Evolving Attitudes toward the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, 1954-1970

FAIN: UI-50008-06

Minnesota Public Radio (St. Paul, MN 55101-2217)
Stephen Smith (Project Director: March 2006 to February 2012)

Production of a one-hour radio program and companion website exploring the evolving attitudes of whites in Mississippi toward the Civil Rights Movement between 1954 and 1970.

Minnesota Public Radio/American Public Media, requests a production grant for American RadioWorks (ARW-its national documentary unit), to produce a landmark public radio documentary and companion Web site on white responses to the civil rights movement in Mississippi. "Whites and Civil Rights" will illuminate the spectrum of white reaction in a state that was one of the most bitter and bloody battlegrounds of the civil rights era. Many portrayals of this history concentrate on the stark duality of black heroism and white oppression. This project will challenge the notion of monolithic white response to African American claims to equality. It will offer a vivid picture of the white organizations--councils, commissions and Klans--that vigorously opposed civil rights for blacks. It documents the story of white southerners who struggled with with a profound sense of ambivalence over racial questions, and tells how a small cadre of whites took an active role in the civil rights movement.