Barbas on How the Civil Rights Movement Rewrote Freedom of the Press

Samantha Barbas, University of Iowa College of Law, is publishing How the Civil Rights Movement Rewrote Freedom of the Press in volume 45 of Humanities (Fall 2024). Here is the abstract.

In 1960, a civil rights organization placed a fundraising ad in the New York Times seeking donations for the legal defense of Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists. The ad described violence that had been committed by segregationists against civil rights protesters in Montgomery and other southern cities. Its publication led to a multimillion-dollar libel suit that produced the most crucial Supreme Court decision protecting freedom of speech and freedom of the press. On the sixtieth anniversary of New York Times v. Sullivan, when many are asking the Supreme Court to reconsider or to overrule Sullivan, it is important to recall the history of the case and the lessons that it can teach us about the importance of freedom of speech to the pursuit of democracy and civil rights.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.