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Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement
Within a few years of its first issue in 1951, Jet , a pocket-sized 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 US history. His coverage of Emmett Till’s death lit a fire that would galvanize the movement, while a succession of US 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.
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 US history. His coverage of Emmett Till’s death lit a fire that would galvanize the movement, while a succession of US 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.
348 pages, Paperback
First published December 18, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 14, 2022
I enjoyed reading this extensive chronicle of the civil rights movement written by an editor for Jet Magazine. Mr. Booker covers the whole gamut of events from his firsthand experience. He has a journalist's eye to pick out the right key details to include in his writing. I also learned about Jet and the other Black publications from the era. There's a little humor, too. An interesting and useful for me.
June 16, 2021
Summary: A memoir of Simeon Booker’s career as a reporter, much of it during the height of the Civil Rights movement from the murder of Emmett Till to the busing battles of the 1970’s and beyond.
I became interested in Simeon Booker because both of us grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. Booker moved there as a child from Baltimore, Maryland, his father the first director of the Black YMCA in Youngstown and later a pastor on Youngstown’s South side. Other than a poem in the Vindicator and his early writing experience for the Buckeye Review (the Black newspaper in Youngstown), there is little here about his time in Youngstown.
He went away to college when he encountered discrimination at Youngstown College. Following stints at Black newspapers in Baltimore and Cleveland, he qualified for a Nieman fellowship at Harvard and was hired as the first Black reporter at the Washington Post. After a few years of lackluster assignments, he was recruited to open the Washington bureau for Johnson publications, publisher of Ebony and the weekly news digest Jet. Booker occupied this post from 1956 until his retirement in 2007.
Much of the book chronicles his on-the-ground coverage of decisive moments of the Civil Rights movement. We ride on the edge of the seat with him and his photographer, trying to pass as Black ministers with a Bible on their seat to cover early Civil Rights gatherings in the deep South. We ache with him as he writes the stories of the murder and open casket funeral of Emmett Till and then sweat through the trial at the small table given “Negro” press until the acquittal of Till’s murderers. He covers the story of the Little Rock Nine who attempt integrate Central High School. Later he describes the confrontation at the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the eventual march to Montgomery, Alabama
Perhaps the most harrowing account was his travel on one of two busses ridden by Freedom Riders testing the enforcement of laws integrating interstate travel in the South. He describes the worries he has for passengers on the other bus when it was firebombed and narrates the beating of passengers on his bus while the bus driver and police stay away. Somehow, he managed to get a call through to Bobby Kennedy, who he had become friends with and who invited him to call if he needed help. That call got the Riders out of trouble.
He gives an illuminating account of his travels in Vietnam, where he covered the treatment of Blacks in the military and the disproportionate numbers in the thick of the fighting. He went through fire fights, and a helicopter flight with William Westmoreland with rifle rounds pinging off the skin of the helicopter, describing it as feeling safer than driving into the deep South.
The other part of his narrative is his relationships with different presidents, from Eisenhower to Obama. He describes the promising talk and disappointing actions of Eisenhower, the promise of Kennedy, with increased access and the initiation of Civil Rights legislation accomplished under Lyndon Johnson, a southern Democrat. a cooler relationship with Richard Nixon, the advances under Carter in appointing Black judges to the bench and to many other positions. He has less to say about the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush years. In fact the period from Nixon to Obama is covered in about 25 pages, with a portion dedicated to the Congressional Black Caucus.
Most of the book is focused on about a fifteen year period from the early 1950’s to the late 1960’s. On the one hand, there is so much to which Booker was a witness in these years and his first hand narrative of many of these events fills out other histories of them I have read. Yet it seems so much more could have been told of the ensuing years and both the advances for Blacks and the shifts in the Republican party’s strength among white Southern voters leading to our current political divisions. One has the feeling that this might have been part of a two volume work were it not for Booker’s passing in 2017, a few years after its publication.
Nevertheless, Booker was an amazing journalist. His publisher said he never had to correct or retract a story by Booker, even under the duress of someone like Lyndon Johnson. He established high standards for journalism, not just Black journalism, while focusing on the issues and stories that concerned Black people. His career underscores the value of a free press, and the courage journalists have always shown to “get the story.” This is not a narrative of bombastic rhetoric but comes across as the quiet, deliberate unfolding of the larger story of which all those stories were a part, and Booker’s own witness to a critical portion of our nation’s history, when the Civil Rights movement “shocked the conscience” of the nation.
I became interested in Simeon Booker because both of us grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. Booker moved there as a child from Baltimore, Maryland, his father the first director of the Black YMCA in Youngstown and later a pastor on Youngstown’s South side. Other than a poem in the Vindicator and his early writing experience for the Buckeye Review (the Black newspaper in Youngstown), there is little here about his time in Youngstown.
He went away to college when he encountered discrimination at Youngstown College. Following stints at Black newspapers in Baltimore and Cleveland, he qualified for a Nieman fellowship at Harvard and was hired as the first Black reporter at the Washington Post. After a few years of lackluster assignments, he was recruited to open the Washington bureau for Johnson publications, publisher of Ebony and the weekly news digest Jet. Booker occupied this post from 1956 until his retirement in 2007.
