Gwyneth Mellinger, "Racializing Objectivity: How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow" (U Massachusetts Press, 2024)

Summary

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Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network

Episode: Gwyneth Mellinger, "Racializing Objectivity: How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow" (U Massachusetts Press, 2024)
Date: December 6, 2025
Host: Kavi Sarathi
Guest: Gwyneth Mellinger

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Episode Overview

This episode features a discussion between host Kavi Sarathi and author Gwyneth Mellinger, whose book, Racializing Objectivity: How the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow, investigates how white Southern newspapers weaponized the concept of “objective journalism” to reinforce segregation and discredit both the Black press and integration efforts during the World War II through the 1950s. The episode highlights the mechanics of institutional racism within journalism, the evolution and marginalization of the Black press, and the persistent lessons for journalists today.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Book Origins & Historical Context

• Timeframe:
  • The period studied is from WWII (1940-41) through 1957, ending with the forced integration of Central High School in Little Rock—an event that shifted national conversations on race and federal intervention. (03:08)
• Archival Research:
  • Mellinger delved deeply into correspondence, speeches, magazine articles, and newspaper columns, discovering a pattern in how white Southern editors defined “objectivity” and contrasted their own work against that of the Black and Northern liberal presses. (05:02)

2. Journalism Standards as Weapons

• Weaponization of Objectivity:

  • White Southern editors claimed that only their work was truly “objective,” thus positioning themselves as more accurate, noble, and legitimate while dismissing rival outlets as biased or unprofessional. (05:28)

• Ideological Underpinnings:

  • Terms like “merit” and “patriotism” were used as ideological shields to mask the perpetuation of segregationist viewpoints. (06:21)

    "Sometimes those kinds of concepts... do a lot of ideological heavy lifting for other ideological agendas."
    —Gwyneth Mellinger (06:21)

• Advice for Journalists:

  • Importance of interrogating beneath the surface—not just public statements, but actual practices and private correspondence. (06:45)

  • Revealed a disconnect: public professionalism often masked private racism and complicity, as seen in personal archives. (07:31)

    "Editors who would never... have used the N word would do so in what they perceive to be the privacy of their conversation through the mail."
    —Gwyneth Mellinger (07:56)

3. Evolution and Role of the Black Press

• History & Influence:
  • The Black press originated in the 1820s alongside the abolitionist movement, giving voice to a marginalized population. By WWII, it had peaked in circulation, directly addressing Black Americans' concerns, such as fighting fascism abroad but facing racism at home. (08:13 - 09:23)
• White Press Perceptions:
  • Most Southern white editors regarded the Black press as advocacy-based and biased, refusing to acknowledge their own objectivity’s racial undertones. (10:27)
  • The Black press' professional legitimacy was denied, despite widespread covert reliance on its reporting. (10:55)

4. Exclusion of Black Voices in “Mainstream” Press

• Case Study: Charles S. Johnson

  • Charles S. Johnson, a leading Black sociologist and university president, and Claude Barnett of the Associated Negro Press designed a free column for white newspapers by Johnson—a recognized expert on race. Almost no papers accepted it, illustrating the exclusion of Black voices from national dialogue. (14:09 - 17:43)

    "No newspaper... would touch this concept in the 1940s. What this ended up doing was preserving the white daily press’s opinion pages as a space that was controlled exclusively by white editors for white voices."
    —Gwyneth Mellinger (17:07)

5. Influential Journalists and Thought Leaders

• Westbrook Pegler:
  • Northern conservative columnist with a vast readership. Contrary to expectations, he became a key ally for Southern segregationists, attacking the Black press as unpatriotic and undermining its legitimacy to white audiences. (18:03)
• Virginius Dabney & P.B. Young, Sr.:
  • Dabney (white editor, Richmond) and Young (Black editor, Norfolk) lived parallel lives shaping their communities’ narratives, but without professional parity or true dialogue. (18:08 - 20:49)

6. Surprising Research Discoveries

• Hypocrisy in Private Correspondence:
  • Many white journalists who would not publicly espouse racist views were complicit in upholding Jim Crow through the manipulation of journalism standards and private correspondence. (20:57)
• Blind Spots:

  • Even Northern journalists, though sometimes appalled, gave credence to these claims under the guise of upholding “journalism standards.” (21:19)

    "Many of the white journalists and editors who supported Jim Crow saw themselves as noble, not as people with a racial agenda... they would certainly never have embraced the idea that they had any kind of a racial conflict of interest."
    —Gwyneth Mellinger (22:23)

7. Lessons & Takeaways

• Counter Narrative:

  • The book reframes events typically told from the white Southern perspective by elevating Black voices and innovations, such as the overlooked early prototypes for objective educational reporting by Black intellectuals.

  • Mellinger cautions against accepting mainstream histories at face value and underscores the necessity of examining standpoint and bias in history-writing and reporting. (23:02 - 25:44)

    "I hope that readers will see that we don't necessarily... not to take history at face value."
    —Gwyneth Mellinger (25:09)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On weaponized objectivity:

  "By claiming that the Black press and the liberal white press in the North were not objective, they were able to set those... apart from what they were doing and set themselves up as being more objective, more accurate, and also more noble."
  —Gwyneth Mellinger (05:28)

• On ideological language:

  "Sometimes those kinds of concepts... do a lot of ideological heavy lifting for other ideological agendas."
  —Gwyneth Mellinger (06:21)

• On investigative research:

  "Editors who would never... have used the N word would do so in what they perceive to be the privacy of their conversation through the mail."
  —Gwyneth Mellinger (07:56)

• On white press ignoring Black expertise:

  "No newspaper... would touch this concept in the 1940s. What this ended up doing was preserving the white daily press’s opinion pages as a space that was controlled exclusively by white editors for white voices."
  —Gwyneth Mellinger (17:07)

• On professional blind spots:

  "They gave [white Southerners] a hearing because [they] were claiming that the issue was really journalism standards and not Jim Crow."
  —Gwyneth Mellinger (21:19)

• On critical reading of history:

  "We don't necessarily... not to take history at face value... there will always be an opportunity for us to examine very critically standpoint—the standpoints of others who are writing and interpreting history."
  —Gwyneth Mellinger (25:09 – 25:44)

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Important Timestamps

• 02:46 — Book overview and periodization
• 05:02 — How white southern editors claimed objectivity
• 06:21 — Ideological functions of “merit” and “patriotism”
• 07:56 — Racist language in private correspondence
• 08:13–09:23 — Emergence and evolution of the Black press
• 10:27–10:55 — White perception and dismissal of the Black press
• 14:09–17:43 — The exclusion of Black syndicated columns from mainstream white newspapers
• 18:03–20:49 — Influential journalists: Pegler, Dabney, and Young
• 20:57–22:56 — Surprising discoveries and complicity in upholding Jim Crow
• 23:02–25:44 — Mellinger’s hopes for readers and critical perspectives on history

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Episode Takeaway

Mellinger’s work exposes how standards of “objectivity” in journalism were not neutral but actively deployed by the white Southern press as instruments of exclusion and resistance against civil rights. Her meticulous archival work reveals the complicity of both overt and subtle forms of institutional racism, emphasizing the necessity for journalists and historians to investigate beyond official narratives and interrogate the supposed neutrality of professional standards.

Listeners come away understanding the crucial importance of recognizing whose voices are silenced, how professional norms can perpetuate injustice, and why critical, standpoint-aware history remains vital to understanding both journalism and society.

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Transcript

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[Kavi Sarathi]

My name is Kavi Sarathi, marketing intern at the Massachusetts Press, and I'm joined today by Gwyneth Mellinger to discuss her book Racializing how the White Southern press used journalism standards to defend Jim Crow. Her book is the winner of the 2025American journalism historians Association Book of the Year Award, winner of the 2025 association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Tankard Book Award and History Division book. Thank you so much for joining me.

[Gwyneth Mellinger]

Thank you.

[Kavi Sarathi]

Why don't we start by having you tell everyone a bit about your book, what it's about and how it came to be.

[Gwyneth Mellinger]

So thank you for that question because I think that the timeframe that the book covers is important for framing our conversation today. I'm looking specifically at the period that begins with World War II in the 1940. 41, 42, when the.

Freedom struggle had a sort of resurgence of it had been going along, but here came the World War II and there were things for social pressures and that sort of thing for black people to respond to. And then we go through to 1957, where I see a change in the conversation among white people about the civil rights movement. In 1957, we have the forced integration of Central High School in Little Rock, which changes the way that white segregationists or people who were not entirely all in with integration, saw the federal government's role in this process in that period of time. Of course, we have Brown versus Board of Education in 1954, and that meant also that the federal government was involved very directly in the lives of white Southerners. The developments during my period of time, that 15 year or so period, parallel the important developments in the 20th century freedom struggle. And the concept for the book emerged from a deep reading that I was doing in the archives of white Southern editors who opposed desegregation or integration. And in fact, during this period of time, there are debates on whether it was integration, that term was introduced during this period of time, or what desegregation actually would mean. And these discussions were occurring in letters, but also in speeches, magazine articles, newspaper columns.

And et cetera. These were conversations, opinions that white Southern editors were not overtly stating necessarily, but by claiming that the black press and the liberal white press in the north were not objective, they were able to set those that part of the media.

Landscape apart from what they were doing and set themselves up as being more objective, more accurate, and also more noble.

[Kavi Sarathi]

And more on that. In your book, you discuss how these different journalism standards were weaponized in the south to defend segregation and return to an era of Jim Crow. I'm wondering what drew you to this topic in the first place and why, if you have any advice for what journalists today can take from this history.

[Gwyneth Mellinger]

So I was drawn to this topic because it documents how institutional racism functions just below the surface. Today, journalists might be curious about how concepts like merit and patriotism are deployed in the framing of history. When we might think of them. If we look at them without.

Look at them uncritically, you might say, oh, well, who would oppose merit? Who would oppose patriotism? But sometimes those kinds of concepts are. They do a lot of ideological heavy lifting for other ideological agendas.

[Kavi Sarathi]

And what do you think journalists can learn from that history?

[Gwyneth Mellinger]

Well, that we need to always look beneath the surface and look at what people are doing, not just what they're saying. When we analyze critically the present and the past, if we go beyond the surface. And that was one of the things that was important about my book, I thought, was that I was finding correspondence where all of the people that I'm talking about in the book had a public life in which they were writing things and being published on a regular basis. But they also had correspondence archives.

Or else they corresponded with people who had correspondence archives. And so I was able to see what they really thought. So, for example, editors who would never. White editors who would never have used the N word would do so in what they perceive to be the privacy of their conversation.

Through the mail.

[Kavi Sarathi]

And you mentioned previously, too, the role of the black press at the time. And that's something you get into, especially how it was demonized and discredited by Southern white journalists. Can you explain the evolution and the role of the black press at the time?

[Gwyneth Mellinger]

Yes, I think the. The black press is fascinating because it. It emerged in the United States in the night in the 1820s in response or alongside the abolition movement. And it was a natural in. In a. In a country with a First Amendment and a Constitution that claimed to.

Give equal rights to everyone.

That was not what was emerging in the decades following.

The. The framing of our Constitution. And so the black press just pops up and it became. It began to be part of the.

Public sphere. And it, you know, and then later in the 1800s, of course we'll have people like Frederick Douglass and so forth. But we can look back at that time and see that this was a very American thing for.

Those who were denied a place at the table for them to do, to start their own newspapers, eventually magazines and that sort of thing. So by the time that I start looking in earnest at what was going on with the black press in the 20th century, in the mid 20th century, the black press is a going concern. Reached a circulation peak during World War II. And one of the things that was happening was that black newspapers were speaking directly to people who were concerned about whether or not the black person could serve their country and were concerned about the hypocrisy, us fighting a war against fascism abroad when we had racism at home and so forth. And so I became very fascinated with the fact that most white editors in the period I studied.

Discussed the black press as it was, as if it described it, framed it as a biased advocacy press. They did not see themselves as representing white interests, as having, you know, the same kind of a bias. They only assigned this to the black press. And then the al other thing that they did was to dismiss the black press.

Because they decided that its standards did not meet and its journalists and editors did not meet the standards that had been established for journalism established by the white press. And so there was this tension. Yes, probably most white editors of the period I study would have said that the black press had a first Amendment right to be doing what it was doing, but professionally it was not up to their standards and so forth. And a lot of editors kept track of what was in the black press because they didn't want to get scooped. But they weren't giving it. They weren't. There was no sense of a professional equality there.

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[Kavi Sarathi]

What were different examples of white journalists discouraging black journalists from telling their story to a national audience that you explore in your book?

[Gwyneth Mellinger]

So one of the really exciting discoveries for me as I was doing this research were the papers of Charles S. Johnson at Fisk University.

Which is a historically black institution in Nashville. And Johnson was a sociology sociologist at Fisk and then he became university president. He was a leading intellectual of his time. And one of the things I was struck when he was in biracial meetings, oftentimes he was clearly the smartest person in the room, but the white people who were there without fail treated him condescendingly at best. And it was just fascinating to see how white editors whose correspondence I also read talked about him behind his back and that sort of thing. But Johnson was, was very impressive. And what I found in Nashville archives were correspondence between him and Claude Barnett of the Associated Negro Press, which was.

Based in Chicago. And it was a content sharing, content sharing by mail service that.

Served black newspapers. And Johnson occasionally wrote columns for, for the Associated Negro Press. But he was, he was a sociologist writing books. He was on the way to becoming a universal president. And then at the end of World War II, he and Barnett up with the idea that perhaps Johnson could.

Write a column for the white daily newspapers. So we like Westbrook Pegler, who are syndicated to a whole lot of newspapers all over the country. There were at this point in time, at the end of World War II, no syndicated black columnists. We wouldn't get that until the 1960s. But they tried to sell a not sell, but they offered for free actually a column to white daily newspapers that would be written by Johnson, a.

Undisputed expert on race and sociology and then distributed by the Associated Negro Press. They had no takers, no newspaper. A few newspapers ran a few columns. One that sort of thing. Nobody would touched this concept in the 1940s. What this ended up doing was preserving the.

White daily press's opinion pages as a space that was controlled exclusively by white editors for white voices. There were occasional op ed pieces by people who were.

A black person now and then. But there was no one who was of Johnson's stature, no one who had regular access to white newspapers, as he and Barnett proved.

[Kavi Sarathi]

You explore the way a few prominent southern journalists were vital to understanding these years of journalism, notably Peglar, Dabney and Young. Could you explain to listeners what the roles were in the field at the time and why they were so influential to shape social thought and journalism standards at the time.

[Gwyneth Mellinger]

Westbrook Pegler was not a.

Southerner. He was a northern white ally. We would call him today an ally of.

The people who opposed integration. And he was a very interesting person. He.

Was. He was a conservative, but he also. And he was anti union. And he did win a Pulitzer Prize for his opposition to his editorials or columns opposing unionization. But he was. He had millions of readers a day. Through syndication in the 1940s and early years of the 1950s, he reached an amazing audience. And so when he came out in 1942 against the Black press, which he had only then discovered, he wasn't have not been a reader of it. And I would have loved to have known who brought it to his attention. But in any case, his syndicated column reached millions of people. And his attacks on the Double v campaign in 1942 as being unpatriotic. And his disparagement of the journalism standards of the black press were incredibly important because most of his white readers had never seen a black newspaper. And they were an urban thing, usually. And they also didn't circulate necessarily across the entire community. And then the. Also Virginius Dabney, who was an editor in Richmond, newspaper editor, and P.B. young senior, who was a editor and of a black newspaper in Norfolk. It was very interesting to see the dynamic between Dabney and Young because they were both from Virginia, yet they lived in completely different worlds because Dabney was a white man and Young was an editor of a black newspaper. And so then thinking in terms of what Dabney thought of the black press generally, it became pretty complicated. But all of these people figure in my story, the narrative, as being prominent thought leaders within these spheres in which they operated.

[Kavi Sarathi]

So.

And what was the most surprising thing that you learned while researching and while writing this.

[Gwyneth Mellinger]

That would have to be that. The correspondence archives that I found show clearly that journalists and editors who would not. White journalists and editors who would not have thought of themselves as racist were sometimes complicit with segregationists. And this because of the way that journalism standards.

Were manipulated. And even though people working in. White People working in newsrooms in the north would have did. Really were. May have been.

Offended to some degree by the Southerners, they gave them a hearing because the Southerners were claiming that the issue was really journalism standards and not Jim Crow. And so the way that this worked, and it worked fairly consistently throughout the period. My book has five chapters that have sort of anecdotes embedded in them.

And it's consistent across all of them that journalism standards are being manipulated in various ways that the people at the time would have. Would have not been able to see. And if it had been pointed out to them, they would have denied it.

Many of the white journalists and editors who supported Jim Crow saw themselves as noble, not as people with a racial agenda. And they would certainly never have embraced the idea that they had any kind of a racial conflict of interest, which is one of the sort of theoretical moves that my book takes. But I found the correspondence archive showing this hypocrisy to be really fascinating.

[Kavi Sarathi]

And lastly, what is something that you want readers to walk away with after they've read your book?

[Gwyneth Mellinger]

So much of my book is a counter narrative. And by that I mean that I'm foregrounding neglected or inverted history, Things that have been marginalized or erased.

In sort of the mainstream telling of history. And so, for example, in the chapter on the Southern Education Reporting Service, which was an effort funded by an arm of the Ford foundation to provide an objective. And they said objective. They wanted it to be an objective account of the.

South's response to Brown versus Board. And the.

Way that the SERS Southern Education Reporting Service has been described in histories of the press is that it was a bunch of white people who got together over cocktails at a professional convention to do a good thing for Southern journalism. And what I did instead in retelling the story was to push the white people who were having cocktails at the convention over to the side and then bring to the front the black people who actually suggested this concept before and had created a prototype for it during the Roosevelt administration and so forth. And these were.

Sociology, sociologists at Fisk University, and people affiliated with the black press who had been disparaged as not being, you know, necessarily objective or qualified or whatever the claims might have been. But I hope that readers will see that we don't necessarily.

That not to take history at face value. While.

I'm not going to necessarily say that the other histories are not.

Valid, I think that there will always be an opportunity for us to examine very critically standpoint. And by that I mean our own standpoints and a standpoint and the standpoints of others who are writing and interpreting history.

[Kavi Sarathi]

Well, thank you so much for your time. This was a truly fascinating read and I'm very excited for people to get their hands on it. Thank you for being here.

[Gwyneth Mellinger]

Thank you very much.

[Kavi Sarathi]

That was Gwen Mellinger discussing her book Racializing how the White Southern Press Used Journalism Standards to Defend Jim Crow.

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