Journalist Jerry Mitchell, a justice reporter for the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss., whose investigative reporting lead to the reopening of 1960s civil rights cases, is the next guest on Connections with Renee Shaw. The program airs Friday, Dec. 19 at 4/3 p.m. CT on KET2 and Sunday, Dec. 21 at 1:30/12:30 p.m. CT on KET1.
In 1989, Mitchell, inspired by the film Mississippi Burning, investigated the murders of several civil rights activists by the Ku Klux Klan. His work led to new evidence, arrests and convictions of several of those Klansmen. On the program, Mitchell talks about his efforts to bring Byron De La Beckwith, the Klan member who murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers, to justice. He discusses his research about the case, his fascinating face-to-face meeting with Beckwith and the intense moment in 1994 when the jury returned a guilty verdict.
Mitchell also talks about his style of journalism, which focuses more on fairness and truth than objectivity; his book, The Preacher and the Klansman, which follows the parallel lives of a black preacher and a violent Klansman; and his hopes for his screenplay about Emmett Till's murder.
Finally, Mitchell reveals that he is still collecting evidence in the case of the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi and explains why he keeps a photo of those victims as his computer screen saver.
Connections with Renee Shaw is a KET production, produced by Shaw and Carolyn Gwinn. More information about Connections, including streaming video, is available at www.ket.org/connections.