Much of the book chronicles his on-the-ground coverage of decisive moments of the Civil Rights movement. We ride on the edge of the seat with him and his photographer, trying to pass as Black ministers with a Bible on their seat to cover early Civil Rights gatherings in the deep South. We ache with him as he writes the stories of the murder and open casket funeral of Emmett Till and then sweat through the trial at the small table given “Negro” press until the acquittal of Till’s murderers. He covers the story of the Little Rock Nine who attempt integrate Central High School. Later he describes the confrontation at the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the eventual march to Montgomery, Alabama
Perhaps the most harrowing account was his travel on one of two busses ridden by Freedom Riders testing the enforcement of laws integrating interstate travel in the South. He describes the worries he has for passengers on the other bus when it was firebombed and narrates the beating of passengers on his bus while the bus driver and police stay away. Somehow, he managed to get a call through to Bobby Kennedy, who he had become friends with and who invited him to call if he needed help. That call got the Riders out of trouble.
He gives an illuminating account of his travels in Vietnam, where he covered the treatment of Blacks in the military and the disproportionate numbers in the thick of the fighting. He went through fire fights, and a helicopter flight with William Westmoreland with rifle rounds pinging off the skin of the helicopter, describing it as feeling safer than driving into the deep South.
The other part of his narrative is his relationships with different presidents, from Eisenhower to Obama. He describes the promising talk and disappointing actions of Eisenhower, the promise of Kennedy, with increased access and the initiation of Civil Rights legislation accomplished under Lyndon Johnson, a southern Democrat. a cooler relationship with Richard Nixon, the advances under Carter in appointing Black judges to the bench and to many other positions. He has less to say about the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush years. In fact the period from Nixon to Obama is covered in about 25 pages, with a portion dedicated to the Congressional Black Caucus.
Most of the book is focused on about a fifteen year period from the early 1950’s to the late 1960’s. On the one hand, there is so much to which Booker was a witness in these years and his first hand narrative of many of these events fills out other histories of them I have read. Yet it seems so much more could have been told of the ensuing years and both the advances for Blacks and the shifts in the Republican party’s strength among white Southern voters leading to our current political divisions. One has the feeling that this might have been part of a two volume work were it not for Booker’s passing in 2017, a few years after its publication.
Nevertheless, Booker was an amazing journalist. His publisher said he never had to correct or retract a story by Booker, even under the duress of someone like Lyndon Johnson. He established high standards for journalism, not just Black journalism, while focusing on the issues and stories that concerned Black people. His career underscores the value of a free press, and the courage journalists have always shown to “get the story.” This is not a narrative of bombastic rhetoric but comes across as the quiet, deliberate unfolding of the larger story of which all those stories were a part, and Booker’s own witness to a critical portion of our nation’s history, when the Civil Rights movement “shocked the conscience” of the nation.
December 5, 2014
I'm a little bit conflicted about the rating for this book. Booker was a reporter for Jet magazine for many years, and he covered stories like Emmet Till's murder and the integration of Little Rock Central High School. The book has a lot of fascinating detail about key events of the civil rights movement. However, it is foremost a memoir of Booker's career, rather than a civil rights history. If that's your expectation, you won't be disappointed, as he had a long and interesting career. When the book gets into later events, say after 1970 or so, it loses focus and at times degenerates into sort of highly developed name-dropping. Still, for the first two-thirds or so, it's a worthwhile read.
That said, I have to point out that I didn't read this book; I listened to the Audible.com audio book. That's important in this case because the reader, Ronald Clarkson, was awful. He has a lovely bass voice, but his delivery seriously detracted from my enjoyment and even understanding of the text. First of all, in every sentence where it occurs, he gives primary emphasis to the word "and". That is, he not only says it louder than the rest of the sentence, he pauses significantly before it and slightly after it. Even a cliche like "wheeling and dealing" becomes "Wheeling. AND, dealing." This may sound trivial, but imagine how many times the word "and" occurs in a book, and you'll see that it's really distracting. He also gives strong emphasis to "but", so that "He went outside, but he forgot his hat," becomes "He went outside. BUT. He forgot his hat." A series of three items (and Booker is no stranger to the rule of three) becomes "Men. Women, AND, children." I always initially thought the end of the sentence had been reached after the first item. There are other similar foibles. "Such as" is always "SUCH. As..." And so on.
So, my recommendation is to read this book, but for God's sake, don't listen to the audio book.
That said, I have to point out that I didn't read this book; I listened to the Audible.com audio book. That's important in this case because the reader, Ronald Clarkson, was awful. He has a lovely bass voice, but his delivery seriously detracted from my enjoyment and even understanding of the text. First of all, in every sentence where it occurs, he gives primary emphasis to the word "and". That is, he not only says it louder than the rest of the sentence, he pauses significantly before it and slightly after it. Even a cliche like "wheeling and dealing" becomes "Wheeling. AND, dealing." This may sound trivial, but imagine how many times the word "and" occurs in a book, and you'll see that it's really distracting. He also gives strong emphasis to "but", so that "He went outside, but he forgot his hat," becomes "He went outside. BUT. He forgot his hat." A series of three items (and Booker is no stranger to the rule of three) becomes "Men. Women, AND, children." I always initially thought the end of the sentence had been reached after the first item. There are other similar foibles. "Such as" is always "SUCH. As..." And so on.
