This event is just over an hour. Jerry good evening. My name is charles lewis, professor and executive editor of the investigative workshop. Welcome to the American University school. This important event tonight is cosponsored by the au School Coalition and black alumni alliance. The investigative reporting workshop is an awardwinning mission of the black alumni alliance. To create a lifelong and Worldwide Community among more than 6000 hundred au alumni who identify with the black in African Heritage committees through increased opportunities for meaningful engagement through the goal of meaningful awareness, pride, participation, involvement and philanthropic commitment to American University. We are pleased to have a number of Alliance Members here tonight, including Alliance President Gordon Andrews, fletcher will make some president Gordon Andrews. He will make some remarks at the end of our program. It is our distinct honor and pleasure and privilege to welcome courageous, teenagers investigative tenacious investigative journalist, Jerry Mitchell. Jerry mitchell has investigated some of the most heinous civil rights crimes in u. S. History. He was an Investigative Reporter at the clarion ledger newspaper for 30 years. His stories have helped put 4 ku klansmen and a suspected serial killer behind bars. His stories have also exposed injustices and corruption prompting investigations, reforms of state agencies and the firings of boards and officials. His stories have also helped lead to the release of two people from mississippis death row. A winner of a 500,000 macarthur genius grant and more than 30 other national awards, including being named a Pulitzer Prize finalist, he is finishing his memoir, about his pursuit of civil rights cold cases. His book is entitled race against time for simon and schuster. He is cofounder and director of the Mississippi Center for investigative reporting. Sherri williams is assistant professor here at the American University school of communications. Dr. Williams has a masters degree and phd from the syracuse University School of public communications, and earlier, a degree in english with a concentration in journalism from Jackson State University in mississippi. Interestingly, she also worked for a few years at the clarion ledger newspaper in jackson, mississippi. As a professor and media researcher, her work focuses on how marginalized groups, especially women of color, are portrayed in the media. She is eating a study that explores how black millennials are affected by seeing images of Fatal Police Brutality against black people in social media. Without further ado, Jerry Mitchell will now talk and show some photos about his remarkable civil rights reporting these past three decades. After that, dr. Sherri williams will ask him about his important, courageous reporting, and then we will open it up to questions from the audience. You are on. [applause] jerry thank you so much. I appreciate it, chuck. Thank you, American University. Im looking forward to talking to you, dr. Sherri. It is great to be with you all. We are going to talk about a couple of cases that i have worked on. You may heard about these cases in the news. One of them you may have heard about and one you may not have heard about. It follows medgar evers. Medgar evers was involved in fighting at normandy in world war ii, fighting the nazis and returned home to mississippi to fight racism all over again in to find a racism all over again, in the form of jim crow. That barred africanamericans from restaurants, restrooms. Sometimes people say the Civil Rights Movement began with brown v. Board of education. That is a lie. It began far before that. And medgar evers was among those in thosenvolved campaigns. He was part of the campaign in the mississippi delta where they had bumper stickers that said dont buy gas, or you cant use the restroom. ,e was part of that campaign along with dr. Howard, who worked on the emmett till case. So he came from from world war andnd on his first breath he came home from world war ii and went to try to vote at the courthouse in decatur, mississippi, and was turned away by white men with guns. Medgar evers said in recalling that day, i vowed that day and would never be whipped again. So he applied, believe it or not, to the university of mississippi to attend law school. He was turned away. This is again before brown v. Board of education and before James Meredith ended up becoming the first known africanamerican student there. There actually was an africanamerican student before then, but he wasnt known, much to ole misss chagrin later on. [laughter] anyway, but he became field secretary for the naacp in mississippi. He roamed the state of mississippi, put about 40,000 miles a year on his oldsmobile. He went to naacp branches, got involved in voting rights, he was involved in the protests and sitins that took place in downtown jackson, including the he wasnt involved in the siddons, but he was involved in the organization of students. We have one of them with us tonight. [applause] and then mike is here, he wrote a book about that. Glad to have you all here. [applause] if youhat iconic photo, have ever seen it, the most sitin response to a si in the United States during the early 1960s. Medgar, on the same night that president kennedy told the nation that the grandsons of slaves were still not free, medgar evers came home that night just after midnight and was shot in the back in his own driveway. His wife, children heard the shot, ran outside and saw his blood and screamed. He was pronounced dead within an hour. 26 years later, im standing with his assassin. This