Literatura citada.

On April 10, 1974, Matthew Perry opened his campaign for the U.S. House seat in South Carolina’s second district with a press conference in Columbia. On the morning of the event, the State ran a United Press International wire service story anticipating Perry’s announcement, and the following morning the newspaper published a staff- written article and photograph of Perry taken at the press conference. From the first article, the State limited the coverage to routine political campaign reporting, and the newspaper omitted the historic aspects of Perry’s campaign.145 The coverage

demonstrated that the newspaper treated Perry’s candidacy as a matter within the sphere of legitimate controversy. That is, the newspaper reporters were covering it according to the routines and norms for political campaigns.146

The immediate controversy was stirred up by a familiar figure on the South Carolina political scene. The state’s senior senator, Strom Thurmond, launched a

preemptive political attack on Perry and any other Democratic candidate in a fundraising letter for Republican Floyd Spence. As a result, Perry spent part of the news conference rebutting Thurmond’s allegations that Perry was an extremist and left-winger. At the news conference, Perry defined himself for reporters and their audience. The reporter                                                                                                                          

143 _{“Get Out From Under,” editorial, State, August 7, 1966, 14A.}

144 _{Dick Elliott, “Official Wants Case If S.C. Presses Suit,” State, August 8, 1966, 1B.} 145 _{Robert Liming, “Perry Challenges Spence for Seat,” State, April 11, 1974, 33.} 146 _{“Who’s covering — or not covering — our candidates?” Osceola, July 5, 1974, 3.}

treated Perry’s press conference as a discrete event and reported what the candidate said in prepared remarks and in answer to reporter questions. Notably, the reporter added little context outside the immediate political setting. For example, the article does not include the historical context that Perry was the first black candidate for Congress in the

twentieth century or the first black Democratic congressional candidate in the state’s history.147

In the report of Perry’s press conference opening his candidacy, the newspaper did allow Perry to identify himself for readers. In prior coverage, the newspaper variously identified Perry for readers as “Negro,” “Columbian,” “NAACP lawyer,” or “52-year-old black lawyer,” depending on the context. As with any self-definition in a public setting, Perry’s self-identifications, noted in the announcement article, offer a point-in-time insight into Perry, African American political activism, South Carolina politics, and national politics. Perry identified himself as a “liberal” politically and more

fundamentally as “an American.” Perry emphasized, “I was born in South Carolina, and I have spent my life here.”148 Perry continued by defining himself in contrast to the labels cast on him by Thurmond. After defending himself and his clients for two decades against accusations of Communist influence, Perry had to defend himself against charges of political extremism: “I categorically reject any labels of left-winger, or any other labels that would detract from my heritage as an American.”

Perry’s involvement with the NAACP and civil rights advocacy evidently remained controversial for the dominant press. At the press conference, Liming wrote that Perry “said he would not try and hide his long-time association with the civil rights                                                                                                                          

147 _{Robert Liming, “Perry Challenges Spence for Seat,” State, April 11, 1974, 33.} 148 _Ibid.

organization.”149 Before political advisor Harry Dent’s revision of Thurmond’s image, the senator had used segregationist language to cast African Americans and the NAACP activists as controlled by politically illegitimate outside forces. With the 1974 campaign letter, Thurmond attempted to preemptively identify Perry and any other opponent of Spence as politically extreme.

The congressional campaign ran from Perry’s April 10 announcement of his candidacy to the July 17 party primary nominations and through the November 5 general election. University of South Carolina professor Cole Graham also filed as a Democratic candidate, and the State reported on his candidacy. After the initial article reporting the launch of Perry’s campaign, the State published an analytical column in the news section before the end of the month. The piece by Washington bureau reporter Lee Bandy posed Matthew Perry as the likely victor in the Democratic primary and the most difficult challenger for Spence. The column included candidate photographs of equal size and prominence, a journalistic objective approach. Reinforcing the idea of Perry as an acceptable black candidate, the article identified Perry as “not a firebrand activist, the type that tends to alienate white voters.” The article granted anonymity to a source commenting on Perry’s candidacy, “a Democrat in the South Carolina congressional delegation” who told the newspaper, “Don’t sell Matthew short.” The article perpetuated two long-standing practices in State political journalism: granting anonymity to white officials to comment on African American politics and politicians and the offensive practice of white officials referring to African Americans by first name.150

                                                                                                                          149 _Ibid.

In contrast to the State’s coverage, the alternative political weekly Osceola

featured the campaign for the second district seat on its April 26, 1974, cover. In keeping with its emphasis on South Carolina politics, the tabloid emphasized the candidates’ ideology and announced on the cover “The ‘Leftists’ Are After Floyd Spence.” In a two- page spread inside the edition, the tabloid asked in its article headline, “Is anybody here a liberal?”151 and answered, “Well, not exactly . . .” In the article, the reporter added more biographical background about Perry and more social context about his campaign than did the State reporter. However, the newspaper also omitted the larger historical context of Perry’s campaign and treated it as part of an ideological contest between the

Democratic candidates and Republican Spence.

Black On News, the black power tabloid monthly newspaper, had other topics on its agenda and did not publish an article about Matthew Perry or the second district campaign in the newspaper’s editions from April through July even though the editor published a second, extra edition in July before the primary election and identified part of its mission as mobilizing readers for political activity such as registration and voting.

Black On News concentrated its articles on elections that a black candidate was expected to win, including a state House district race and a Columbia-area magistrate’s race. Black On News did not expect a Perry victory.