Believe it or not, people talk to one another in their communities.

We used to have a thing called journalism. While far from perfect it was a lot better than the sad caricature we have today.

Are people starting to forget how society worked before social media?

People would congregate and talk. They would go to church or participate in various clubs and social events where they would meet their peers and talk about happenings in their communities. Besides that there were a variety of publications where news would be posted in and spread such as local newspapers, magazines and periodicals.

Just make a black friend and I'm sure they'd tell you all about it.

Actually, this amazing trick still works to this day!

The internet didn’t invent human communication lmao.

the same way it'll be allowed to happen once we finish self imposing the AI based panopticon around ourselves -- word of mouth.

People make fun of trots and their newspapers, but that was one way.

News travelled at lightning speed through the telegraphic poles, see! A modern miracle, see! Faster than a printing press drawn by a score of horses. You won't believe it until you see it. Bet your bottom dollar!

White people mostly didn't. Black people talked to each other.

the news? i guess, back then it wasnt a corporate infested giaht ad campaign disguised as the news cycle. But that died together with most of journalistic integrity

Radio.

Emmit Till's coffin. No, but it was a lot worse back then. People were more violent in general. It was common for fights to break out. Gentility has always been reserved for the upper class. It was expected and the point that the lower classes got roughed up.

For a big part, they didn't. Of course in smaller circles people knew exactly what happened, but nationally it was denied or downplayed and covered up by the South. Until sometimes they couldn't. Like in the Emmett Till case, who was on a family visit from Chicago and was lynched in Alabama. This got a lot of media coverage nation wide for a change.