is a picture outside the shooters home in tennessee. I want there to visit him. I came because i was obsessed. I dont know if you are like me, but if someone tells me i cant have something, i want it a million times worse. There was something in mississippi called the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission which was a state segregation spy agency that existed from the 1950s until the 1970s. The mississippi legislature, at that point voted in the 1970s to seal all of those records for 50 years. Im talking about more than 132,000 pages of records that were sealed by mississippi lawmakers. And me, being a cynical and suspicious reporter thought, i bet there is something in there. [laughter] so i began to develop sources that accessed the files, they began to leak me the files. What they showed was at the same time the state of mississippi was prosecuting byron for the killing of medgar evers, this state Sovereign Commission which by the way was headed by the governor, was secretly assisting his defense, trying to get him acquitted. Nobody knew that. My story ran october 1, 1989. At that time my story ran, the odds were literally more than one million to one against the case ever being reopened. But the widow of medgar evers believed and prayed, and some Amazing Things happen. A couple years later, Jackson Police were cleaning out a closet happened to find a box that had crime scene photographs of the killing of medgar evers, including the fingerprint of Byron Beckwith lifted from the murder weapon. She showed me a copy of a Court Transcript she had saved in a safe deposit box. A few months after that, the prosecutor in the case found the murder weapon in his fatherinlaws closet. Which sounds like i am making it up, i know, but it really did happen. [laughter] as i mentioned, i went to visit Byron Beckwith, he lived in tennessee. I want to visit him in april of 1990. I can honestly say that he was the most racist person i ever went serious time with. Nword this, nword that. That he started on other nonwhite races. He was very antisemitic as well. He believes that jews were satanic. By the end of the conversation, i felt like i needed a bath. It was one of those conversations. It was getting dark. I thought it was a good time to leave. [laughter] so he insisted on walking out to the car. Walking me out to the car. I am like, really . That is ok. Find my i think i can way. [laughter] the just at the end of driveway. So anyway, he walked me out to to the car,s me out blocks my way to the door and says, if you write positive things about white caucasian christians, god will bless you. Write negative things about white caucasian christians, god will punish you. Not punish you directly, several individuals will do it for him. [laughter] so his wife had made me a sandwich. [laughter] i think you can guess what i did with the sandwich. So byron was indicted in december of 1990. This is months later. He is indicted in the murder of medgar evers. Remember, this is all preinternet. Byron did not realize i was the one that wrote the story that got the case reopened when i went and visited him. He fought extradition. By this time, he had figured it out. He saw me across the courtroom and goes, see that man over there, when he dies, he is going to africa by Prime Minister may [laughter] when he does hes going to africa [laughter] i turned to my friend and said, i have always wanted to go to africa. Not surprisingly, byron was invicted on february 5 1994, the exact same courtroom few had been tried in almost 40 years to the day. When the word guilty ran out, you could hear the waves of joy as they cascaded down the hall until it reached a foyer of people, black and white, they just erupted in cheers. And i just felt chills because the impossible had suddenly become possible. Medgar evers wife and her daughter cheered as well. Not too long after byron was indicted in 1990, i met with this lady. This is ellie damer, she is the widow of vernon damer. She is holding a photograph of vernon damer. Damer was an naacp leader in mississippi, friends with medgar evers, was a farmer, businessman, he had like 200 acres that they grew con and other crops with they grew cotton and other crops with. He was very dedicated to growing rights. In fact, that is how he became a target of the klansmen back in that she was very dedicated to voting rights. He was very dedicated to voting rights. In fact, that is how he became a target of the klansmen back in 1966. The clan attacked him and his family in the middle of the night. Can you imagine being sleeping in the middle of the night and this is what it was like for vernon and his family attacked , at 2 00 in the morning. The ku klux klan firebombed their home, set their house on fire. They began firing their guns into the house. Damer woke up, grabbed his shotgun, ran to the front of the house and began firing back at the klansmen so his family could escape safely out of the back window. Unfortunately, the flames of the fire seared his lungs and he died later that day. A few weeks later in the mail came his Voter Registration card. He had fought his whole life for the right of africanamericans to vote but never been able to cast a ballot himself. By the way, this is what his son said he had four sons at the time in the military, and this is what they came home to. In fact vernon damer, six of his , seven sons served a total of 78 years of service for this country. Isnt that amazing . Heartbreaking photo. A bit ofe way, trivia, this photograph was taken by chris mcnair. I dont know if you know who that is, he is the father of denise mcnair, who is one of the four little