Edmondson presents dissertation at AJHA conference
by Katie Annarino
Assistant Professor Aimee Edmondson recently presented her dissertation, "In Sullivan’s Shadow, the use and abuse of libel law during the civil rights movement," to members of the American Journalism Historians Association."New York Times Co. v. Sullivan" was the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1964 that established the actual malice standard. which has to be met before coverage about public officials can be considered to be defamation and libel. The case was key in allowing free reporting of the civil rights campaigns in the southern United States. It is one of the key decisions supporting the freedom of the press therefore changed the way reporters do their job.
Edmondson, whose dissertation was a finalist for The Margaret A. Blanchard Dissertation Prize, looked at what kind of cases were going through the courts during the 1960s. She found many other libel cases going through the courts when Sullivan was overturned in 1964. Southern courts took their time interpreting the meaning of that ruling.
“It took a long time and millions of dollars that the media had to spend defending themselves in southern courts, but eventually Sullivan was instrumental,” according to Edmondson.
Edmondson did both legal and historical research. She read through personal papers, court cases and available archives. She spent time looking through the National Archives and reading numerous personal papers of plaintiffs and defendants,“archival material ... vital for historial research,” according to Edmondson.
She also got the chance to read items that hadn’t yet been processed. “Your sitting in this big room with personal papers of these journalists,” said Edmondson.
The fact that many cases she was researching were state cases meant she had to dig. “That was fun. It was a lot of needle in a haystack.”
Edmondson spent a month traveling in the south doing archival research and found roughly thirty cases that provided enough evidence to make the argument that “had Sullivan not been overturned it would have been catastrophic, not only for The New York Times but for the rest of the northern media.”
Edmondson’s interest in this topic has lead her to expand upon her research to produce a book. She plans to travel this summer and do more archival research, to “try and drill down a little more for more detail.”
She hopes to finish her book in the next 2-3 years.
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