158. Media Reaction Analysis Prepared in the Office of Policy and Research, United States Information Agency1
RIOTS IN U.S. CITIES
The riots in Newark, Detroit, and half a dozen other cities in the past two weeks have drawn increasingly sensational headlines and heavy coverage in most news centers around the world.2
As the riots in Detroit3 rose to a new level of violence, widely reported by wire services with pictures, newspapers abroad generally raised the pitch of their headlines from “riots” to “rebellion” or, in some extreme cases, to “revolution” and even “civil war.” Some examples of the most recent front-page headlines:
RACIAL WAR EXPLODES IN U.S.A.
(La Nacion, government daily, Santiago, Chile, July 25)
12,000 U.S. SOLDIERS FAIL TO CONTROL NEGRO REVOLUTION
(Al-Rai al-Am, left-leaning, Khartoum, July 25)
Editorial comment, moderate in volume, reported from widely separated parts of the non-Communist world has reflected sympathetic understanding of the complexities. The primary lines of thought emphasized most frequently in the past ten days were:
1. U.S. race relations are very serious and dangerous. Any one-sided condemnation would be wrong because they are also very complex.
[Page 481]2. The tragic situation is “paradoxical” and “ironic” because the Johnson administration has done far more than any other to improve the welfare of the Negroes.
3. But much more progress is needed to give the Negroes equality. What has been done is “like sprinkling water on thirsty soil.”
4. Therefore, the Negro extremists are, “unfortunately,” taking over from the moderates.
5. Extremists such as Stokely Carmichael4 believe that the force of riots is necessary to stimulate faster progress for the impatient Negroes. This is not surprising and they may be right.
Less conspicuous has been the view expressed in some commentaries that the riots have little or nothing to do with the civil rights movement but are created by lawless, hooligan elements that exist in every city ready to destroy and loot whenever possible.
Mexico City papers told the U.S. riot story in banner headlines, detailed dispatches, pictures, editorials and cartoons.
Conservative El Sol said a “civil war that could destroy the U.S. may be in the offing. Newark is a warning that cannot go unheeded.” It said “irresponsible” Negro leaders were to blame for the events, naming Stokely Carmichael.
“Summer Madness Undiagnosed”
Radical Liberal Politiken, Copenhagen, observed that “a diagnosis of the reasons for the summer madness in the big cities of the U.S. would probably be more useful” than exploring the moon. It said that “the world should be careful not to condemn the phenomenon one-sidedly.”
In Sweden, liberal Expressen of Stockholm found the Newark events “not astonishing” considering “how little is being done to eliminate the causes of dissatisfaction.” It contended that “what is astonishing is that the riots have not occurred more often and reached even more destructive scope.”
Indian Press Sees Paradox
Indian editors deplored the “paradox” of riots in a period of social progress.
The Free Press Journal of Bombay said:
“The claim is perhaps not without justification that no previous American Administration in living memory has done as much for the social and economic rehabilitation of the Negro as the Johnson administration. Yet, paradoxically enough, even as official efforts are [Page 482] directed at lessening the legal distance between the Negro and the rest of the European-Americans, racial antagonism also has increased.”
The paper said “basic inequality” would continue, “and it will not be surprising, meanwhile, if Negro discontent expresses itself in violent forms, however much this violence may be deplored.”
The Times of India wrote:
“Ironically, the incidents took place at a time when the Negroes are making significant gains in social integration in many fields. The riots are the work of extremists among the whites and the Negroes . . . . The general attitude of the police towards Negroes is not helpful.”
The conservative London Daily Telegraph said that, except in housing, “progress in removing discrimination against Negroes has been much faster than ever before on all fronts . . . . Much that could otherwise be done in the way of material improvements has had to be postponed because of the drain of the Vietnam war.”
The paper feared that “the growing influence of agitators preaching violence in a campaign for black power” could mean “an excuse for an orgy of looting and anti-white violence.” It urged Administration and community efforts to “remove the underlying causes of discontent, thus supporting the moderate Negro leaders.”
“U.S. Leaders Willing to Help”
Some West German comment stressed U.S. efforts to help Negro progress. The pro-Christian Democratic Muenchner Merkur said the Negroes’ “liberation from backwardness and social injustice must be furthered from without. America’s political leaders are now as before willing to do so.”
Pro-Christian Democratic Frankfurter Neue Presse asserted:
“Much has been done for the Negroes in the U.S., but compared with what should be done, it is too little. It is regrettable that it takes such outbursts as those in Newark to spark the required deliberation on how to remedy the situation.”
