Acknowledging inadequacies of press coverage of black Americans during this century, a study examined how a medium sized Ohio daily newspaper covered blacks before, during, and after the civil rights movement. Items concerning blacks in 66 issues of the Youngstown "Vindicator" from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s were studied, and the findings compared with those of similar examinations of four major newspapers: the "New York Times,""Atlanta Constitution,""Boston Globe," and "Chicago Tribune." The findings revealed that although the "Vindicator's" coverage during the early 1950s and mid-1960s was by several measures superior to that of the other four newspapers, the "Vindicator" did not make most of the positive changes in coverage the other papers instituted during the 1970s. The volume of coverage the "Vindicator" gave to black Americans, in proportion to the paper's total available news space, plummeted in the 1970s to half what it had been in the 1960s--almost to its 1950s level. This decrease in coverage was not found in the four major papers. In the 1950s, the "Vindicator" devoted a higher proportion of its total news space to coverage of black Americans than did any of the other four papers, but in the 1970s it provided the smallest percentage of coverage. Most of the other four papers studied increased considerably their attention to black problems in the 1970s, but the "Vindicator" continued to devote only about 3% of its coverage of blacks to obstacles facing black Americans in their struggle for equality of opportunity and justice. (HTH)