How Did The Invention Of The Television Effect The Civil Rights Movement?
The Civil Rights movement was by far one of the most pivotal times in American history. Without it, we would be nowhere close to the nation we are today. But, what caused it to happen? Where was the turning point in America’s point of view to make them realize that what they were doing was in fact wrong? This is where the role of television comes in. Television, along with cars and the growing consumer world where some of the biggest industrial changes in America in the 50’s. People now had the ability to collectively watch movies, TV shows, and the news. I believe that this is one of the factors that brought our country together, to understand the powers of civil justice.
In 1954 the US passed the separate but equal doctrine by Charles Hamilton Houston. The pitiful attempt to counteract the wrongness of the Jim Crow laws and harshly segregated classrooms and public establishments. This attempt was not enough. Separate was nowhere close to equal. Blacks were dealing with harsh conditions in the classroom, or more like one room huts with terrible supplies, books and desks. The heating and cooling rarely worked, and the level of learning was not as rigorous as the whites.
As you can see from the photos above we were no where close to equal. Blacks did not have a proper classroom, without with desks, or many other necessary materials.
Segregation did not just happen in schools. It happened with everything. It happened in restaurants, hotels, transportation, voting poles, and even water fountains and launder mats. An African American could not live a normal life in America. We had people like MLK, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and countless others working relentlessly to make a change, but they could not do it on their own. It took the power of hundreds of thousands of people to make the change. And I believe that television is one of the main factors in bringing this large mass of people together.
Journalism coverage has always been a very important thing in the daily lives of Americans, try and think of a day in your life when you have not seen some sort of news form. It is hard right? Weather it be, the news itself, a news paper, magazine gossip about celebrities and their affairs or an informative time article. We do not go a day with out being bombarded by the news, especially in times of conflict. It informs us and brings us together as a country, we would not be the same without it. This is why the invention of the television is so detrimental to the American society in so many ways. Before television there were very few ways to get news around. News paper, radio, word of mouth, and things like the propaganda posters for the war. As I stated before the 50's-and 60's were a very new time for the consumer market in America. In fact the 50's were called “The Decade of Prosperity” the average American family had 30% more purchasing power than any previous decade. And one of the most desired item was a television.
In 1941 the FCC releases the NTSC requirements for black and white TV in the United States. And in 1950 and 1953 the FCC finally approves the color TV. This is when it really starts to hit the homes of America. This is also around the time of the explosion of the civil rights movement. Because of the limited channels everyone watched the news on the television, as my grandparents explained to me. Since this was during the time period the news was airing things like the video of the Front Royal High School Desegregation found on this web sight http://southernspaces.org/2004/television-news-and-civil-rights-struggle-views-virginia-and-mississippi. The video on the web sight shows violence, drama, questioning, and persistence both from the questioners and the students being asked questions. It is when videos like these started to leak out into the American public through the news is when people started to see the tragedy of the horrible segregation happening in the south.
These were some examples of the press on “Bloody Sunday”. Bloody Sunday was a march in Selma, Alabama March 7, 1965. The main event that led up to this march was the shooting of Jimmy Lee Jackson by a State Trooper on February 17 1965. His friends and followers actually started the march to carry his body and place it on the court house steps. But, after months and months of the SNCC and the SCLC trying to get equality in voting with no avail they decided to join in on the march. It grew to around 600 people and on March 2nd the peaceful activist marched across the Alabama River only to be met by the scenes you see above.
I learned a lot about this march from the movie “Selma”. I have read endless facts, data and research on this march, but it is something about seeing it all in a movie that really put it all together for me. The movie gave the numbers, stats, grainy film photos actual emotion, it added another dimension to the historical event. Which hopefully gives me a way to answer my starting question. These protests and killings were almost as intangible to the people in the northern states as they are to me right now. And television added another dimension to this “thing” that they were seeing in the news papers. If you have not already seen the movie Selma I encourage you to go see it, and pay special attention to the scenes where they are trying to gather up marchers for the Bloody Sunday event. There is one scene, where a husband and a wife are sitting in their living room watching the news and an African American protester being beaten by a law enforcer is being broadcasted. The woman reacts by crying and she is clearly horrified. This is the first time you see someone who is not within the city or directly effected by the assault react in such a manor. I do realize that this was not an exact movie, but by what my grandparents explained to me the television did provide the most realistic data they could possibly imagine.
Works Cited
2015 About.com. “Invention of television timeline.” about. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Television_Time_3.htm>.
Aisha Al-Muslim. “The Media and the Civil Rights Movement.” Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://interactivefundamentals.journalism.cuny.edu/2008/10/16/the-media-and-the-civil-rights-movement/>.
Bells, Mary. “The Invention Of The television.” About Money. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2015. <http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Television_Time.htm>.
Kindig, Jessie, ed. “Selma, Alabama, (Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965).” Black Past. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2015. <http://www.blackpast.org/aah/bloody-sunday-selma-alabama-march-7-1965>.
Meera Dolasia. “March On Selma.” Dog News. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2015. <http://www.dogonews.com/2015/3/10/march-on-selma-bridge-commemorates-50th-anniversary-of-bloody-sunday>.
Nostalgiazam.blogspot.com, ed. “nostalgiazam.” nostalgiazam.blogspot.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_>.
Shmoop University. “Economy of the 50's.” Shmoop. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. <http://www.shmoop.com/1950s/economy.html>.
