NPR: How the civil rights movement was covered in Birmingham
LIke a lot of B’ham News people, I was aware the paper didn’t properly cover the civil rights movement in Birmingham, but this NPR story by Audie Cornish offers some fresh insights.
It also reminds me how disappointed I have been, not only with the paper’s lack of civil rights coverage before my time, but even during my time there (and time in between).
The paper should designate a seasoned reporter to cover civil rights-related issues, including reporting on cold cases. The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi is a model for how it could and should be done.
I once suggested this to a reporter there I greatly admire, and he told me he’d brought it up before to editors (who are no longer there). They told him they already had a civil rights reporter — the religion writer. Certainly, the religion reporter knew many of the civil rights figures and is a good reporter, but civil rights and religion both deserve their own beats in a place like Birmingham.
The paper can’t do enough to make up for what it didn’t do back then, but is slowly getting there. Folks there now have done a mostly good job with the 50th anniversary of the events of 1963. And when I was there, we did an exhaustive piece on Birmingham’s many civil rights landmarks — bombed homes and churches, and other important places.
In Seattle, a reporter covers nothing but Boeing. In New York, many reporters cover nothing but Wall Street. In Detroit, reporters there own auto industry coverage. If a city has something completely unique to that city, the local paper ought to claim it and say “no one is going to do this better than us.” The Birmingham News/Al.com should do that with all things civil rights.
Chapel Hillbilly 