The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-1-2011 Outsiders Within: A Framing Analysis of Eight Black and White U.S. Newspapers' Coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1964 Yolanda Denise Campbell University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Campbell, Yolanda Denise, "Outsiders Within: A Framing Analysis of Eight Black and White U.S. Newspapers' Coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1964" (2011). Dissertations. 575. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/575 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi OUTSIDERS WITHIN: A FRAMING ANALYSIS OF EIGHT BLACK AND WHITE U.S. NEWSPAPERS’ COVERAGE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 1954-1964 by Yolanda Denise Campbell Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2011 ABSTRACT OUTSIDERS WITHIN: A FRAMING ANALYSIS OF EIGHT BLACK AND WHITE U.S. NEWSPAPERS’ COVERAGE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 1954-1964 by Yolanda Denise Campbell May 2011 This study offers an important contribution to communication research about how Black and White Newspapers covered one of the most significant periods of racial unrest in the history of the U.S. besides slavery—the Civil Rights Movement. Specifically, this paper examined the unique combination of eight U.S. newspapers—The Pittsburgh Post- Gazette, The Pittsburgh Courier, The Birmingham News, The Birmingham World, The Clarion Ledger, The Jackson Advocate, The Chicago Tribune, and The Chicago Defender from 1954-1964, the beginning and end of the Civil Rights Movement. Through a qualitative framing analysis of the eight newspapers exploring the categories of subject/theme, dominant article/editorial perspectives, headline descriptors, characterization of key Civil Rights figures, article/editorial length and placement, and photos; this study reveals that Black and White newspapers were not in keeping with previous research which proclaimed that Northern Black/White and Southern Black papers would provide supportive coverage towards the movement and that Southern White newspapers would provide unsupportive coverage. Interestingly, an examination of news articles among both Northern/Southern Black/White newspapers revealed that the majority of all papers’ news article coverage was neutral and objective. However, the editorial coverage, in which newspapers were able to make their stance for their ii prospective sides of the movement, results revealed that the papers were very much in keeping with previous researchers’ findings that Northern Black/White and Southern Black newspapers were in favor of the cause of the Civil Rights Movement and that the Southern White newspapers were not. The prevalent subject/themes that received the most attention, especially from Southern White newspapers, was integration struggles followed by the murder of Emmett Till and the subsequent trial, the Birmingham Bombing, and the murder of Medgar Evers. The majority of all headlines were neutral, the average length of both articles/editorials among the newspapers was 500 words or less, and most articles were placed in the front section of the newspaper, evidence that the happenings of the movement was significant among all papers whether Black or White. Seemingly most photos from the Birmingham bombing to the violence against the Freedom Riders depicted Blacks as victims at the hands of angry Whites--both police officers and everyday citizens, who were just plain discontent with their segregationist way of life being challenged. Such images which appeared in the newspapers presented a sympathetic image towards Blacks and ultimately helped to shed light onto the injustices they were experiencing. iii COPYRIGHT BY YOLANDA DENISE CAMPBELL 2011 The University of Southern Mississippi OUTSIDERS WITHIN: A FRAMING ANALYSIS OF EIGHT BLACK AND WHITE U.S. NEWSPAPERS’ COVERAGE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 1954-1964 by Yolanda Denise Campbell A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: ____________________________________Dr. Fei Xue Director ____________________________________Dr. Christopher Campbell ____________________________________Dr. Gene Wiggins ____________________________________Dr. Jae-Hwa Shin ____________________________________Dr. David Davies ____________________________________Susan A. Siltanen Dean of the Graduate School May 2011 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my grandmother, Sarah Teldford Campbell. My generation will never know the struggles you faced in your lifetime. Through you, I know what the face of strength looks like. I can only hope to be a measure of the woman you have been. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to give thanks to my Lord and Savior above for His continued grace and mercy in the midst of all the obstacles that have come my way in trying to finish this work. Many times I doubted, and the finish line seemed to elude me. Yet, I kept my eyes fixed on You and even though I stumbled many times over my own feet, You guided me to completion and I am forever grateful to You. I would also like to give thanks to my mother, Ridgie Hervey, for her unwavering support of all that I have ever tried to accomplish in my life. During the course of this dissertation, you fell very ill but you still did not fail to remind me of the task I had to complete. I thank you and I love you. To my sister, Felicia Johnson, I thank you also for your words of encouragement especially when it got really tough and I felt so alone in my pursuit. To my best friend, Serena Street, you were a shoulder to cry on and arms to embrace me so many occasions when I came up short along the way trying to get it right. Even as you attended to your own studies, you found time to be a listening ear. I thank you and I love you for your counsel. To all the children in my life that I did not birth, Sherebia, Audree, Awasis, Kyrsten, Lailah, Aliyah, and Kaliyah; I hope that you will be inspired as you reflect on what you have seen me go through over the years. From it I pray you will have seen that anything worth having is worth working for. During many times when my spirits were low, your smiling faces and the tasks you gave to me were distractions away from the stresses and concerns surrounding my dissertation. Additionally, you offered revelations toward what I had to look forward to once I finished. I thank you all simply for loving me through my circumstances. Sometimes love is all that is needed. v To my committee members that have changed throughout the years of working on this project: Dr. Fei Xue, Dr. Mazharul Haque, Dr. Arthur Kaul (deceased), Dr. Gene Wiggins, Dr. Christopher Campbell, Dr. Jae-Hwa Shin, and Dr. David Davies, I thank you so much for your diligence and your guidance along the way. The University of Southern Mississippi has thrived and will continue to do so because of professors like you. Thank you so much. To my former colleagues who helped me with this project along the way, I also thank you. A special thanks to the libraries in which I have spent so many hours: The University of Southern Mississippi’s Cook Library in Hattiesburg, MS; Southern A&M University in Baton Rouge, LA; Public Library in Birmingham, AL; University of Mississippi Library in Oxford, MS; and Jones Creek and Goodwood East Baton Rouge Parrish Libraries in Baton Rouge, LA. Without a quiet place to work and friendly staff to assist me in collecting and analyzing my newspapers, this task would have been even more difficult. Finally, they say the struggles we face truly mold us and define who we are, and that what does not kill us can only make us stronger. Well, this dissertation has been one of the greatest tests of my life. But, indeed, I am much stronger because of it. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................1 Statement of Purpose The Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1964 History II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE .................................................26 Framing Theory Framing Blacks Significance of Study III. METHODOLOGY .....................................................................................48 Framing Analysis Framing Categories of Analysis Major Civil Rights Events IV. RESULTS ...................................................................................................57 Individual Results Overview Result Summary Paper-by-Paper Comparison/Contrasts V. DISCUSSION ............................................................…………………..353 APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................360