Transcripts For CSPAN Capitol Hill Hearings 20130828 : vimar

CSPAN Capitol Hill Hearings August 28, 2013

Bond, andrew young, gwen eiffel ifill, and Dorothy Gilliam. To pick up on what and a young just said, let me put on my reporter hat for a minute, over the years when most people think about the march on washington they only think about the dream speech and that part of the speech. They dont think about anything else and you are right. He said a lot harsher things than anyone talked about. This is including the absence of women on the stage on purpose. They even missed the dream part of the speech. They were looking so much for the violence that they did not see it. Im wondering how they thought, with anyen there, notice that theyve missed the story. I want to address Media Coverage on the march on washington and i remember the three Major Networks were there. Withoutered it interruption and they broadcasted it to europe. The Washington Post assign more than 60 reporters to cover that story. It was really big news. A congressman, you said that the Civil Rights Movement without the media would be like a bird without wings. What did you mean . I meant that. I know you did, but tell us what you meant. Without the media, especially in the american south, without reporters, without the photographer, without the cameras to bring the message. Nto the living rooms how did you get that in your how did you get that in your head . We had a protest and a demonstration. We knew that we had to do it at the same time, to make the the 6 00,ws, to be on six 30 p. M. , seven 00, 10 00, 11 00. 6 30 p. M. , 7 00 p. M. They were just sitting there orderly reading a book, looking straight ahead. And then welldressed you had the other element that would come up and pour hot water on us, the other elements, the racist elements. People saw the contrast. In birmingham, using dogs on Young Children. The American People could not take it. Were saying to the mustess, to members, you do something. That is why president kennedy called that meeting in june 1963 and he spoke up and said, mr. President , the black marchers are restless and were going to march on washington and president kennedy started moving around in his chair. He did not like the idea. If you bring all these people to washington, wont there be violence, chaos, disorder . Mr. Randolph, he responded, orderly, been peaceful, nonviolent protests and we spoke to the media and we had a productive meeting with the president. We told him we were going to march on washington and a few 1963, we metuly 2, in new york city at the Roosevelt Hotel and in that meeting, we invited four major white religious and labor leaders to join us to call for the march on washington. Without the media, the movement would not have succeeded. We needed the press. We came of age with many of the yet other reporters. Actually worked with the National Council of churches and had a program on cbs in 1957 called look up and live. They gave me 60 seconds introduction and a 92nd conclusion and the one thing that is hard for a preacher to learn is to express something in. 0 seconds i was not the press secretary, but because i had worked with looked up and live, i was always on this. If youre going to make it on the news, you have to make it short. Told him that when he went to the march. Look. If its a 10 minute speech you get news coverage. If its an hour, nobody will touch it. It is a hard lesson to learn. I remember the telephone number of the Associated Press in d. C. Ive forgotten it again. Overy, ask me when this is and i will tell you. Martin luther king seemed to have a special appreciation of the pervasive power of the media and am wondering how he got it. I really dont know, but his genius was he was able to talk to white and black southerners in the common language of the evangelical christianity and know that both of his audiences would understand what you saying, the references he was making, the things he was talking about, and he had this ability which many people do not have to talk to these different groups of people and make them understand. The beauty on the march on washington and his speech was that he is speaking to this large number of white people who had never seen a black person an entire speech before. All of a sudden, here is this articulate man explaining why we are marching, why we are protesting, because we do not like the things that are going on. He made it so clear and so plain that you could not help but say, he is making a real argument here and i inc. He ought to be listened to. Usee was making much more of the Old Testament and the new testament though. Testament prophets, when he really got to preaching, he would talk about isaiah and jeremiah. The jewish rabbis and the jewish congregations. The whole narrative of freedom was we have been locked in the slavery of egypt and we had wandered around in the wilderness of segregation for 40 years and we were about to enter the promised land. Christianity. That was judaism. And the Jewish Community was bombed in the south just like we were. Africa sore in south that it was an Ecumenical Movement in the best sense of the word. In the presence of abram henschel on the front lines and , Greek Orthodox archbishop freedom rights struggle and not just a black struggle. Dorothy, you worked for the black press corps covering a number of the hottest stories in the south. How was that different from post . G at the washington one major differences was the difference in resources we had a the Washington Post. Payables smaller papers had unlimited resources but what they had, i worked for defender ine memphis and that allowed me to go over and be a part of a coverage of the little rock nine. The editor of the paper was beaten while