"The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation" by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff.

The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation, by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff. The authors explore why the black press was left alone to vigorously protest the plight of African Americans in the postwar United States and how that dissent gradually diffused to include white, "mainstream" journalism. Today, as newspapers struggle to survive, fall under the thumb of monopoly ownership, and often seem unable to drag their gaze away from banal sensationalism, The Race Beat reminds us that journalists have been able to keep their eyes on the prize and that if democracy is to flourish, an unfettered, inquisitive press is central to that project.