Memphis, Tennessee- On
May 3, 2006, Facing History and Ourselves and The Allstate Foundation
sponsored a Community Conversation with award-winning journalist Jerry
Mitchell to explore the role of the media in a democracy.
Mitchell, an investigative reporter for the Clarion Ledger
in Jackson, Mississippi, has spent his career investigating
long-unsolved crimes committed during the Civil Rights era. Mitchell's
stories helped convict Klansman Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963
murder of NAACP leader Medgar Evers and former Klansman Bobby Cherry
for the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four girls.
During the time these crimes occurred, there was often a conspiracy of
silence against speaking up-motivated by either a desire to protect the
perpetrators, or from fear of retaliation. Mitchell's work has gained
him national recognition including being a 2006 Pulitzer finalist and
the winner of the 2005 John Chancellor Award for Excellence in
Journalism.
A panel of media experts joined Mitchell to discuss the critical role
an independent media plays in protecting democracy. The panelists were
Otis Sanford, managing editor of The Commercial Appeal;
Jim Turpin, news director of Eyewitness News, ABC 24 and UPN 30, and
Dr. Jin Yang, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Journalism, University of
Memphis.
The event was the third in a series of Community Conversations offered in Memphis during 2005-2006 in which nearly 2000 students,
community members and teachers participated in dialogues about civic
responsibility and tolerance in ways that inspired people to think
about what they can do to strengthen their communities-both locally and
globally.
Community Conversations is a national speaker series offered by Facing History and The Allstate Foundation that examines issues of civic responsibility.
