(September/October
1997)
Reporting
on Race: A Look Back at Two Major Tries
(click
here for the printable version)
The projects in Maryland and
Texas have some notable predecessors. In 1993, during
a breathing space after a run of bruising and divisive
racial incidents nationwide—including the campaign
of former Klansman David Duke to be governor of Louisiana,
the beating of Rodney King by four Los Angeles policemen
and the riots that followed their acquittal—newspapers
around the nation produced a flurry of stories and
series on racial issues. By any estimate, two stood
out. "A
Question of Color," published in five multi-part
packages spread out over nearly a year by the Akron
Beacon Journal in Ohio, won the 1994 Pulitzer
Prize for public service, and The Times-Picayune
of New Orleans earned several awards for "Together
Apart: The Myth of Race," published over seven
months in six installments of three to six days each.
Massive
in their scope and remarkable in their follow-through,
each based on a solid year of reporting, the projects
seemed determined not to overlook any legitimate facet
of black-white relations. Both examined such issues
as education, crime, religion, housing, and the effects
of racism. The Beacon Journal also looked at
the influence of race on crime-news coverage, while
The Times-Picayune's signature piece explored
the lives of a black family, a white family, and a
Creole family descended from some common ancestors.
At
their first meeting in New Orleans, one of the Times-Picayune
team's seven black members (among twenty-four in all)
suggested that the series should include the history
of slavery in New Orleans. "There was this deep,
collective sigh of exasperation among the white reporters,
one of whom said, 'Oh, do we have to go over that
ground again?'" recalls Keith Woods, then the
city editor and now on the faculty at the Poynter
Institute. But the slavery story ultimately became
an important part of "Together Apart." Glenn
Guzzo, managing editor of the Beacon Journal,
says "A Question of Color" steered clear
of "advocacy reporting" and relied instead
on computer-assisted reporting, extensive interviewing
and "a lot of shoe leather."
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How
much good have these two landmark series done? That
may be an impossible question. Akron's John L. Dotson
Jr., one of the country's few black newspaper publishers,
says, "I wouldn't be so bold to suggest that a
series like ours would change the community overnight,
or even significantly. Race is a major societal problem
that we're dealing with. It's going to be with us a
long, long time."
Still,
both efforts spawned citizen's groups with the aim of
combatting racism—a group called "Coming Together"
in Akron, and "Erace," in New Orleans. And
even after The Times-Picayune won two Pulitzers this
year, editor Jim Amoss calls the 1993 series "the
best thing we ever did as a newspaper."
Neither series was ignored: both were off the charts
in terms of reader response. In New Orleans, The Times-Picayune
(weekly circulation 267,000) invited readers to phone
in their thoughts on the series. Approximately 6,500
responded, many anonymously, their comments filling
fifty-eight pages of space in the newspaper. The
Beacon Journal (weekly circulation 160,000) tried
something different: in late December, when the series
ended, readers were invited to clip and return a coupon
that included a New Year's resolution pledging to do
something to improve race relations in the city. Twenty-two
thousand coupons were returned.
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