he was trying to cover that story because they mistook him as a parent. He told the rookies to stay on the office but obviously when he was beaten, i went to little rock. We were the staff, you know . That was one of the major differences. The important thing about the black press is that they told the story before the daily press got there. Once i arrived at the impressed post, very by the resources but one of the major things that was missing was enough diversity in the daily press to really help to tell the story of communities and those stories well. Forgive me if this is a mean question. You are talking about the resources of the Washington Post. They had had 60 reporters covering the march on washington and yet the following day, august 29, 1963, and the Washington Post, no mention of Martin Luther king nor of this speech. You were there. I know you were not covering there. You were there as a spectator. What is your understanding . What was that all about . And tryingstanding to piece it together afterwards, first of all, the focus within the media was on the violence. When i spoke to some of the reporters, the editors were giving battle plans of what to do in case of violence, how to look for bad guys. If any reporters got hurt, how do we get together to get the reporters out . The whole focus was on violence and there was no violence. It was a rather great speech. Im coming to that. [laughter] if there had been a black editor among the people making the do not want to knock my old paper because i love the people who run it, but the fact is that there were three black people on the whole staff and none of them decision makers. I was on Maternity Leave and the other two men im sure were part of the coverage, but when newspapers make decisions and people sit around the table and talk about what the news is, what goes on page one, what goes on the inside, i think it had there been more diversity around the table where someone could have spoken the importance of that speech that remains true today, too. Its a problem. You talk about how terrible it was in 1960 three but newsrooms are not that much more diverse now especially when it comes to decisionmakers. Sensitivity to see the story no matter what it is as it unfolds around them. Bottom line is there was a decision made there as there are decisions made now about what is fit to print. Someone made a decision in 63 about whether that was fit to print. If it was not worthy of the attention and they recently apologized for that. Reason decisions are made is because you need more people around the table. The reason that is relevant, to pick up on your earlier point about the 50 years and about was of the things dr. King really demanding, such as an end to poverty, etc. At this moment, as our country gets browner, the media gets wider. We are losing the diversity within the media right now. Right now, there are only about the press of color in today. That includes asian americans, latinos, native americans, African Americans. Let me read something about the preparations made for the march and you will see these racist notions of what black people will do if they gather together this is not terribly long . Trust me. The areaive surgery in was canceled freeing 350 beds related room emergencies. They worked 18 hour overtime shifts instead of the normal eight hours. In the event of a riot, they would be stationed on every Street Corner in downtown washingtons business the street to guard against looters and they deployed 86 motorcycles, 20 jeeps, police helicopters, cranes to move broken down or disabled buses and they were placed on aroundtheclock standby. Inmates werel evacuated to provide space for disruptive protesters and National Guardsmen were sworn in and given temporary arrest powers. They made over 100 doctors and nurses available. Liquor sales were banned for the First Time Since prohibition, and there is more. Baseball games were canceled. Two baseball games. Black people as troublemakers. You cannot have them gather together and they are bringing thousands at a time. What a terrible thing that would be. Andrew young, i want to ask you this question. Or on the 40th anniversary of the civil rights kentucky, theon, newspaper there, the front page had the following. It has come to the editors attention that the Herald Leader did to cover the Civil Rights Movement. E regret the omission taking point,a what was your judgment . You had touched on it earlier, the white coverage of the Civil Rights Movement. I remember that there was a very between difference local Television Coverage and network coverage, that if you were in the south and you are watching the local news first and then the network news, you would see two different types of coverage. The local news was extremely sympathetic to the white end of the argument and the networks ofan to pick up the message the Civil Rights Movement but it was two things. Im wondering from your experience, did you come upon this . All the time. One of the reasons why we did not mind the act that we were bogged was that we wanted people to know actually what we were. Oing and saying a lot of the press and clearly the New York Times and the Washington Post, a lot of them were getting their tips from the fbi and the gb i. Once we got past 63 and 64 in Saint Augustine when the mob turned on the press and in mississippi when people like all good got fired by abc because he would not cover abc was still running the story, forgive me, that these three civil rights workers were hiding to get attention and he knew that they had been killed. He lost his job over that. I had to pull nelson at and out of a mob in Saint Augustine to keep them from being enough. A danish reporter got hit in the camera either by a baseball