girls who was killed in the Birmingham Church bombing. He took this photograph. The guyg s of vernon damer in his home was this guy, his name is sam bowers, the head of the white nights and the kkk, responsible for at least 10 killings in mississippi that we know of. Bowers had been tried but never convicted in this case. After the vernon damer family met with me, they went and met with the District Attorney, who acted interested and that then, over time, got cold feet. He had an excuse and when that he had another excuse and then when that got taken care of, he had another excuse, so you get the picture. Then, another District Attorney came in and it was like starting over from square one. It looks like nothing was going to happen. I got a fellowship to ohio state to go get my masters. To let me get my masters for free, thought that was a good deal. Im literally in ohio in spring and i get a telephone from this guy who wouldnt identify himself or give me his name, but he wanted to meet me. So i flew back to mississippi and met with him. A buddy of his, two sons of vernon damer, we met in this el room b of chlorine edtel room that reek of chlorine. The pool was right outside. It turned out this guy had worked for sam bowers. He was the guy who kind of type propaganda,n because i guess no one else in how to type. So he overheard sam bowers give the orders to kill vernon damer. So he told us that. He met with the District Attorney and the case got in 1997. The guy who had been the key witness in the 1960s with this guy, Billy Roy Pitts. He had been involved in the killing for vernon damer. He planned guilty to the murder, and got a federal sentence. And then his sentence was overturned. So i was researching how much tsme guys like pit actually served in prison in mississippi. Because it was a bit of a joke. Governors pardoned some of these guys. The ones who were convicted didnt spend much time in prison. I was researching each one of those and it got to him. I couldnt find any record of his state time, but i was told he went into the federal Witness Protection Program. So i was checking with the federal bureau of prisons to see how much final time he did. How much federal time he did. She pulled his file, and i said, how much did he actually served, and she said, three and a half years. I said, i understand that he left federal prison and went into the Witness Protection Program. She said that is impossible. I said, what are you talking about . She said, there was no federal Witness Protection Program back then. Which meant, Billy Roy Pitts had never served a single day of his life sentence in mississippi. Kind of a big oversight, right . You dont hear about that one everyday. I didnt know is pitts was if pitts was alive, if he was dead, where he was. So i got on the internet. Most of the internet sites i knew, you have to have a city and state. I didnt know that. I just kind of typed in his name , and up a pop, Billy Roy Pitts there was his address and telephone number. So i called him. The first 20 minutes of the conversation went like this how did you find me . How did you find me i said, it is there on the internet. I guess you have to take it up with them. As a result of my story that he had never served a single day of his life sentence, mississippi authorities issued a warrant for his arrest. He didnt like that. [laughter] in fact, he ran. While he was on the run he sent me this audio cassette and i played it and this is literally how it began. Jerry, i just thought i would let you know, you have ruined my life. But i promise, if i talk to anybody, i would talk to you. So here is this tape to riyadh and on the tape, he proceeds, and it is all about his involvement, and his involvement in all the violence, in the vernon damer murder. Shortly after this, he turns himself in to authorities. This leads to the arrest of sam bowers. This was in may 1998. In addition with sam bowers was arrested his righthand guy. His name was devers nicks. When his family brought him in, it was like most it a full site you had ever seen. They wield a man in front of the judge and you can see the oxygen tank, and they take him to the judge and he is like, i cant take more than a couple of steps without needing oxygen, judge. The judge says, i will let you out without bond. A dozen days later, this is like a reporters, this is where we caught him. [laughter] so we got arrested. Yes, he loves me. Fast, sam bowers goes to trial. This who is there to testify in his behalf but mr. , golfer. Devers knicks is talking to his lawyer. I dont mean this as a cruel detail, but im going to tell you this anyway. So his lawyer was this really good criminal defense lawyer back in the 1960s, but at this point, the guys in his 80s. I thought, thats great. But the reason for that little detail would be more apparent later. He is talking and trying to work in a signaling system. I know all of yall are probably like me, you watch the cop shows such as csi. You know you can claim your fifth amendment right at any time. Even if you are on the witness stand. Trying to work out a signaling system on this. He is talking to his client saying, devers, when you get up there, you need to take the fifth. Im going to raise my hand. Devers is like, ok. Ok. By the way, devers is wearing the same golf cap, which just cracks me up. So he gets up and starts testifying, i looked over at his lawyer about five minutes later, his lawyer was like [laughter] so divers kept right on testifying. Yeah, i was in the klan. He tried to put a positive spin on it, like there is one. You know . The klan was a Benevolent Organization passing out for baskets to the needy