Newspapers: Influence in Birmingham

"We ask you, sir," said the telegram to the President from Birmingham News Publisher Clarence B. Hanson Jr., "to use the influence of your office to end this open law violation and provocation [by Negroes]." All well and good. But how has the News used its influence since segregation tensions began mounting last month? By burying most stories of the situation on its inside pages. Last week, after more than 2.000 rock-throwing Negroes clashed with hundreds of Alabama firemen, policemen and highway patrolmen in the worst melee of all, the News at last found room on Page One for...

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