JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Medgar Evers would have been 100 years old July 2nd. As the celebration of his legacy and hope for the future continues in Jackson, Friday, local and national journalists share the power of storytelling and civil rights.
Our own Howard Ballou was one of the panelists in a discussion on the role of the media in uncovering racial injustices and addressing the challenges of misinformation. Nikole Hannah-Jones, Anna Wolfe of Mississippi Today, and Jerry Mitchell, whose investigative work was instrumental in reopening the case against Byron De La Beckwith for the assassination of Evers, also discussed the influence of the media in shaping public understanding.
Talk show host Joy Reid says Evers was also a journalist who spoke with truth and courage.
Reid said, “I think for journalists we are in this moment where we don’t even have to show the amount of courage that Medgar Evers did, we just have to have the courage to articulate the truth. And that in and of itself is risky sometimes in this business, but we have to do it anyway. If people like Medgar can show intense physical courage in the face of Jim Crow, and being on the Klan’s most wanted list, we as journalists can have just the courage to speak, to speak out, to speak loudly and speak the truth.”
Reid also told Medgar Evers was a photographer. He ran a newspaper to ensure accurate information was shared about the civil rights movement and the NAACP…