in christmas. Under crossexamination, the prosecutor got up and said, mr. Knicks, just how many for baskets did you pass out . Rs said, just [laughter] one. I swear it was the funniest trials i have ever covered in my life as a reporter. Deadly serious matter, but funny trial. Sam bowers was representative of the klan. The guy on the right travis , buckley. He was not just a lawyer for the clan, he was a leader in the clan. He was actually indicted in the vernon damer firebombing at one point. Billy roy pitts testified about this planning meeting that took place prior to the attack on vernon damer and his family. Buckley asked him about it. He said, now, mr. Pitts, who was there at the planning meeting . Who says, lets see, i was there, sam bowers was there, oh, you were there Prime Minister may um,buckley is like, objection, your honor . I have covered a lot of trials in my life and that was the only time a witness had implicated the defense lawyer himself. [laughter] so not surprisingly sam bowers was convicted, august 21, 1998. The thing is, the hate that caused this, if we are really honest in this country, it has never really gone away. It wasnt just a few years ago , right, that a young man walked into this church in charleston and killed these nine beautiful people. And it wasnt that long ago either down in charlottesville, right, that we had happened what we had happened. Which isfar from here, easy to think it doesnt happen around here. Ofelf, i have had my share Death Threats and things like that. People said they have pictures of me and my family and knew where we lived and things like that. And sure, that is disconcerting, you never want to hear things at that. But it led to an unexpected gift, and that is the gift of living fearlessly. Living fearlessly is not about living without fear. Its about living fearlessly is really about living beyond fear, isnt it . Its about living for something greater than ourselves, right . To date, there have been 24 convictions in these civil rights cases across the country. [applause] i am a person of faith, and i do believe that gods hand has been involved in these cases. But the most amazing thing i have witnessed actually has not been the convictions, which might surprise you. The most Amazing Things ive witnessed have been some of the racial reconciliation. Not too long after sam bowers was convicted, billy ray pitts testified in a hearing. When he got done, he walked to the back of the courtroom and he ran into mrs. Damer. And Billy Roy Pitts apologized to mrs. Damer and asked her to forgive him for killing her husband. And she forgave him. And she began to cry. He began to cry. Is in that really what its all about . Redemption . Even when they have gone so terribly wrong in the past . May god bless you in your journey of redemption. Thank you so much. [applause] this is my contact information, in case you want it. Every day on facebook and twitter i post, today in civil rights history, if you are so inclined. Email me. U sheri hello. Jerry good to see a fellow fellow alum. Sheri yes, it is a regular clarion reunion. I want to start off asking you a question about one of the biggest stories that you covered along the way, which was the release of the records for the Sovereignty Commission. Jerry yes. Sheri and you mentioned to the audience before and just to remind folks, it was a state agency that was set up specifically to spy on people working towards dismantling White Supremacy in the state of mississippi. You spent a lot of time focusing on the Sovereignty Commission. Jerry i did. Sheri and how the state itself had a real serious role in maintaining oppression in mississippi. You also mentioned how they were judges, sheriffs and all sorts of people in different positions of power working to make sure that not only were people punished, but also that they could continue to do this. Talk about how important it was to show how the state as a government body played a strong role in making sure that all of this could continue to happen, and also maybe for some of the reporters and students in here, talk about how important it is to still make those connections today in journalism. Jerry sure. I think that was part of what i was trying to do. I kind of first got these leaks in segments. In 1989. Then, by the end of 1989, i loaded up my little honda hatchback with about 2400 pages of Sovereignty Commission records. I always called them the Sovereignty Commissions greatest hits. That is the kind of things they showed. They got people fired from their jobs, they would smear them, they would smear civil rights workers with the hope of driving them out of the state or rendering them ineffective and things like that. They spied on my drivers in 1958 medgary spied on my driver evers in 1958, and they tried to catch him in an illegal act. Just because they wrote it down doesnt make it true. A lot of times they would go and harass someone. If you read the record, it would be like, we went and talked to so and so. No, they didnt just go and talk to so and so. The Sovereignty Commission have had two arms. One was a propaganda arm. So they would send white speakers who would willingly volunteer, send them up north, and then they would send black speakers, unbeknownst, it wasnt public knowledge, that were being paid. They would go north end they would say the same thing, which would be, oh, we love subrogation, we love jim crow, we went to keep it the way it is. Obviously, the records themselves reflected what was really going on. We love segregation, we love jim crow, we want to keep it the way it is. Obviously, the records themselves reflected what was really