A failure for the moderates was seen by the independent Stuttgarter Zeitung:
“The present radical trend demonstrates that the protracted efforts of their moderate leaders to achieve equality have failed. Extremists are pressing them into the role of humiliated collaborators with the whites. This is a shame for the U.S. What lies at the root of the trouble is the refusal of the whites to accept the Negroes as fellow-citizens.”
Scandinavian papers stressed that the causes of U.S. racial tension must be examined. In Denmark, Copenhagen’s conservative Berlingske Tidende asserted that “the law must be the same for all . . . but the unsolved and almost insoluble dilemma of conflict” is the problem of [Page 483] “uniting the spirit and the letter through a change of mind which no law can enforce.”
Solutions Considered Difficult
Italy’s Communist press, and many friendly papers as well, gave liberal space to riot stories and pictures. Right-of-center Tempo of Rome was puzzled:
“The precise, immediate causes of these manifestations of violence by the Negroes of America are always difficult to identify.
“Washington’s notable and laudable postwar efforts notwithstanding, racial problems and prejudices still weigh heavily on the U.S. to a dramatic degree, in spite of many steps taken on the road to integration.”
In Paris, rightist Aurore judged that the “striking thing” was that “racial strife is becoming worse precisely at the time when Negroes have more chances than ever to find their place in a fairer and more fraternal American society.”
The paper said that the “rebellion” was started by Negro extremists of the “Carmichael type” and was “not intended to accelerate the integration of colored people, but to prevent it.” Carmichael, the paper declared, refused cooperation with whites and sought self-determination by the Negroes.
“What he finally serves is not the cause of the Negroes whom he pretends to want to emancipate but the cause of blind and criminal violence.”
The liberal Dagens Nyheter of Stockholm asserted that in the long run the American Negro could not be content with the simple statement that violence is self-defeating.
“On the contrary, he must realize that in certain situations force is the only thing that pays off. It is through the force of protest actions alone that America’s blacks have released the chain reaction which has led to many—even if in practice limited—advances during the 1960’s.”
“Hoodlum Anarchy”
Christian Democratic Popolo of Rome ran a Washington correspondent’s report that “the right term for the phenomenon is not ‘uprising’ or ‘revolt’—terms which recur in all of the press—but rather ‘orgy’, to be understood as an outburst of unsatisfied desires having little to do with civil rights.”
The Straits Times of Kuala Lumpur wrote of “a nightmare orgy of racial violence,” for which “the tinder lies underfoot in every large city . . . . The mobs in Detroit did not loot and burn because Vietnam was in their hearts. . . . Grave as this latest wave of racial violence is, it is hoodlum anarchy, not black revolt.”
[Page 484]Communist Media
Moscow radio quoted Pravda as saying the riots were “a result of the destitution and unemployment which the Negroes have suffered over the years.” Referring to a New York Times article which spoke of “two countries,” the Soviet newspaper declared that there were “two Americas which are at war with each other—that of the rich and strong and that of the poor and humiliated, of whom the majority are Negroes.”5
Peking radio said that “racist authorities, under Johnson’s instructions, brought in more than 4,000 National Guardsmen and state police, armed with rifles, pistols and machineguns” to help Newark police “in the wholesale arrest and slaughter of Afro-Americans.”
- Source: Johnson Library, White House Central Files, EX FO 6–3, Box 62, FO 6–3 7/21/67–9/30/67. No classification marking. Maguire sent the President a copy of the analysis under a July 27 covering memorandum, in which he wrote: “Leonard Marks summarizes the reaction as generally sympathetic and understanding of the complexities of the problem. Several commentators stress the irony of the situation—because the Johnson administration has done so much more than any other to improve Negro welfare. Radio Moscow, predictably, has highlighted news reports on the riots—and editorialized extensively on economic weaknesses and class distinction as roots of disorder.” (Ibid.)↩
- Rioting was widespread in cities throughout the United States during the month of July, and continued throughout the year. For further details, see Fred Graham, “Restraint Urged in Race Riot News,” New York Times, July 8, 1967, p. 10; Richard Reeves, “Riots in Newark Are the Worst In the Nation Since 34 Died in Watts,” New York Times, July 15, 1967, p. 11; and “Major 1967 Riots: 19 Cities Hit by Violence Beginning in April,” Washington Post, July 18, 1967, p. A6.↩
- Rioting broke out in Detroit on July 23; see “Detroit is Swept by Rioting and Fires; Romney Calls in Guard; 700 Arrested,” New York Times, July 24, 1967, p. 1.↩
- Reference is to the American social activist, civil rights advocate, and member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Commitee, to whom the term “Black Power” is attributed.↩
- Reference is to “Race Relations: The Ghetto Explodes in Another City,” New York Times, July 16, 1967, p. 131.↩