John F. Kennedy in Atlanta Magazine Nicole Carr is an Atlanta-based journalist, visiting assistant professor of journalism at Morehouse College, and author of the forthcoming book, The Price of Exclusion: The Pursuit of Healthcare in a Segregated Nation.Illustration by Graham Smith In March 1961, Pr esident John F. Kennedy commemorated the 134th anniversary of Freedom’s Journal, the first Black-owned American newspaper, with an address to the wider Black press. “The newspaper . . . should attract those best qualified to seek out and impart the essential truths of our time,” President Kennedy’s statement read. “It is truth that has been said many times that sets men free.” The celebratory statement denoted a deeper truth: The media has the power to shape our understanding of the world—and our appetite to empathize with those around us. Perhaps no issue in American history reflected this reality more than the civil rights movement, especially as it was covered in the American South. Five months after Kennedy’s address, Atlanta found itself seized by a defining moment of that movement: the desegregation of four public schools by a group of Black high schoolers dubbed the Atlanta Nine. As school began at 8:30 on August 30, Atlantans gathered around their radios and televisions, awaiting the reaction of White neighbors who were infuriated by the federal mandate. Their actions—to riot or let the Black children enter the schools in peace—would either cement Atlanta’s reputation as the “city too busy to hate” or result in a more revolting scene like the burning crosses and racial epithets that had greeted Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s integration of the University of Georgia earlier in the year. The media had already been briefed by Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Dr. John W. Letson and the city police chief, who advised them to utilize a city hall command center instead of reporting from the school grounds. This was to keep journalists from sensationalizing coverage, distracting students, and—likely—inflaming nearby White neighbors. Amid the integration conflict, the long-running, White-owned Atlanta Journal ran letters from Black people defending their humanity. But the paper aired White Atlantans’ ugly discontent as well. “The Federal Courts forced the race-mixers to be admitted,” one man wrote. “The courts did not order Dr. Letson and the School Board . . . to welcome them with open arms.” Atlanta nine students Willie Jean Black, Arthur Simmons, and Donita GainesCharles Pugh/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP The Atlanta Daily World, America’s first long-standing Black daily newspaper, ran lengthy features on the Atlanta Nine, humanizing them in a way that was hard to find within mainstream media. Another, the Atlanta Inquirer, hired Hunter-Gault—who had written for the paper about her own desegregation of UGA—to cover the students as a peer, spending time with them in their homes and during lunch hours at school. Atlanta’s reputation held: The Atlanta Nine settled into their new high schools with little opposition. A month later, President Kennedy complimented the decorum of the city’s citizens with a full-page declaration in a brand-new magazine titled Atlanta. A publication of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the nascent magazine was light on serious reporting and had little to say on the seismic shifts afoot in the city. The only other considerable mention of Atlanta’s Black citizens in the magazine’s inaugural year was on the “benefits” of urban renewal—or what I’ve heard Black elders today describe as “Negro removal.” Today, journalism still has the power to shape the world we live in and, perhaps more importantly, shape our understanding of this place. But in an era when civil rights are in jeopardy and free and fair elections are threatened, we face a media landscape in which reporters are overworked and under-resourced and struggle to accurately illustrate the dangerous times before us all. We must hope—or perhaps demand—that Atlanta’s media can lead us to a sort of narrative renaissance. We must support the outlets, independent and legacy alike, that dare to confront these issues with depth, courage, and an immense skepticism of the most powerful. These are the most basic tools necessary to bear witness to this moment. More on Atlanta civil rights “When Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize, we wanted to have a dinner in his honor, and Atlanta’s White business community was talking about boycotting it. When the word got out, the chairman of Coca-Cola, J. Paul Austin, called a lunch meeting at the restaurant at the top of the Atlanta Apparel Market. Eighty CEOs of major businesses showed up. At the lunch, he said, “Look, this is an embarrassing thing for Coca-Cola. We sell our product all over the world. I can’t tell you that you have to do this, but I can tell you that Coca-Cola cannot be based in a place that refuses to honor a Nobel Peace Prize winner.” They immediately sold the dinner out. The fact that the business community, and not churches or nonprofit organizations, took the lead in the civil rights movement here makes Atlanta unique.” – Civil rights leader Andrew Young Back to 65 Years of Atlanta Magazine This article appears in our May 2026 issue. The post How Atlanta media shaped our understanding of the civil rights movement appeared first on Atlanta Magazine. ...read more read less