going on. The other part, the Sovereignty Commission itself was all of the top leaders of State Government that were a part of the Sovereignty Commission, the lieutenant governor, the state treasurer, all of the major offices were a part of that Sovereignty Commission as well as others. They would share information. I will give you a simple example. The Sovereignty Commission spied on mickey and his wife rita three months prior to the clan klan killing them. So you would think, oh, they spied on him. Here is what happened. They did these spy reports on what all they were doing and driving around in, their license tag number. All this stuff, they gave it to the Meridian Police department, which you dont necessarily think anything about that, except when i tell you this, more than half the Meridian Police department were in the kkk. In fact, one of the main shooters in the murder party of the three civil rights workers was alan wayne roberts, whose brother lee was on the marine on the Meridian Police department. You follow i am saying . There was a very close connection between the Sovereignty Commission and sheri there was almost no distinction. Jerry correct. Sherri i want to talk about the storytelling a little bit, and specifically sources. Because i know that you have a very strong relationship with meryl lee evers that goes beyond just a reporter covering a trial. I think your work has been really important because if anyone knows the history of the clarion ledger, when all this was happening, before it was called the clarion ledger, and it was owned by the hamerman family, we talked about the state being complicit and allowing all this brutality to exist. Before he became the clarion ledger, it was really a strong proponent of segregation. When you were doing these stories, 20, 30 years later, it was probably the first time you actually ever really heard the of theof the survivors people who were killed. Can you talk about how you were able to even develop those relationships when these people were alive and they knew years wasre that this paper ignoring everything that was happening, and even supporting it, and then, later you were coming to do these stories. How were you able to do that and develop those relationships . Jerry great question. I wish meryl lee were here to answer these questions. I began to develop a relationship with her and her family. I think she just trusted me over time. I think initially it was like, boy up to,s whiteboard u white which i would say the same in that context. The history of the clarion ledger and the jackson daily that helped with getting the Sovereignty Commission. Andid a paper ourselves exposed what the clarion newspaper was doing at the time. The were killing stories are running stories at the request of the Sovereignty Commission. So we published all about. That was one thing i said to the editors, we have to publish this. If someone is going to publish this at some point, i thought we needed to do it. Actually, i wanted us to do an editorial and apologize. I didnt convince them on that point, but i still think it wouldve been the right thing to do. Sherri you talked about redemption a little bit earlier. It seems as if the state of mississippi and other Southern States are not only trying to express some redemption or at least come to grips with the horrible and violent legacy that they have in terms of civil rights by actually celebrating the history, by. Cknowledging it and there is a series of national and state markers. There was of a recent opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. But part of the redemption and reconciliation is because there have been actual convictions. Jerry yes. Sherri because of the work you have done. Can you talk about what you feel about how your work fits into the legacy of the history of mississippi . Jerry i think what is important is, the first thing, before you have reconsidered he is in, to have truth. You have got to have truth. Before you have reconciliation, you have to have truth. You have got to have truth. I think it has been part of the problem, that the truth hasnt been told. How many students learned about this in school. I think that is one of the reasons i do this on my Facebook Page and twitter page is because every day when i post these things, im kind of amazed by how many people, both black and white say, i never knew this. Its history, as i always put it, its not just black history, this is American History. I am amazed by how it is just not being taught. The Civil Rights Movement often gets reduced to this in schools, that rosa parks sat down and Martin Luther king stood up. You know what i mean . That is kind of what happens, the way it gets taught. But what gets left out for example is rose or parks wasnt actually the first one to refuse to give up her seat. There were four before her clock coleman was one of the first one, she was only 15 years old. Ladies,ether, those for their work led to the historic lawsuit that resulted in the desegregation of city buses, but people dont know their names. So to me, that is important. Of just know the names Martin Luther king, as we shared, or rosa parks, as we should, but to know the names of the stories of so many others. