Book Reviews : Black Civil Rights During the Johnson Administration. By JAMES C. HARVEY. (Jackson: University and College Press, 1973. Pp. 245. $4.95.)

• Author: Tempie Durden Jones
• Published date: 01 December 1974
• DOI: 10.1177/106591297402700423
• Date: 01 December 1974
• Subject Matter: Articles

751

politics

of

accreditation

of

Black

newspaper

personnel

immediately

after

the

Second

World

War

and

the

difficulty

of

access

by

representatives

of

the

so-called

&dquo;under-

ground&dquo;

newspapers.

The

second

part

of

the

book

looks

into

the

exchange

or

what

Delmer

Dunn

calls

the

&dquo;symbiosis&dquo;

of

the

members

of

the

Congress

and

media

reporters.

Of

particular

interest

to

political

scientists

is

a

section

on

con-

gressional

use

of

the

media

to

&dquo;touch

base&dquo;

with

constituents

and

to

mold

public

opinion.

The

last

section

explores

the

areas

of

conflict

between

the

Congress

and

the

news

media,

including

articles

on

the

controversy

over

the

&dquo;Selling

of

the

Pentagon,&dquo;

freedom

of

information

legislation

(Blanchard

has

an

article

pointing

out

the

symbolic

aspects

of the

freedom

of

information

legislation) ,

the

shield

law,

and

of

course,

Watergate.

Blanchard

puts

some

original

material

from

the

Con-

gressional

Record

to

good

use

in

this

last

section.

For

example,

he

includes

the

floor

debate

in

the

House

over

citing

CBS

News

and

its

President,

Dr.

Frank

Stanton,

for

contempt

of

Congress

for

failing

to

respond

to

subpoena

from

a

com-

mittee

of

the

Congress

over

the

original

tapes

on

the

program

&dquo;The

Selling

of

the

Pentagon.&dquo;

Blanchard

provides

very

useful

introductions

to

the

eleven

sections

of

the

book

although

the

book

could

use

an

integrating

essay

for

the

entire

volume.

The

edition

is

a

well

balanced

book

rich

in

the

variety

of

relationships

between

the

Congress

and

the

news

media.

University

of

Kansas

RAYMOND

G.

DAVIS

Black

Civil

Rights

During

the

Johnson

Administration.

By

JAMES

C.

HARVEY.

(Jackson:

University

and

College

Press,

1973.

Pp. 245.

$4.95.)

.

This

is

the

work

of

a

conscientious

ra~~orteur.

Harvey

uses

primary

sources

coupled

with

the

professional

literature

and

reputable

journalistic

sources

to

form

a

compendium,

useful,

perhaps,

to

the

specialist.

In

reporting

the

cycle

of

events

leading

to

and

following

the

passage

of

the

Civil

Rights

Act

of

1964,

the

Voting

Rights

Act

of

1965,

and

the

Civil

Rights

Act

of

1968,

the

author

carefully

chronicles

President

Johnson’s

spoken

commitment,

his

associative

explorations

of

public

and

private

opinion,

his

ultimate

acts.

But

nothing

comes

alive.

Harvey

explores

civil

rights

legislation

in

the

fields

of

housing,

private

employ-

ment,

voting

and

education,

the

Armed

Forces,

and,

of

course,

federal

employment.

He

tells

us

that

though

the

numbers

of

blacks

participating

in

these

sectors

of

American

life

increased

measurably

during

the

considered

period,

the

negative

quality

of

life

for

most

blacks

was

essentially

unalleviated.

Hardly

a

seminal

finding.

Harvey

does

not

often

offer

us

the

benefit

of

his

reflections

upon

the

facts

as

he

has

compiled

them.

When

he

does

so,

his

observations

are

pedestrian.

The

author

promises

the

reader

analysis;

the

book

is

noticeably

thin

in

ana-

lytical

content.

Though

it

is

number-laden

in

the

form

of

tables,

it

reads

more

like

descriptive

history

than

political

analysis.