William G. Thomas III., and Southern Spaces is a digital publishing initiative of the Emory University Libraries. “Television News and the Civil Rights Struggle: The Views in Virginia and Mississippi.” Southern Spaces. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2015. <http://southernspaces.org/2004/television-news-and-civil-rights-struggle-views-virginia-and-mississippi>.
Unpiled
civil rights
URL: http://henryjenkins.org/2012/09/television-and-the-civil-rights-movement-an-interview-with-aniko-bodroghkozy-part-three.htmlParaphrase: The DREAM act was heavily televized and weighted by televison, it played a game changing roll television was like our social media today, it was the newest form of quick information
History: Created: 01/29/15 08:34 AM
Civil rights and vietnam war
Quote: Nelson said that eventually the news media helped to influence changes in the laws to end injustices in society. Nelson complained that not enough credit has been given to the press for the coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, but plenty has been said about how the media helped end the Vietnam War by showing the public the results of the war. History: Created: 01/29/15 08:45 AM
drawing attention
URL: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement
Paraphrase: all about the NAACP drawing attention to their issues
History: Created: 01/29/15 08:52 AM
Fist african amercian seen on tv
URL: http://aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/first-black-seen-television
Quote: On this date in 1939, “The Ethel Waters Show,” a variety special appeared on NBC. The new medium then in development was called television.
Paraphrase: Wed, 1939–06–14 Fredi Washington and Georgette Harvey preformend a hit from their play mambas daughters
History: Created: 01/29/15 08:31 AM
friendship 9
Paraphrase: MLK tried to get media coverage in places, he wanted to cause a scene and look comeptly defencles
History: Created: 01/29/15 08:48 AM
How did television change the civil right?
URL: http://histclo.com/essay/war/acr/acr-media.html
Paraphrase: Historic Boys Clothing Television brought the denials about the inequality to the souths attention When shown on television many people were stunned, and disgusted at the beatings and violent reactions to peaceful protests
History: Created: 01/28/15 07:57 AM
How did television effect the civil rights movement
URL: http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/life_17.html
Quote: Between 1949 and 1969, the number of households in the U.S. with at least one TV set rose from less than a million to 44 million. The number of commercial TV stations rose from 69 to 566. The amount advertisers paid these TV stations and the networks rose from $58 million to $1.5 billion en 1959 and 1970, the percentage of households in the U.S. with at least one TV went from 88 percent to 96 percent. By 1970, there were around 700 UHF and VHF television stations; today there are 1,300. By 1970, TV stations and networks raked in $3.6 billion in ad revenues; today, that figure is over $60 billion. Filmed coverage of the civil rights movement and live coverage of Martin Luther King’s March on Washington brought those issues into sharp focus.
History: Created: 01/28/15 09:13 AM
I have a dream
Paraphrase: without television the i Have a dream speech would have never been able to fully impact
History: Created: 01/29/15 08:46 AM
Invention of television 2
Quote: Paul Gottlieb Nipkow was a stunning student and in 1884 the German created and patented the first television which he called the electromechanical television system. It was a huge success in the field and in 1927 he also created the first known Phonovision which would allow sound to follow images using audio technology while images were being decoded for viewing.
History: Created: 01/29/15 08:27 AM
Invention of the television
URL: http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Television_Time.htm
paraphrase: 1936- 200 television sets are owned nation wide first lines were layed by At&T 1937- CBS starts proto type was invented in the 1920s
History: Created: 01/29/15 08:25 AMInvention of the television 2 link
URL: http://www.inventionoftelevision.com/
History: Created: 01/29/15 08:28 AM
Selma
Paraphrase: Many scenes of whites gathered around the telivision crying at the scenes of violence, no one cried over the news paper. MLK’s call to clergy was over the television and many many people saw it, the mass of people in the movie was huge
History: Created: 01/28/15 08:33 AM
tv characters
URL: http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2687300020/television-impact-american-society.html
Quote: A very popular early variety program, The Ed Sullivan Show, featured a number of black performers as guests. Still, African Americans mostly appeared on TV in the role of entertainers. In 1965, African American actor and comedian Bill Cosby (1937–) costarred as a detective on the popular series I Spy. He won three Emmy Awards for his role. In 1968 Diahann Carroll (1935–) became the first black woman to star in a prime-time TV series. She played the title character in Julia, a sitcom about a nurse raising her young child alone after her husband’s death. Since Julia lived in an apartment building with both black and white tenants and never faced prejudice or discrimination due to her race, some critics complained that the show did not reflect the realities of the African American experience. But Carroll claimed that Julia was as realistic as any other fictional program on TV. “We all had to realize that television was not representative of any community,” she commented inEbony. “It was a make-believe world. Even the white families were cardboard [one-dimensional or flat].
Paraphrase: As it does today televesion started to mold the way that we think expecially about race and gender equality (1919–1965) Nat king kole was black intertainer (1965–75) tv started showing extended coverage of the civil rights movement
History: Created: 01/28/15 09:19 AM
Tv reflects reality
Paraphrase: all about news paper v.s. tv
History: Created: 01/28/15 09:22 AM
Vietnam wae
URL: http://www.warbirdforum.com/media.htm
Quote: What was coverage of the war like, and did it affect the image of the Vietnam veteran? Many Vietnam veterans feel that uncensored and overly negative television coverage helped turn the American public against the war and against the veterans themselves.
History: Created: 01/29/15 08:43 AM
