Shocking the Conscience

A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Politics, Civil Rights, Biography & Memoir, Literary
Cover of the book Shocking the Conscience by Simeon Booker, University Press of Mississippi
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Simeon Booker ISBN: 9781617037900
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi Publication: January 16, 2013
Imprint: University Press of Mississippi Language: English
Author: Simeon Booker
ISBN: 9781617037900
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Publication: January 16, 2013
Imprint: University Press of Mississippi
Language: English

Within a few years of its first issue in 1951, Jet, a pocket-size magazine, became the "bible" for news of the civil rights movement. It was said, only half-jokingly, "If it wasn't in Jet, it didn't happen." Writing for the magazine and its glossy, big sister Ebony, for fifty-three years, longer than any other journalist, Washington bureau chief Simeon Booker was on the front lines of virtually every major event of the revolution that transformed America.

Rather than tracking the freedom struggle from the usually cited ignition points, Shocking the Conscience begins with a massive voting rights rally in the Mississippi Delta town of Mound Bayou in 1955. It's the first rally since the Supreme Court's Brown decision struck fear in the hearts of segregationists across the former Confederacy. It was also Booker's first assignment in the Deep South, and before the next run of the weekly magazine, the killings would begin.

Booker vowed that lynchings would no longer be ignored beyond the black press. Jet was reaching into households across America, and he was determined to cover the next murder like none before. He had only a few weeks to wait. A small item on the AP wire reported that a Chicago boy vacationing in Mississippi was missing. Booker was on it, and stayed on it, through one of the most infamous murder trials in U.S. history. His coverage of Emmett Till's death lit a fire that would galvanize the movement, while a succession of U.S. presidents wished it would go away.

This is the story of the century that changed everything about journalism, politics, and more in America, as only Simeon Booker, the dean of the black press, could tell it.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Within a few years of its first issue in 1951, Jet, a pocket-size magazine, became the "bible" for news of the civil rights movement. It was said, only half-jokingly, "If it wasn't in Jet, it didn't happen." Writing for the magazine and its glossy, big sister Ebony, for fifty-three years, longer than any other journalist, Washington bureau chief Simeon Booker was on the front lines of virtually every major event of the revolution that transformed America.

Rather than tracking the freedom struggle from the usually cited ignition points, Shocking the Conscience begins with a massive voting rights rally in the Mississippi Delta town of Mound Bayou in 1955. It's the first rally since the Supreme Court's Brown decision struck fear in the hearts of segregationists across the former Confederacy. It was also Booker's first assignment in the Deep South, and before the next run of the weekly magazine, the killings would begin.

Booker vowed that lynchings would no longer be ignored beyond the black press. Jet was reaching into households across America, and he was determined to cover the next murder like none before. He had only a few weeks to wait. A small item on the AP wire reported that a Chicago boy vacationing in Mississippi was missing. Booker was on it, and stayed on it, through one of the most infamous murder trials in U.S. history. His coverage of Emmett Till's death lit a fire that would galvanize the movement, while a succession of U.S. presidents wished it would go away.

This is the story of the century that changed everything about journalism, politics, and more in America, as only Simeon Booker, the dean of the black press, could tell it.

More books from University Press of Mississippi

Cover of the book Ed Brubaker by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Out of Sight by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Creole Trombone by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Wide Awake in Slumberland by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book To Do This, You Must Know How by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Deep South Dispatch by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Cinderella in America by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Selected Letters of Katherine Anne Porter by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Anywhere But Here by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Lew Ayres by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book The Artistry of Afro-Cuban Batá Drumming by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book The Island of Lace by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Quentin Tarantino by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Perspectives on Percival Everett by Simeon Booker
Cover of the book Comics and Language by Simeon Booker
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy