Written by Abby J Kellett
Harding University graduateJerry Mitchellis not only an investigative reporter, but something similar to a lottery winner as well.On Sept. 22, theMaCarthur Fellows Programannounced that Mitchell is one of the 24 recipients of this year’s $500,000 no-strings-attached grants for his investigative journalism that brought justice to previously unsolved Civil Rights-era murders.”Mitchell’s reception of the McCarthur Fellows Program is among one of the biggest honors a Harding graduate has ever received,” Harding faculty member Dr. Miller said. The day after he was announced the winner of the award, despite the fact that he had more than 100 emails in his inbox from people wanting to interview him, he had a Skype (an alive program that can be used to make free video conference calls) date with Andrew Baker and Dr. Jim Miller’s Harding’s Christian View of Media Ethics class.
Through his projected image on the screen, Mitchell was able to answer students’ questions, recount numerous adventures from his journey throughout his career, and more importantly, explain how his faith has affected his work.
“The thing you’ve got to understand is as a journalist, 99 percent of the stuff that you write, nothing ever happens. I mean, don’t ever expect to write something and then magically people open the paper the next day and want to do something about it. But, I will tell you this: Persistence is important, and that’s the one thing I’ve learned.”
Mitchell spoke about persistence from experience; he dedicated the last 20 years of his life to tirelessly pouring over records and hunting down facts in order to put at least four Ku Klux Klansmen behind bars, including Byron De La Beckwith, for the 1963 assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers; Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers for ordering the fatal firebombing of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer in 1966; Bobby Cherry for the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four girls; and, most recently, Edgar Ray Killen for helping orchestrate the June 21, 1964, killings of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman.
The Christian View of Media Ethics class was not short on curiosity during the open discussion at the end of the period, but after answering several questions about his career Miller asked one final question:
“If you could leave our students with one thought, one piece of advice to these students that have a faith in a creator and a belief in a redeemer, and they are going out into the profession of journalism, if you could leave one thing with them, what would you say to them?”
Looking straight into the camera, Jerry Mitchell left the students in the Reynolds Center with one final thought.
“Well, there is such a thing as truth. I think that’s what our job is as journalists, to be committed to that truth. Journalism, in its ideal, is one of those noble professions, because we’re truth seekers, both as reporters and as Christians. What we’re trying to do, in a very simple manner, is move toward that.”
Mitchell said that winning the $500,000 gives him an opportunity take a leave of absence from his job reporting for the Mississippi newspaperThe Clarion-Ledgerand spend his time investigating new cases that he has found which are still unsolved.