So, my recommendation is to read this book, but for God's sake, don't listen to the audio book.
January 2, 2021
Excellent coverage of Booker's groundbreaking career. Drug just a little bit in the middle but still a can't miss.
April 4, 2013
Although some events chronicled in this book happened before I was born, most were not history for me. They were current events.
And, like much of the country, lynchings, beatings, hangings, torture, and gross civil rights suppression in the South wasn't exactly front-page news in my hometown.
This was a time when those who are now referred to as African-American were, at best, called negro - without a capital N. Where restrooms, hotels, water fountains, and restaurants - virtually every segment of public life - was separate, but never equal. Where the smallest infraction, slight, or perceived affront was met with immediate, often brutal or fatal, punishment.
It would be easy and, undoubtedly realistic, to demonize so many of those who sought to deny basic rights to non-whites. Ugly caricatures of those blacks who refused to support civil rights efforts would not be unexpected. Yet, there is no indication of Booker's viewpoint in the retelling of these historical events.
He saves his opinions for "I said ..." or "I felt ..." or "I thought ..." commentaries. Therefore, we are given a clean, clear description of who, what, when, where, how, and - sometimes - why. It feels like stepping into a time machine and traveling back to stand beside those who worked so hard - and died so brutally - to ensure that all men were treated equally.
Unlike so many non-fiction works, Shocking the Conscience doesn't read like a dry-as-dust textbook. Booker's personal experiences, remembrances, and incredible skill with words make this an incredible memoir of his life and the times in which he lived.
From where I sit, much of this book should be required reading in every classroom, boardroom, and Congressional chamber in America. And, given what has been happening with voting rights around the country recently, the time is now.
About the Book
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.
Find It: Publisher ~ Amazon ~ B&N
About the Author
Simeon Booker, Washington, D.C., is an award-winning journalist. He was the first black staff reporter for the Washington Post and served as Jet's Washington bureau chief for fifty-one years, retiring in 2007 at the age of eighty-eight. In 2013 the National Association of Black Journalists inducted Booker into its hall of fame.
Carol McCabe Booker, Washington, D.C., an attorney and former journalist, is his wife.
Connect: Facebook
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary electronic galley of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com professional readers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. (Originally posted on my blog, 04/02/2013)
And, like much of the country, lynchings, beatings, hangings, torture, and gross civil rights suppression in the South wasn't exactly front-page news in my hometown.
This was a time when those who are now referred to as African-American were, at best, called negro - without a capital N. Where restrooms, hotels, water fountains, and restaurants - virtually every segment of public life - was separate, but never equal. Where the smallest infraction, slight, or perceived affront was met with immediate, often brutal or fatal, punishment.
It would be easy and, undoubtedly realistic, to demonize so many of those who sought to deny basic rights to non-whites. Ugly caricatures of those blacks who refused to support civil rights efforts would not be unexpected. Yet, there is no indication of Booker's viewpoint in the retelling of these historical events.
He saves his opinions for "I said ..." or "I felt ..." or "I thought ..." commentaries. Therefore, we are given a clean, clear description of who, what, when, where, how, and - sometimes - why. It feels like stepping into a time machine and traveling back to stand beside those who worked so hard - and died so brutally - to ensure that all men were treated equally.
Unlike so many non-fiction works, Shocking the Conscience doesn't read like a dry-as-dust textbook. Booker's personal experiences, remembrances, and incredible skill with words make this an incredible memoir of his life and the times in which he lived.
From where I sit, much of this book should be required reading in every classroom, boardroom, and Congressional chamber in America. And, given what has been happening with voting rights around the country recently, the time is now.
About the Book
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.
Find It: Publisher ~ Amazon ~ B&N
About the Author
Simeon Booker, Washington, D.C., is an award-winning journalist. He was the first black staff reporter for the Washington Post and served as Jet's Washington bureau chief for fifty-one years, retiring in 2007 at the age of eighty-eight. In 2013 the National Association of Black Journalists inducted Booker into its hall of fame.
Carol McCabe Booker, Washington, D.C., an attorney and former journalist, is his wife.
Connect: Facebook
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary electronic galley of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com professional readers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. (Originally posted on my blog, 04/02/2013)
August 5, 2016
Shocking the Conscience is a chronicle by the first full-time African American reporter for the Washington Post and Jet magazine's White House correspondent for a half-century.
Within a few years of its first issue in 1951, Jet, a pocket-sized 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 civil rights revolution that transformed America.
Within a few years of its first issue in 1951, Jet, a pocket-sized 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 civil rights revolution that transformed America.
July 17, 2016
Written by a former reporter for Jet Magazine, this book tells the story of his work in the American South during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He also provides insight into the African American community of the time, and its members' attitudes towards civil rights. The book is filled with interesting information, but the writing style is a little bit slow.
April 23, 2017
Very enlightening.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews