The press and “delusive theories of equality and fraternity” in the age of emancipation

Important insight into race relations during Reconstruction might be gained by examining racial ideologies present in newspaper content, as black and white Americans attempted to establish new social, political, legal, and economic relations in the aftermath of the end to slavery. Nine leading newspapers‐four in the North, two in border states and three in the South‐were examined for language about African American civil rights in coverage of three post‐Civil War amendments, passed in an attempt to guarantee black Americans the full privileges of American citizenship. Findings suggest that the diminishing concern for African American civil rights conveyed in Northern papers, coupled with the increasing language in border and Southern papers suggesting that blacks were not worthy of equal rights, likely thwarted growth of egalitarian racial attitudes among whites.