This book is the second volume of the Library of America's documentary, journalistic history of the Civil Rights Movement. The first volume covers the years 1941-1963 and takes the story up to the March on Washington in August, 1963. The second volume covers a shorter time span, 1963 - 1973, but an equally momentous series of events. Volume II is easily important enough for its own short notice and review here.

The centerpiece of the two volumes is the March on Washington which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Indeed, the 1963 March, led by Dr. King, may be the watershed event of the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. There are three eyewitness accounts of the March presented in this book offering three different perspectives. The 1963 March, and the moment of idealism, justice and peace it has come to represent pervades and suggests worlds of commentary upon the rest of the volume.

The articles in this book have an emphasis on Congressional action. In 1964, following the 1963 events in Birmingham Alabama and the 1963 March, Congress passed the Civil Rights Law which, in time, would effectively end segregation in the South. In 1965, following events in Selma, Alabama and the March from Selma to Montgomery Alabama, Congress enacted voting rights legislation which at long last fulfilled the promise of the 15th Amendment to protect the voting rights of blacks. The events in Selma, and the manner in which they galvanized the nation are well documented in this book.

The story recounted in this volume is marked by assasination, violence and discord. There are two major assassinations highlighted here. The volume describes Malcom X's break from the Black Muslim movement and his assassination in February, 1965. A great deal of space is given to the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1965 and to its tragic aftermath.

There is much space given to the violence that haunted the struggle for Civil Rights. In particular, many articles are given over to the murder of three young Civil Rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi: Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Cheney during June, 1964. Their murder involved the FBI in a massive manhunt which ultimately led to the conviction of Klansmen and of local law enforcement officials.

There is a great deal of material in the volume on the riots in Watts and Detroit and with the rise of Black Power and the Black Panther movement.

There are articles in this volume that draw excellent portraits of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement, including Malcom X, Stokely Carmichael, Bayard Rustin, Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson, and, of course, Dr. King.

There are pictures of dusty roads and small towns in the South. Many articles are given to pictures of the South before and after the victories of the Civil Rights Movement. There is a suggestion in more than a few articles that the South may have, given its past, an ultimately easier time of moving towards a unified, racially egalitarian and united society than will the North. Time still needs to tell whether this is will in fact bethe case.

These are two indespensible volumes on the most important social movement of 20th Century America. The Civil Rights Movement is an essential component in the formation of the American dream and the American ideal.

America's largest, most continuous, and most pressing domestic issue has been the treatment it has accorded black Americans. Similarly, the most important and valuable social movement in our country in the Twentieth Century was the Civil Rights movement which began, essentially, in the 1940's with WW II, received its focus with the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, and continued through the 1950s 60s, and 70s.

The Library of America has published a two-volume history of the American Civil Rights Movement which focuses on contemporaneous journalistic accounts. The LOA's collection centers around the March on Washington in August 1963 which opens the second volume. The publication of the volumes, indeed, was timed to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the March on Washington. This March is best known for Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a Dream" speech.

The first volume of the series, which I am discussing here, begins in 1941 and ends in the middle of 1963. In consists of about 100 articles and essays documenting the Civil Rights struggle during these momentous years. Given the centrality of the March on Washington to the collection, the volume opens with a "Call to Negro America" dated July 1, 1941 calling for 10,000 Black Americans to march on Washington D.C. to secure integration and equal treatment in the Armed Forces. Philip Randolph, then the President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters" was primarily responsible for this attempt to organize the 1941 march, and he participated prominently 22 years later in the 1963 March on Washington.

The volume documents other ways in which Civil Rights activities in the 1940s foreshadowed subsequent events. For example, there is an article detailing how Howard University students used the "sit-in" technique to desegregate Washington D.C. restaurants beginning in 1942. (see Pauli Murray's article on p. 62 of this volume). The sit-in technique was widely used beginning in the early 1960s to desegregate lunch counters in Southern and border states. There are many articles in this volume documenting these later sit-ins and their impact, as well as the original sit-in organized by Pauli Murray.

Among the many subjects covered by this book are Thurgood Marshall's early legal career for the NAACP, the Supreme Court's decision in "Brown", the lynching of Emmett Till in 1954 and the acquittal of the guilty parties by an all-white Mississippi jury, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, in which Martin Luther King first gained prominence, of 1956, the integration of Little Rock High School in 1957, the lunch counter sit-ins that I have already mentioned, the "Freedom Rides" the admission of James Meridith to the University of Mississippi in 1962, the Birmingam riots, and the murder of Medgar Evars, Missippi Field Secretary for the NAACP. on June 12, 1962. There is a great deal more, and the articles given in the volume address Civil Rights in the North as well as in the South.

