The Press, Race Relations, and Social Change

Scholars from varying perspectives have suggested that discourse in media content may play an important role in shaping and reinforcing perceptions of race relations, particularly among White Americans. However, there has been relatively little systematic consideration of whether and, if so, how discourse in the press has contributed over time to relations between Whites and Blacks. With this in mind, this research examined the racial ideologies present in coverage by 14 mainstream newspapers of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 1883 and 1896 that allowed and then institutionalized “separate but equal” race relations. Findings suggest that discourse in the mainstream press encouraged racial values and attitudes that were simultaneously being institutionalized in several cultural arenas by social Darwinism, Booker T. Washington's accommodationism, and legalized segregation.