at and knocked his eye socket out. It was ruthless and brutal for the press. Press. S the national the written press never quite believed what they saw. To have press conferences at 9 00 in the morning to say what we were going to do and then the demonstrations would start around 1030 and that 1 00, we would tell them what we did, why we did it, and we would answer questions but they would still they could not believe that Martin Luther king was as , as much of aent selfless man that he actually was. In 1961, may 20, when we arrived in montgomery during the freedom ride at the Greyhound Bus station, the Police Department withdrew and they were someplace else. They just did not show up. An angry mob met the bus and the first people to get near the bus were members of the press and he is reporters were just beaten, just bloody. Cameras destroyed. I can remember the names of some of the individuals and i got to know them very well. Beat the members of the press they turned on us. You come to selma 1965. I recall the name of a major newspaper or even apologized and they all feel sorry that they did not cover the march from selma to montgomery. This major newspaper is located right in the heart of the south. The publisher and the editors said it was the worst mistake as an editor and the publisher. But itd not cover that took the New York Times, newsweek, cbs. Cbs, you had a wonderful photographer, lawrence peers. Fearless. He carried a gun. He was shooting a great deal for walter cronkite. Quick shooting a film. [laughter] laurent said on one occasion, if one of them even touch my camera, he was a southerner. He was from montgomery and he had been with martin from the beginning. Judgment ons your how well did the American Media do the coverage of the Civil Rights Movement. There is a great book called the race meet in which they tell a lot of these stories and they admit some of the things they missed. These were the big newspapers and theres another book written a few years ago by jack nelson who worked for the Los Angeles Times for many years. He very honest but talks about how he didnt see it erie it he did not see the story and how he turned and began to realize that anest as a reporter that its great story and then as a person. There were a lot of mistakes was but i think a lot of it not willful blindness as much as it was a lack of exposure among southerners and northerners. Among the northerners it was like, really, is this happening . Is this important . The genius of the Civil Rights Movement is knowing then and now how to get our attention and by staging sit ands, arrests, doing what would get them on the evening news and then they could not look away. That is when these events begin to happen, when he saw with your own eyes the hoses turning on the children. It is like watching Young Children who are the victims of chemical weapons and serious and it changes hearts and minds. These images were also shown around the world them that was also a major influence on this government. Ninethe little rock f were integrating and my old editor from the tristate defender alex wilson was beat in beaten, is picture was on the front page of a newspaper in russia. Im told that president johnson and dr. King would this matter of getting on the news and how, if a demonstration, not through any fault of the demonstrators turned violent, how you would take the incident and make sure that it got on the news. Is that your understanding of what the two were talking about . May be in a much better position to answer that but its heunderstanding that after received the Nobel Peace Prize he came back to america, had a meeting with president johnson and said, we need a Voting Rights act and president johnson said, dr. King, we dont have the votes in the congress. I just signed the Civil Rights Act. He said, you make me do it. Joined us in selma and coming out of the white house, we did not get in until 7 00 at night. He waited until the press had gone home. Of there around 930 in the president s final words were that the president does not have as much power as you think he does. Introduce Voting Rights legislation. When we went down that road for the west wing i said, well what do you think . Got to, i think weve figure out a way to get this president some power. [laughter] seriously. Was that going to be done through the media . Mandate thatoral he did not have the slightest idea. About three or four days later, a lady by the name of Amelia Boynton came from selma and talk to them about the fact that they naacpot havean Emancipation Day Service because jim clark would not let them have mass meetings, political meetings and churches. He was the sheriff. He was very mean, a vicious man. Let her bury her husband in a church because he had been to political. , this is whered we are going. We are rapidly running out of time and i do have a concluding question and i would be most grateful for a quick answer from each of you. I will start with dr. Wilson. What is the most important thing that young people, and there are many young people in this audience, what is it that they ought to know and remember, hold dear to their hearts, about the march on washington . It wasreal purpose of jobs, but what was behind that emma i think, and what was a revelation for me was how much there was a sub stratus and everything that dr. King did,. Eally all about education he was really locked in on that and in fact, when the small group went into the white house to talk to the president , president kennedy said, and this that with the kind of influence you have in the black community, you really ought to emphasize schools and getting your kids to do well in school. I am mostly struck by how <

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