There is an immediacy and an eloquence to this collection that gives the reader the feel of being there and participating at the time. The cumulative effect of reading the book through is moving and powerful. By reading the book cover-to-cover and as the articles are presented the reader will get a better feel for the Civil Rights Movement and Era that can be gotten anywhere else. The book records a seminal Era in our Nation's history and an idealism and a sprit that is difficult to recreate or recapture.

I would like to point out some of the longer articles that the reader should notice in going through the book. I enjoyed James Poling's 1952 essay "Thurgood Marshall and the 14th Amendment" which chronicles Marshall's early career. Another important essay is William Bradford Huie's "Emmett Till's Killers Tell their Story: January, 1956." which recounts the confession to Till's murder of the individuals acquitted by the Mississippi jury. Robert Penn Warren's 1956 book-length essay "Segregation: the Inner Conflict in the South" is reprinted in the volume in full. There is a lengthy excerpt from James Baldwin's 1962 "The Fire Next Time" which recounts Baldwin's meeting with Elijah Muhammad and his thoughts about the Black Muslim Movement. Norman Podhoretz's 1963 essay "My Negro Problem and Ours" remains well worth reading. Probably the most significant single text in this volume is Martin Luther King's "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" written in 1963. In this famous letter, Dr. King responds eloquently to criticism of his movement and his techniques voiced by eight Birmingham clergymen. The letter is a classic, not the least for Dr. King's writing style.

The book contains a chronology which will help the reader place the articles in perspective, and biographical notes on each of the authors. I found myself turning to the biographies and the chronology repeatedly as I read the volume. The Library of America has also posted excellent study material for this book and its companion volume on its Website.

This is a book that documents American's history and our country's continuing struggle to meet and develop its ideals.

The fundamental reason for the public distrust and contempt for the news media is amply evident in this 96-page book analyzing coverage of the Lewinsky-Clinton affair -- Americans have never tolerated a "holier than thou" attitude from anyone.

Now, don't get me wrong. This is a great book. It covers a recent major story and all of the hazards of reporting; in fact, it is what the print media does best when it investigates and reports controversey with depth, detail, discernment and presumed accuracy. But, after reading it, you'll understand why President Clinton continues to be popular and why the media is so reviled.

Clinton regularly apologizes for his mistakes. The media, even when egregiously wrong, never apologizes. It brings to mind a McNaught Syndicate "Grafitti" cartoon from the 1960's, "An editor isn't always right but he's never wrong." In other words, never accuse an editor of a mistake; instead, explain "Here's some added details that would have led you to a different conclusion had you had it beforehand."

'Warp Speed' piously quotes Walter Lippman's observation that a journalist's role ". . . is to sift out rumor and innuendo from fact and publish what one believes are facts." It ignores the common newsroom view that ". . . an editor's job is to separate the wheat from the chaff, then print the chaff." It may be somewhat cynical, but if the media were as cynical about their own performance as they are about the performance of everyone else they would be held in much higher regard.

It reminds me of news coverage about the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbour. The media got the basic story right; but, most details in early stories were muddled, incomplete, inaccurate or even fanciful. That's expected in the fog and confusion of war. The Lewinsky-Clinton coverage was equally muddled, incomplete, inaccuratre and fanciful. That's to be expected in the fog and confusion of politics and instant news coverage.

The difference in today's world is the willingness of the media to rigorously investigate itself, which is about as objective as a church investigating the sins of its priests. Yet, a flawed watch dog is better than no dog at all. In this case, the investigating "dogs" are from Harvard and Columbia universities -- which style themselves as the College of Cardinals of journalism. It's like asking the Attorney General to investigate the President. Okay, "Who watches the flawed dogs?"

Two hundred and some years ago, the founders established a House and a Senate to provide "sober second judgment." It's part of the checks-and-balances of our society. Today, the House and Senate are run by political parties -- and the media provides the "sober second judgment" from city hall to the presidency. If it's "political," most people know it has little merit; if it's policy, the media highlights the issues. Who do you think has uncovered every major scandal of the past 25 years?

Barry Goldwater once called Richard Nixon the most dishonest man he ever met. The salacious details of the Lewinsky-Clinton affair were backdrop for whether or not "Bunco Billy" is now trying for the title. A politician accusing someone of lying is "politics." When the reputable media raises the same issue, it's good investigative journalism. Remember, Goldwater didn't comment until the media proved it to be true.

It's a welcome trend. Had the media investigated the Bay of Pigs or Tonkin Gulf resolution, we would have been spared much grief. This book is a great start in self-criticism. The media investigating the media? Sure. First question: "How many professions can be trusted to investigate themselves?" Second question: "How many will investigate themselves?"

