Within a few years of its first issue in 1951, Jet, a pocket-size magazine, became the “bible” for news of the civil rights movement. It was said, only half-jokingly, “If it wasn’t in Jet, it didn’t happen.” Writing for the magazine and its glossy, big sister Ebony, for fifty-three years, longer than any other journalist, the author of this book was on the front lines of virtually every major event of the revolution that transformed America. Rather than tracking the freedom struggle from the usually cited ignition points, the book begins with a massive voting rights rally in the Mississippi De ... More

Within a few years of its first issue in 1951, Jet, a pocket-size magazine, became the “bible” for news of the civil rights movement. It was said, only half-jokingly, “If it wasn’t in Jet, it didn’t happen.” Writing for the magazine and its glossy, big sister Ebony, for fifty-three years, longer than any other journalist, the author of this book was on the front lines of virtually every major event of the revolution that transformed America. Rather than tracking the freedom struggle from the usually cited ignition points, the book begins with a massive voting rights rally in the Mississippi Delta town of Mound Bayou in 1955. It is the first rally since the Supreme Court’s Brown decision struck fear in the hearts of segregationists across the former Confederacy. It was also the author’s first assignment in the Deep South, and before the next run of the weekly magazine, the killings would begin. He vowed that lynchings would no longer be ignored beyond the black press. Jet was reaching into households across America, and the author was determined to cover the next murder like none before. He had only a few weeks to wait. A small item on the AP wire reported that a Chicago boy vacationing in Mississippi was missing. The author was on it, and stayed on it, through one of the most infamous murder trials in U.S. history. His coverage of Emmett Till’s death lit a fire that would galvanize the movement.