Also, major events like the march on Washington and the Birmingham protests, as well as others, would be much less known about in the wider world if it weren’t for TV, as it took less time to get the images across the different states and it didn’t needed to be reported, sent to an office, edited, printed, distributed and bought like a newspaper. TV is also more powerful than radio or papers because it uses both the visual effect of the paper and the sound of the radio to give a very clear and a very moving picture of events which showed in detail what was happening.
Though TV was an important source of media, there were two other major forms of media, newspapers and radio. Both of these had been around for a long time and were well established, and had covered major events in the past. Events like WWII, the Korean War, the Malaysian emergency, the Nuremburg trials, the Suez crisis, man on the moon, as well as many other key events in history. These all were very well covered by these types of media and done exactly the same job in the time when the civil rights movement began. Good examples of the coverage of the newspapers are sources B, which gives a detailed account of the events at Little Rock High and G which is a photo of the Birmingham Protests which shows protesters getting blasted back with fire hoses. These both have are very powerful and detailed, this gives a clear account of the events that they are reporting. They also have an advantage of being able to be seen and read anywhere at any time. Radio also played an important role as it was easier to buy, and in the early stages of the civil rights movement there where more radios in homes than TVs. But they still had the same power to force opinion as TV dose.
It’s all very good to say TV helped the civil rights movement, but with out many key figures, there wouldn’t be a civil rights movement and more importantly, no media coverage making awareness. Leaders like MLK and Malcolm X were the main players, but other smaller parts were taken by people like Rosa Parks, and Elizabeth Eckford who helped spur on some people by their actions and words. With the efforts made by the leaders and their supporters, the civil rights movement was able to pick up support and publicity, and the ensuing publicity is what got the media, including TV, interested in the civil rights movement. Individual efforts also helped promote the cause of the civil rights movement, because these usually involved the person resisting in some way against an establishment, the media coverage of these events promoted the public awareness of the civil rights movement to a wider global audience. Though they would still get some coverage in local areas and even in surrounding states by protesting and doing local events, TV helped spread this further afield.
Also, the leaders of these events may have used their great speaking skills to attract vast audiences and give speeches to them like the ones in sources D and E, which could enchant the people there and show the government how determined they were to get change. An example of this is the march on Washington, where MLK gave his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech to a quarter of a million people near the white house. This would have defiantly affected the way the senate would have thought about suppressing the black population, if it could manage to get so many people to one place to one man to listen to a speech. The media would have been broadcasting it all over the world, and the effects of this powerful and emotional speech would have put America in a position were it couldn’t really keep it on going prejudice of blacks, as the world’s opinion would have been in favour of the black protesters; as before in the press words aren’t as powerful and could be changed and manipulated, on radio and TV the full effect of them would hit a person.
Another influence to the change in congress was the changing world view of blacks and other ethnic minorities. Across the world many nations, especially in the British Empire and other western powers, during the war had lost many men and the effects were still on going in the 60’s. The US was one of the exceptions as it didn’t suffer as badly because of their very high population, their late entry into the war and also being the only country which could not be reached by any weaponry which could attack the civilian population, and so didn’t desperately need the manpower other countries did. The other countries usually invited blacks and Asians from their colonies to come and work and live in their country. On seeing how these hard working people had helped the country to gain back what had been lost, they had now started to gain respect from their white counter-parts. With mounting racism in the US, it seemed to be left behind with an old idea of racial superiority, an ideal which they had fought against the Axis forces only twenty years ago to eradicate from the world. Eventually, with or without media coverage of the civil rights movement, a change of policy would have occurred in the US senate.
Slightly different to this was the pressure that was put on the US by the USSR and its communist allies. During the ‘Cold War’ the media played a vital part in the propaganda war which was being fought out. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, which gained much media attention as it was almost the start of a nuclear war, both sides tried to ‘spin’ the event to make it seem that they brought peace to the world and saved their people from the other aggressor. The events and more importantly the images, like the one in sources C and G which show violence and hate directed towards peaceful blacks, was used to make the US seem like it was against its own people. This would have reflected badly on the US’s image as ‘the nation of the free’ and could jeopardise its position as an international peace keeper; if they were seen to not be able to even treat their own people fairly; why should they fight against a system which they say oppresses its people and be allowed to protect them after their liberation? With this problem facing them, the US government would have to have changed its policy of segregation and inequality to be able to have any chance of keeping a reputation as a peaceful nation.
My conclusion is that even though TV had an important role in helping the civil right movement and the end of segregation, it wasn’t critical to its success. The combination of the changing attitudes towards blacks in the wider world pushed the US to becoming an equal nation, and the threat of negative propaganda from the USSR which would tint the US’s image as ‘the land of the free’, and also affect its chances of being able to peace keep as it seemed it couldn’t look after it’s own people, let alone another countries’. Also, the part of civil rights leaders played an extremely important part in it, as if it weren’t for them, there wouldn’t be a movement to report. But they also helped organise the events, the speeches and the protests which made the world, as well as America, of the problems blacks faced in their own country. Also, surprisingly, the brutal authorities helped sway people towards supporting the black’s because. As JFK said about a police chief’s actions, “Eugene ‘Bull’ Connor has done more for the civil rights movement than any protesters”. These factors combined with the power which TV has over a person’s mind and judgement, help bring about an end to the injustices of segregation in the US.
