Black press showed little support for Black Panthers in 1968

The Black Panthers had little support from readers of black newspapers in 1968, according to a new study that appears in the winter 2008 issue of Newspaper Research Journal.

Researchers Brian Thornton and William P. Cassidy studied editorials and letters to the editor that appeared in a number of prominent black newspapers in 1968. They found more support for the civil disobedience of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., than they did for the Black Panthers’ more militant approach to racial inequality.

“The newspapers’ editorials routinely argued that instead of angry, shouting black leaders, what is needed are leaders who speak quietly and change hearts and minds,” Thornton and Cassidy said.

The authors caution that the findings should not be overstated because the opinions expressed in the editorials and letters cannot be assumed to be representative of all black Americans at the time. “No one African-American newspaper could embody all African-Americans in 1968,” they said.

However, “This research shows that at least among these newspaper letter and editorial writers, the Black Panther party was regularly savaged and not worshiped,” they said.

Brian Thornton is an associate professor and William P. Cassidy is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Northern Illinois University.

CONTACT: Sandra H. Utt, nrj@newspaperresearchjournal.org, (901) 628-2553

Brian Thornton and William P. Cassidy, “Black Newspapers in 1968 Offer Panthers Little Support,” Newspaper Research Journal, Winter 2008, 29:1.