The Opinions of Mankind: Racial Issues, Press, and Progaganda in the Cold War

360 Pages·2010·3.929 MB·English

by  Richard Lentz, Karla K. Gower

The Opinions of Mankind

RiChaRd Lentz and KaRLa K. goWeR
The
Opinions
of
Mankind
RaCiaL issUes,
PRess, and
PRoPaganda in
the CoLd WaR
University of Missouri Press
Columbia and London
Copyright © 2010 by
The Curators of the University of Missouri
University of Missouri Press, Columbia, Missouri 65201
Printed and bound in the United States of America
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1 14 13 12 11 10
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lentz, Richard, 1942-
The opinions of mankind : racial issues, press, and propaganda in the Cold War / Richard Lentz and Karla
K. Gower.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8262-1908-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. United States—Race relations—Press coverage. 2. Racism in the press—United States. 3. Race relations
and the press—United States. 4. Race relations and the press—Soviet Union. 5. Minorities—Press coverage—
United States. 6. Press and propaganda—Soviet Union. 7. Propaganda, Anti-American—Soviet Union. 8.
United States—Foreign public opinion, Soviet. 9. Public opinion—Soviet Union. I. Gower, Karla K. II. Title.
PN4888.R3L46 2010
305.800973’09045—dc22
2010033064
This paper meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, Z39.48, 1984.
Jacket Design: Susan Ferber
Design and composition: Stephanie Foley
Printing and binding: Integrated Book Technology, Inc.
Typefaces: Base Nine and Palatino
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
IntroductIon 1
cHAPter 1. Civil Rights and World affairs 17
cHAPter 2. First americans, Last in america 31
cHAPter 3. Color, Caste, and Colonialism 44
cHAPter 4. Pursuing the dream 59
cHAPter 5. a symbol not shattered 79
cHAPter 6. Reverberating symbols 92
cHAPter 7. the scrutiny of asia 108
cHAPter 8. Crisis after Crisis 119
v
vi Contents
cHAPter 9. Riots and insurrection 136
cHAPter 10. snarls echoing ’Round the World 156
cHAPter 11. summer of shocks 174
cHAPter 12. selma and Watts 190
summAry And conclusIons 209
notes 219
selected BIBlIogrAPHy 319
Index 335
Acknowledgments
dIck lentz would like to thank David J. Garrow, who provided useful
advice to a fledgling scholar who sought his assistance while researching
and writing his first book and who benefited from his helpfulness equally
on a second endeavor. He was both exceptionally encouraging and
penetrating in his criticism of the topic of journalistic coverage of racial
events in the United States that found its way abroad.
Zena Beth McGlashan rescued from a departmental library’s discard pile
a very helpful reprint, “15,000,000 Americans” by William Brower, a black
journalist whose reporting on American racial matters for the Toledo Blade
was preserved by that newspaper. Knowing of my interest in the topic, she
passed the collection on to me. I remain grateful for her generosity.
John Craft, a colleague at Arizona State University, provided detailed
guidance on the topic of technical and other limitations on the movement
of television signals across oceans in the pre-satellite era.
Much help was provided by archivists and librarians who are too many
in number, I regret, to mention by name and institutional affiliation. Above
all, however, I never failed to benefit from those helpful spirits who labor
at the National Archives as well as the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and
Johnson presidential libraries.
kArlA gower would like to thank Chase Montehue for his unwavering
support and love. None of this would be possible without him.
We would both like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their
thoughtful and insightful suggestions, as well as those at the University
of Missouri Press with whom we’ve had the pleasure of working: Edi-
tor Clair Willcox, Project Manager John Brenner, and Jennifer Gravley and
Beth Chandler in Marketing.

The Opinions of Mankind