Press: Battling Affirmative Inaction

Despite recruiting efforts, minority journalists have made few gains

"The journalistic profession has been shockingly backward in seeking out, hiring, training and promoting Negroes," declared President Johnson's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Laying some of the blame for the previous summer's inner-city race riots on the "white perspective" of the press, the 1968 report concluded, "The painful process of readjustment that is required of the American media must begin now." Last week many of the nation's top news executives attended the 13th annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists in St. Louis to assess the progress of minority journalists in the 20 years since the report. The...

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