Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement Hardcover – February 25, 2013

"...a history of Booker's 65-year journalism career, which explains how blacks went from being completely ignored in the mainstream press to being the focus of heavy coverage of the civil rights movement, and the role of Booker's civil rights reporting in Jet magazine.

"Booker, a humble man with thick glasses, covered many major events during his long career, including many epochal civil rights moments, including the desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School, and the administrations of 10 presidents.

"'As one of the nation's leading black writers, he never seemed terribly impressed with the important role he was playing in journalistic history,' says Moses Newson, who worked as a reporter for the Afro-American newspapers and covered many of the same events."---Amber Larkins, American Journalism Review

"For three decades--from the dark days following the murder of Emmett Till in 1955 to the battles over busing and affirmative action in the 1970s--Simeon Booker was on the scene as a reporter, covering and commenting on the civil rights movement that transformed a nation. Now Booker has written a searing and eye-opening memoir that takes us back to that epochal time of struggle and sacrifice, when he and other brave journalists risked everything to record the death rattle of Jim Crow. Reading his eloquent words reveals the very soul of the struggle."

--Raymond Arsenault, the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, and author of Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice



"Shocking the Conscience is an indispensable and overdue book that fills an important gap in the history of the coverage of race in America. As the Washington bureau chief for Jet and Ebony during five decades, Simeon Booker knew everyone who mattered, went everywhere that news occurred, and covered every major story in the struggle for racial equality. As a journalist, Booker had a front-row seat to the full sweep of the history of civil rights. Now, his insider's eyewitness account adds a crucial perspective to the history of American journalism. Picking up where The Race Beat left off, Booker shows us the challenges of covering race in America from the vantage point of the most important African American news media of the day. Shocking the Conscience will be required reading for anyone who wants a full understanding of this transformation in our nation's history."

--Christopher B. Daly, associate professor of journalism at Boston University and author of Covering America: A Narrative History of a Nation's Journalism





"Simeon Booker lived and breathed civil rights and politics. As Jet magazine's Washington bureau chief, Booker, as he was affectionately known, covered every major political event affecting African Americans. He told our stories to our readers but in his own way--with honesty and humility."

--Linda Johnson Rice, chairman, Johnson Publishing Company



"Shocking the Conscience tells a story that needs to be told about the courage and determination of a black journalist during the civil rights era. Because of the relationship that developed with the family, Booker's coverage of the murder of Emmett Till in particular provides unique insights. Journalists, we often say, write the first draft of history; Booker's story behind the story holds up well."

--Jacqueline Thomas, former Washington bureau chief of the Detroit News



"One of our nation's greatest journalists, Simeon Booker's legacy is that of trailblazing reporter, radio commentator, author, and most of all, selfless and courageous advocate and defender of his people. I congratulate my dear friend, Simeon Booker, a preacher's son born in Baltimore, for another milestone in his career. In the pantheon of American journalism, he stands in the first tier."

--Congressman Charles Rangel



"Simeon Booker, renowned journalist, tells a riveting firsthand account of the civil rights movement. He vividly recounts the perils and violence he witnessed as civil rights leaders and organizers fought for the right of African Americans to vote, and brings back to life the giants of the civil rights era. In the wake of renewed voter suppression efforts, and the continued fight for equality, Shocking the Conscience reminds us of how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go. This book is a must-read for our newest generation of leaders."

--Congresswoman Barbara Lee



"Simeon Booker deserves enormous and emphatic accolades for his outstanding insights and his courageous involvement in the American civil rights crusade. His vivid portrayals and inspiring portraits absolutely capture those times and clearly point us in the direction of these times that still beckon freedom fighters."

--Congressman Bobby L. Rush



"Starting with his fascinating, inside account of the Emmett Till drama, Simeon Booker's Shocking The Conscience not only spans the civil rights movement, it serves as a testament to his role as a pioneer breaking color barriers in his own profession." -- Curtis Wilkie, author of The Fall of the House of Zeus

"I have not read a book on the history of the African American which I find more informative and enlightening than Simeon Booker's Shocking the Conscience. It is brilliantly written and will certainly become one of the valuable works in American history."

--George W. Haley, former U.S. Ambassador to The Gambia, West Africa

An unforgettable chronicle by the first full-time African American reporter for the Washington Post, and Jet magazine's White House correspondent for a half-century