In the early 1960s, whenever the "Today Show" discussed integration, wlbt-tv, the nbc affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi, cut away to local news after announcing that the "Today Show "content was "network news . . . represent ing] the views of the northern press." This was only one part of a larger effort by wlbt and other local stations to keep African Americans and integrationists off Jackson's television screens. "Watching Jim Crow" presents the vivid story of the successful struggles of African Americans to achieve representation in the tv programming of Jackson, a city many considered one...

In the early 1960s, whenever the "Today Show" discussed integration, wlbt-tv, the nbc affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi, cut away to local news after announcing that the "Today Show "content was "network news . . . represent ing] the views of the northern press." This was only one part of a larger effort by wlbt and other local stations to keep African Americans and integrationists off Jackson's television screens. "Watching Jim Crow" presents the vivid story of the successful struggles of African Americans to achieve representation in the tv programming of Jackson, a city many considered one...