It also found 61 percent of newsroom employees to be male, compared to 53 percent of the domestic workforce (Grieco, 2018). Those numbers are not in- significant and propose that the patterns observed in this historical study are widespread, more than half a century later. Furthermore, the expansion of the internet, private equity firms and oth- er forces have decimated the news industry, with newspapers in particular hit hard (Grieco, 2020;

Shepherd, 2018). The news industry encompasses five trades according to Grieco; newspaper, radio, broadcast television, cable and other information services i.e. digital native news (2020).

While the entire industry had shed 23 percent of its employees since 2008, newspapers had lost

51 percent. In this environment, where the urge to sell newspapers runs similar to that of the era of competition seen in Detroit, informative coverage likely suffers. “Contemporary scholars ar- gue that mass media outlets in general have become more entertainment-oriented in nature in their quest for higher ratings and resulting higher profits,” (Duke, 2009 p. 12).

This intersectional favoritism of dominant viewpoints can be seen in depictions of class, in both this historical study and modern news media. Other reporters, scholars and more have found historical parallels in depictions of class, with a tendency to reduce the deserving poor, such as the working class, to “predominantly white, primarily male, and presumably Christian batch of English-speaking citizens who make their living in the roughneck trades (industrial, mining, farming, etc.),” (Alvarez, 2019). Alvarez, a reporter who also creates a weekly podcast called Working People, also writes, “the working class is much bigger, more diverse, and more complex than any of us have been led to believe [in media],” (Alvarez, 2019). The current finan- cial struggles of the news industry, journalist demographics and other factors may be reinforcing historical misperceptions of class, race and other intersectional identities observed in this study.

81 In this fashion, the historical analysis of news images and other visual media does not stay in the past, but rather is highly relevant for very contemporary debates on the visual presen- tations of different people. Mainstream media viewpoints are still very well entrenched amongst the same intersectional groups as they were in this study. The black press, while racially different than the mainstream, white media, sometimes tended to adopt tenets of the mainstream media’s perceptions of gender and class; excluding some radical black feminists and thinkers.

Berger writes this on his opinion for the need to reassess the popular images of the CRM in a more progressive fashion, “Until we do so, the most significant social work of civil rights pho- tographs will continue to be the limits they place on the exercise of black power,” (2011 p. 160).

In the same vein, it is likely true that until minority groups in multiple or all intersectional cate- gories can produce mainstream visual depictions like news photography, these and other similar practices in media will largely continue to fortify existent, intersectional power structures.

Areas of Further Research

In the completion of the study, several other areas for further research and possible clari- fication emerged. These areas, if explored further, would help illuminate some of the space be- tween respective publications.

It became apparent while formulating results that more information could have been gleaned if coding were more reflexive, particularly if coding variables were more readily avail- able to be compared against one another. While coding methods gave precise numbers of race, gender, age and location, they were not readily able to be cross analyzed. With a more reflexive methodology to combine these demographic data points, a more precise picture could be painted.

82 For example, if in their local photographs, the Free Press portrayed a higher share of black sub- jects than their overall totals which included national and international photos, this information would be suggestive. This ability to cross examine coding metrics likely would identify new or build upon existent trends. Furthermore, if photos of relevant themes like criminality could be tagged as such, demographic coding data of these specific areas could more concretely quantify the drastically different portrayals of race and criminality seen between publications. This con- tent tagging method, in conjunction with cross comparative demographic coding, could be used in other areas of subject matter such as the workforce, poverty and other relevant areas.

Deeper analysis of demographic coding metrics could also offer other forms of valuable information. For instance, if the “Detroit” value for the location metric were broken down further into specific neighborhoods and areas of the city, relevant information could be gleaned. Would this mapping of images of Detroit by publication reveal lines of segregation or photographers crossing them? White flight’s intensification during the study’s time period could be perhaps re- flected in an evolving suburban location of Free Press images. Wealthy black Detroiters also fled the city and an increase in these suburban photographs in the Chronicle could allude to editorial class preferences. Geographic mapping of images, whose addresses, street names or other loca- tion descriptors were common in captions, could potentially offer concrete data points of the spa- ces each publications’ photographers worked in, perhaps solidifying targeted audience and other variables.

As seen in this study, preservation of materials also varied drastically. Some research in- dicates that minority-created and consumed content is not as well-preserved as mainstream inter- sectional group content (Orr, 2017). This study’s limited sample size of two publications is not

83 large enough to draw any widespread conclusions about overall preservation of black press in comparison to its mainstream counterparts. However, the difference was observable and stark.

The Free Press archive obtained from online archive newspapers.com was not perfectly pre- served either, with missing dates and some hard to distinguish photographs. However, its acces- sibility and overall quality of preservation were much greater than that of the Chronicle. If a more substantial sample size of black news photography could be contrasted to degradation of mainstream publications’ photography from a similar era, this trend could be proven or discredit- ed.

One last potential area for further research could be modern day applications. The steady decline in newspapers over the past few decades makes certain areas of methodology obsolete.

For example, online presentation of images may be less memorable, as photograph presentations like galleries are not confined by space or quantity in the same way a newspaper front page is.

By all measures, literature indicates that many of the demographic and content-related trends ob- served in this study exist in other mediums like television, online articles and social media.

Comparisons to contemporary news imagery of Detroit, or in other mediums could further define characteristics of each publication and perhaps intersectional viewpoints.

84 Chapter 7: Bibliography

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Adler, M. & Hoose, P. (2009). Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin. NPR.

Alvarez, M. (2019). Against the Pundits' Class. The Nation.

Barnett, B. M. (1993). Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders In The Civil Rights Movement. Gender & Society,7(2), 162-182. doi:10.1177/089124393007002002

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