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This impressively researched book tells the history of the civil rights struggle in the South and how the press covered it. For decades the news media ignored or supported racial segregation in the South. But led by liberal Southern editors and reporters with the black press, the national news media awakened to the story and bravely rose to the challenge of covering it. In providing a compelling historical account of this era, Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff also show the critical role of the free press in a democratic society.