Written by Kylie Akins
Harding alumnus and investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell entered the ranks of the 24 MacArthur Fellows this year, receiving $500,000 of “no strings attached” money for his diligent work in unsolved Civil Rights-era cases.
So far, Mitchell’s work has aided in the conviction of four Klansmen who had remained unpunished for murders committed in the 1960s.
Even when Mitchell was working on his bachelor’s degree in journalism during the 1980s, his rebellious, truth-seeking spirit was already evident to classmates and teachers. Many remember him as “Boo,” a nickname he still responds to, with his orange suspenders covered in buttons, black top hat and bell-bottom jeans that he wore throughout his college career.
Dennis Organ, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, was one of Mitchell’s teachers at Harding and had a close relationship with him. He said he remembered Mitchell never backing away from tough issues, always confronting them head-on.
“I wasn’t very surprised when I heard later that he was doing this investigative reporting,” Organ said. “He had always seemed into interesting causes. Things that wouldn’t seem just or logical to him, he would write about them.”
Mitchell wrote satirical columns for The Bison newspaper as a student, including one memorable piece about cafeteria prices. He challenged anyone in the administration to eat with his meal ticket for a week, and faculty member Joe McReynolds took the dare, only to discover he couldn’t do it. Soon after, Harding began to offer a new meal ticket that would better accommodate students. Campus issues became his focus, his light-hearted satire commenting on such things as the campus’s former ban on sandals being comparable to the apostles wearing Nike.
In an article featured in the 2006 Harding Magazine, Mitchell connected his satirical student career to his current investigative reporter profession.
“I always saw satire as a way to comment on what was going on, hopefully in a humorous way,” Mitchell said in the 2006 article. “It wasn’t until I got older that I began to realize the connection between investigative reporting and satire – they’re both aimed at pointing out problems.”
Jerry Mitchell found his passion as an investigative reporter in 1989 with The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., reopening Civil Rights murder cases from the 1960s. His work helped convict Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Ever; Imperial Wizard Sam Bowers for his involvement in the fatal firebombing of NAACP leader Vernon Dahmer in 1966; Bobby Cherry for the murder of four girls in the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham church; and Edgar Ray Killen for his involvement in the murder of three Civil Rights workers, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman, in 1964.
Organ said he saw what Mitchell chose to do as a pure pursuit of justice, completely in harmony with the justice the Old Testament prophets and Jesus were often teaching about.
“It is an unpredictable or unlikely avenue for Christian service,” Organ said. “But to me it is so beautifully a Christian endeavor that he is engaged in. If you feel like integrating faith and work, it’s trying to bring God’s justice to the world in these cases. I’m very proud of him, and I’m glad to have known him and had him as a student.”
Mitchell has received more than 20 national awards, including being nominated as one of three Pulitzer Prize finalists in 2006. He was portrayed in the movie Ghosts of Mississippi in 1996 and has inspired many in other states to reexamine their own buried Civil Rights cases.
In the 2006 Harding article, Mitchell mentioned a particular case he was most proud of. It did not end in a conviction but rather exoneration. The case involved Clyde Kennard, an African-American farmer who was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit and died several years later in prison. Forty-six years after his imprisonment, a judge threw out Kennard’s conviction when Mitchell found in his investigation that Kennard had been framed.
Threatened several times throughout his career, he has continued his investigations diligently for more than 20 years.
“When people try to threaten or intimidate me, I guess it always redoubles my effort,” Mitchell said. “And of course my faith played an extremely important role in that. In Matthew 10 it says don’t fear those who can harm your body because obviously it’s our spirit that is more important. So I’ve always thought of that verse, and it’s given me comfort as I’ve done these cases.”
Mitchell said the things he has seen in these cases have strengthened his faith rather than sending it into crisis. The racial reconciliation he has witnessed, he said, has reaffirmed the forgiving and just nature of God to him.
His experiences unearthing truth, which was covered up to hide the numerous criminal acts of the Klu Klux Klan have continued to inspire his commitment to truth.
“I think we need people out there that are dedicated to the truth,” Mitchell said. “I think that’s what it’s all about. For a certain group of people, they think the truth is movable and malleable, that everybody has their own truth. Well that’s not truth. There is such a thing as truth. Someone is murdered; somebody killed them. That’s what I try to do as an investigative reporter, is to expose the truth.”
A radio show host once asked him how he could be a Christian and a journalist, as if it were an oxymoron. Mitchell responded that he saw no disconnect.
“Being a Christian and a journalist I see as synonymous because we are both truth-seekers,” Mitchell said. “We’re trying to find truth; we’re about the truth. As Christians, I think we have an advantage as a journalist because we do believe in things as absolute truths. And constantly that is something I strive for, is to try to dig up a truth. It’s not like I get it always correct or get every bit of truth, but I continue to work for that.”
As a successful alumnus, Mitchell has a great deal of experience to share with students. In a conversation with a communication class over Skype last week, he disclosed a truth he relied on as a journalist and person.
“Remain dedicated to the truth,” Mitchell said. “I think a lot of times people will try to distract you from that. They have their various motives and agendas, and you need to be aware of those. If you are faithful to truth and God, I think he will guide you and help you with that.”
Mitchell plans to use the money to work full-time on these cases and finish a book he has started on his experiences with the investigations.
“This may sound like an oxymoron, but there are some funny Klan stories I’ve got, so I tell those in the book,” Mitchell said. “But it’s more of tragic, poignant, moving things that have happened over this journey, over 20 years.”
The MacArthur Foundation awards fellowships to nominees who are exceptionally creative and make an impact in their field, which include writers, scientists, artists, humanists, teachers and entrepreneurs. The $500,000 is given to the recipients without any limitations of how it is to be used, but the fellowship is only given to those who have a great likelihood of continuing the work they excel in.
The foundation also is involved in dealing with issues concerning human rights, global conservation, security, urban progress and the effects of technology. From 1981 to 2007, 756 Fellows have been selected.