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum i can say this, i feel like it is excellent. Who else has been to the Civil Rights Museum in mississippi, anybody . Several have been there. I think it is excellent, among the regional Civil Rights Museums. Obviously, the one here in d. C. Is superb. Sherri you talked a little bit about earning the trust of your sources. I thought it was really interesting when he said that meryl lee evers and others were wondering, what is this white trying to do . Why should i trust him . Who is he . One of the things that our students are thinking about here and we are having them think consciously about is their position in his stories, and their identities, the intersection of their identities and the power they possess, regardless of what those identities are, and how that can affect the storytelling. The way they can even approach people, and how to approach people. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about your position as a white journalist, a white man journalist writing the stories and how that came into play while you are doing this work. Jerry on one hand, it might have been a detriment from a standpoint of relating to meryl lee evers and others. On the other hand, it was maybe an asset from the perspective of, byron would have never talked to me if i had been a black journalist. So i had that advantage. Im a southerner. We have the picture in the dictionary of the white wasp, that would be me. Those accounts. So i think he used those to your i thinkn aspects you use those to your advantage in aspects. I think also what helped me was meryl lee evers could see that i was honest and i was trying to tell the truth in all the stories i did. And she trusted me, she began to trust me pretty quickly, once ,he began to see the stories and saw what my quotes with her and our conversations. That is what happens, i think anyway. You begin to have these conversations with resources. With your sources. This will sound strange, but people who have been longtime reporters know what im talking about. You begin to have conversations beyond the story. You begin to find out about people and they begin to find out about you as people. And i think those other connections we have to begin to have before people begin to trust us. I mentioned, truth has to come first. The other thing is, if justice is possible, we work toward that. Then, that is when he can begin we conciliation. I dont think it can happen before then. Until thereis told, is justice or some kind of a mans, we conciliation can take place. Sherri i want to ask you one more question before we open it up to the audience. For students who are interested in doing this kind of work, not necessarily civil rights, but social justice and Racial Justice kind of journalism, what advice do you have for them . I think there are people that they are modeling their careers after. I know for me, i was a sophomore at jackson state in 1994 during the byron trial and seeing your work in the paper every day was really inspirational for me. Are there any ideas that you can, suggestions you can share the things they probably need to be doing, skills they need to sharpen or even journalists they should follow, and books or series to read . Jerry wow. [laughter] i dont know if i can answer that all at once. I will try my best. For me, personally, it became woodward and bernstein. I read all the president s men. Oneone had given me advice studying how they use attribution. Good advice and that became a primer for me. I think there are so many talented journalists. I know there is a website now investigating power, which i recommend. Go and look at those videos of some tremendously talented journalists. There are a lot of modernday ones like Nicole Hannah jones , people like that who do tremendous work. And essays. Follow the people you like and who you want to imitate. I think that is what you do. You follow their work, you read their work, you learn from them. They kind of become your teachers that way. Sometimes we think, oh, i have to be formally taught by somebody. You can read somebodys work and be top by somebody. That is a good way to begin to work. Ok, here is someone, i really like their writing, why is it that i like their writing, and i can study it. I think they can learn. The students can learn from all levels, from reading lots of peoples work, hopefully. Sherri lets open it up to the audience for questions. Thank you so much for coming here. You touched upon charlottesville. There was a frontpage story this weekend i dont recall if it was the Washington Post or the New York Times onecting the elusiveness of sunglasses and one red beard, highresolution pictures. Good pictures. Could you share insight as to how bad people like that can be so elusive in terms of being captured . Jerry that is a great question. That is probably a question for Law Enforcement. I am like you, im kind of baffled by this whole thing. I dont know. You would think that that would be more easily solvable in those situations. The other part is, i dont understand in general sometimes why Law Enforcement doesnt take advantage of media along those lines. There is a power to be had. I think sometimes they dont take advantage. You used to see a lot more of that, where they would put out photos or sketches, help us find this person, that kind of thing, and the press would eagerly disseminate it. I dont know that i have an answer for it. Star. My name is i am a senior here at American University. My question for you, especially being in the midst of these cases while they were happening and when they were new conversations, did you have anybody in your life who dropped you because of your deciding to be an ally to these communities that didnt have that privilege they had. And also, is there advice even give to others and how to be a good ally . Jerry that is a great question. Yes, overtime, that happened. Once i had done the medgar evers case, that became a means by which people might have seen it and went, oh, you are the same reporter who worked on such