‘Journalism and Jim Crow,’ Edited by Kathy Roberts Forde, Named 2022 Tankard Book Award Finalist

“Journalism and Jim Crow: White Supremacy and the Black Struggle for a New America,” a book co-edited by Kathy Roberts Forde, professor of journalism and associate dean of equity and inclusion in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, has been honored as a 2022 Tankard Book Award finalist.

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Established in 2007 by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the Tankard Book Award recognizes the most outstanding book in journalism and communication and the authors whose work embodies excellence in research, writing and creativity.

“Journalism and Jim Crow” offers a collection of essays exploring the leading role of the white press in maintaining and protecting white supremacy in the post-Civil War South. Essays also tell the story how the Black press fought back against the Jim Crow laws, policies, and violence in the battle for equality, justice, and opportunity for all.

One chapter of the book, “Convict Wars in Tennessee,” is authored by Razvan Sibii, senior lecturer of journalism at UMass Amherst.

“This inclusively written, multi-authored book examines the complexities of race and the press in the strive for democracy,” says a panel of AEJMC judges. “It adds significant scholarship to an important part of the journalism history and vividly informs our understanding of racial issues today.”

“The Tankard finalist recognition will hopefully widen readership of ‘Journalism and Jim Crow,’” says Forde. “More scholars need to understand the critical role news institutions played in building a successful, violent, racist, anti-democratic political movement in the U.S. South after the Civil War. This history helps us understand our own moment and think more creatively about how to stand against such movements today.”

Forde and co-editor Sid Bedingfield, professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, will participate in a panel discussion about the book at the AEJMC Annual Meeting next month.

“Journalism and Jim Crow: White Supremacy and the Black Struggle for a New America” is available now from online and from local bookstores.