Popular Response to Brown

Abstract

The following documents provide a national cross-section of editorial opinion in response to the 1954 Brown decision. While clearly reflecting the views of the individual editors and editorial boards that crafted them, these editorials necessarily sought in part to represent the moods and reactions of their constituencies. It is useful to consider these documents as rhetorical efforts aimed at communicating general understandings within specific communities: cultural and journalistic communities on one hand and national, regional, and local communities on the other. In this case, editorial authority derived in part from how well these writers both responded to and represented the prevailing climate of opinion.