and such. It does help to know these other families. That is by the daimler family amer family came to me, was because of the evers case. The main thing with the families, regardless of skin color is for there to be trust. You when you talk to them, are quoting them accurately, you are representing their views accurately, all those kinds of things. That, in my opinion,s how you begin to build trust. They see that you are not trying or misrepresent what they are saying, things like that. You begin to have these longer conversations and you find out what all the family has been going through. This is a way of i think of anything with sources or whatever, you begin to find out as much information as you can without necessarily intending to publish everything they tell you. Ok . Then you begin to work them onto the record. There may be something that has happened or information. I will give you an example. With the vernon damer family, it is kind of an aside, kind of interesting, but vernon damers father was actually a white man and he lived his whole life as a black man. Very interesting, right . But that was not something they told me the first time i showed a story they told me after years of beginning to trust me. But i thought it was a fascinating story. I am on a given you parts of that story, but it is a fascinating story. Vernon damer was he on the one who stayed. The whole rest of the family moved and left mississippi. For whiteem passed up north. It which is another whole interesting saga as well. Those are the kinds of stories you find out over time. And why, because the family tost you and they begin share information. Like i said, you have all this information and then gradually said, is this something you would be comfortable talking about in a news story . You dont literally jump in and say, hey, i will do a story on this. You get them to trust you. Like a source. Lets just take it aside from these families. You go and talk to a source, say someone you are interviewing for an article. And they dont want to talk on the record, they just want to talk off the record, or on background. Lets say background. So you get that information from them and you go back through your quotes and you find the most innocuous quote they gave you. Thisse, people want to information out, otherwise, they wouldnt be talking to you. You pick the most innocuous quote and go, would you be willing to say that on the record . Can i just get you to say that on the record . Ok, you can quote me on that. Then you go to the next quote, and the next quote, then you go to the quote you really want to get them on the record on. Sometimes you can move them like that. Whereas if you dont have anything, if they say, i will not talk to you at all on the say, ok, well, i am not going to talk to you, instead, it is better to get the information from them and then gradually try to move them on the record. To me that is a valuable way of doing it. You with the families, begin to find out information but you dont indicate publish it. Best you dont immediately publish it. You gain their trust. They know that you can do a good job and they trust you with it. Sherri i think we have time for one more question. I would like your perspective as somebody who has observed a lot of litigation for a long time on the future of prosecution as a remedy for civil rights and other social justice issues, particularly law , we understand that much of prosecution in civil rights in the late 20th century was mostly the domain of impact litigation, legal aid organizations and other things. In the past few years or so, there seems to be the state of the art progressing towards things like elected offices, municipal prosecutors, das, that sort of thing. Can you flesh it out as your understanding, what do you think the next 10 years of prosecution for civil rights remedies is going to be like . Jerry i just want to make sure im understanding your question. With regard to what civil rights aspects are you talking about . Like the cases i have been working on or are you talking about civil litigation . Just want to make sure. I would say the cases you are working on, that is good. Lets stay there. Jerry ok. If you are talking about criminal prosecutions, think the window is almost closed. There may be another case out there that i dont know about. Heres why. The suspects are dead or the witnesses are dead. That is why im saying, you kind of have to move from truth to justice where possible. And where justice is impossible, which is where we are in this situation, then he have to move on from prosecution. So what do you do . I think then you have to move what did south africa do in this situation . They set up truth and reconciliation. The idea behind that in that case was, you come forward, you tell the truth about what happened, and we are not going to secure. But you have to tell the truth in order to do that. I betd envision something happening at some point, i dont know under what auspices that would be, but i could foresee that with these particular kinds of cases because i dont see that many other prosecutions happening from this particular era. Later, there might be, but for the 60s, 50s and 60s im talking about. Sherri i think that is about time. Do you mind one more question . Ok. I guess, two then. Here, then, the gentleman in the back with a hat. My question is, what do you do when you cant push the source to go on the record and it is something extraordinarily consequential . My second question is five years , go by, 10 years go by, 15 years go by, is there an instance that haunts you that was consequential, something you cannot report and had