Okay, who better to investigate the media? If the media can't investigate itself, then what can we trust it to investigate? By the end of this book, the media looks pretty good. Not because of the Lewinsky-Clinton reporting, but for this investigation. It's a fascinating inside look at "news values." They can be improved, but still, the media is refreshingly open to outside scrutiny.

So, who really investigates the media? The type of people who read books of this nature.

I am just a young college student, but I think this is a groundbreaking book. Not many books have been written since the media explosion of 1996 that saw Fox News Channel and MSNBC sign on the air. The effect of this information explosion is profound and you see it nearly every time you turn on the news. Rosenstiel and Kovach focus on how journalism has changed from the era where verification of facts was the focus of a reporter, to this new type of journalism where the focus is on speculation, analysis, and commentary.

It is a really easy and interesting read, set to the story of Monicagate. I have walked away with a much better knowledge of the characteristics of this twenty-four hour news cycle. Enjoy!

This is a first-rate analysis and explanation of the state of the news business. Looking with special care at the coverage of the Lewinsky story, the authors describe and demonstrate the ways in which the news business has gone awry. and in the final pages, they provide useful suggestions about how coverage of the news could improve. Readers will enjoy the description of the problems, will be interested to relive parts of the Lweinsky story, and will find the recommendations provocative. An excellent read for anyone interested in the press.

The project of Kovach and Rosenstiel (indeed, the project of the entire Committee of Concerned Journalists) was to distill and publish the basic building blocks of what we understand as journalism. In this, they do an admirable job. Stressing qualities such as fairness to the facts and activities such as verification, they make a strong case that while the journalist may not be impartial his/her method should be.

Useful for both public and professionals, the book is well-structured with notes at the end of each chapter with pointers to further reading.

Although this book always recurs to the purpose of journalism: i.e. to inform the public, it always does it narrowly, in the light of the need for an informed public to support the democratic form of government. I couldn't agree more that the recent course of history suggests that mankind is tending toward recognition of the fact that the only legitimate form of government is based on the consent of the governed.

But there is a higher object of information: Survival of the Race. It is obvious that if we survive by adaptation (natural selection resulting in survival of the fittest) that accurate information is indispensable. It was my feeling for many years that communism in the USSR was doomed since every child, biologically programmed to use information to survive, was born an enemy of the state. Furthermore, the USSR always thought it was perfect, so why evolve when we are already perfect?

One can see where that took them.

In view of this I sense that our two authors of this book would greatly profit by reading and heeding THE LUCIFER PRINCIPLE and GLOBAL BRAIN, both by Howard Bloom before revising their book if they ever do. Both books make the real challenge obvious. Survival of the race.

I applaud the recognition of the authors of the fact that persons of less than desirable integrity give the press its current bad name. I've encountered enough of them myself, having had moles sicced on me by what amount to impostors, both so-called journalists, but in view of the fact that the result was my photo occupying the entire front page of a wide circulation "rag" in full color, I had no objections. As John Barrymore said to the Press, "Just spell my name right, boys."

I write books. Name identification sells them and it hardly matters what we are identified for.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an ounce of public spirit. It is long overdue for the pracitioners of the trade to start policing their business better.

After occupying the moral high ground with this pair of authors, however, for the jaded reader who is exhausted with the prospect of the monumental task, I recommend the work of another journalist: Ben Hecht. His CHILD OF THE CENTURY may not recount the highest form of journalistic integrity, just the opposite occasionally, but who can help but roar over a headline of his spicy journal covering the rape of a patient by a dentist?: "DENTIST FILLS WRONG CAVITY!"

Go it, boys!

Did you ever give much thought to the "unbiased" nature of journalism? Or about "balanced coverage" in articles and newscasts? Well, Kovach and Rosenstiel certainly have -- and their thoughts on these concepts are nothing short of revolutionary.

1. The authors argue that by nature, journalists are biased -- and that this is ok.

2. They also claim that "balanced coverage" is unfair, and should not be a goal of journalism.

Sounds crazy, right? At first blush, yes; but by clearly delineating what journalists SHOULD do, the authors make a strong argument that "bias" and "balance" are misused terms that ought to be discarded.

For example, they say that requiring journalists to be unbiased is unnatural, for bias is part of human nature -- and professional journalists should not be required to forget who they are. Instead, journalists should maintain an *independence* from those they cover, so that they are not unduly influenced by people they interview -- even if they do agree with them.

Likewise, they argue that "balance" should not be a tenet of journalism, because not all voices deserve equal time. The authors instead suggest keeping the news "comprehensive and proportional," so that the time allotted to various parties in an issue is proportional to their role or importance in that issue.

And so, perhaps Kovach and Rosenstiel aren't so crazy, after all. In fact, the book is full of sensible arguments like these, making it a fascinating read; what I've discussed here is only the tip of the iceberg.

I highly recommend it!