Existing comment:
A Harsh Spotlight on Mississippi:
CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite called the missing Freedom Summer workers "the focus of the whole country's concern." The story dominated headlines for weeks. Even Mississippi's segregationist newspapers gave the news front-page coverage, although some fed the rumor that the men's disappearance was a hoax.
Headlines Trumpet Historic Legislation:
Ebony, a leading black magazine, called the Civil Rights Act "strong enough to shake Southern politicians down to their cotton and tobacco growing roots." But many felt the legislation did not go far enough. Writing in the Amsterdam News, a prominent black newspaper, Martin Luther King Jr. warned that the law "barely begins to deal with the problems of racial injustice in the South." |