to ,ersonally handle as a reporter and as an individual as well . Jerry to be honest, i havent had it happen. You are talking about some huge revelation that i couldnt get someone i have had some revelations, but not anything that was so huge like a confession or Different Things like that that would tear you up. You would feel at some point an obligation as a citizen almost to report it. I havent had it. Ive been very fortunate. Jerry, how are you . Jerry doing great. Great. In regards to what the gentleman here was speaking about, what about Carolyn Bryant . She is very much alive. Jerry she is very much alive. That is a great question. I will try to answer this. I know im supposed to answer this brief, but i will try my best. Just follow me on this real quick. So Carolyn Bryant, and the reason we know this, Carolyn Bryant is a woman who emmett till reportedly whistled at right . So she gave a statement literallyense lawyers a couple of weeks before the trial of her then husband and his half rather who were involved, who killed emmett till. So anyway, her original statement to the defense, and we have copies of the notes because they are in the William Bradford state, papers at ohio she basically said that he flirted with her, grabbed her hand, asked her for a date, flirted with her, walked out, whistled at her. She told a much different story at trial, which was that emmett till basically all but raped her. If you really want to boil it down, that is a quick version of that. , the two killers, there were actually more than that involved, there were at ,east four white guys involved one of them ran the plantation where emmett till was beaten and killed. Piecem bradford hughleys , i always believed for so long, was true. I now believe almost everything in that piece is a lie. And it had been regarded for so many years as gospel, and it is , i basically a lie realize that now. Because we know we can prove everything with facts, not just conjecture. So fastforward, Carolyn Bryant tim tysonsn book as admitting that she lied when she testified. Something along those lines. Recanted in some way. This is where it gets crazy. Carolyn bryants family says that is not true. Tim tyson doesnt have it on tape. So it just becomes a matter of debate that way. I guess to back up a little bit in time, in 2007, the f. B. I. Investigated this again, in the 2000s. In 2007, it was presented to a blackjury, a majority grand jury in mississippi. They voted against indicted Carolyn Bryant. They had a number of choices, one was murder, one was manslaughter, and i think there were some other possibilities. They declined to indict her. They declined to indict henry lee loggins, who was also identified as being involved in the killings as well. There were three black men allegedly involved as well. Lets be honest, they werent involved voluntarily. This was not a situation back in those times where it was voluntary. The question is, what evidence is there against Carolyn Bryant . The grand jury at that time decided there wasnt enough evidence. I know the f. B. I. Has been investigating the very thing i talked about earlier, about tysons book, whether she said it or didnt say it, those kinds of things. So it becomes a legal question. The law people would know about this better than me. The question becomes is there enough evidence to prosecute her. In hindsight, this is easy to say, in hindsight, what should have happened is the feds should have prosecuted her for lying to the f. B. I. , because she told the f. B. I. The exact same story that she testified to in 1955. That would have been easier road to take. That unfortunately didnt happen and im afraid nothing is going to happen to her. At least nothing that ive head so far suggest that. Should she be prosecuted, is a great question. Inis a matter of evidence proving that. , but i dot the fed do think it will do anything more than they did back in 2007. Sherri Jerry Mitchell, thank you again for sharing your [applause] incredible and sharing your transformative storytelling with us, and for reminding us to live fearlessly, not only an but only in our journalism work, but also in our lives. I would also like to give a special thanks to everyone who helped put this together, from the event planning, to the folks running the lights and taking care of this facility, and all the work that has gone into this. Want toou depart, i introduce Gordon Andrew fletcher, president of the American University black alumni association, which along with , and the school of communication, is a sponsor of the program tonight. Mr. Fletcher is a twotime alumnus of the au school of public affairs, both with a bachelor of arts and a masters degree. Degree froms a law florida a m university, at historically black college, he is also a grant manager at the chamber of commerce, and serves his committee in washington as a representative. In addition to his service to the university. Thank you, gordon for being with us. Now he will leave us with a few words. [applause] thank you so much for the introduction, and good evening everyone. Excuse me i am a little under the weather, so bear with me. On behalf of the American University black alumni association, we want to thank you for coming tonight and a special thank you to mr. Jerry mitchell. We appreciate your trailblazing work around civil rights and for all people, not just one person. American university, we stand firmly upon the institutions commitment to diversity, inclusion, and mutual respect. Association, we are pleased to cosponsor the event tonight with the investigative workshop and school of communications. The mission is to provide alumni and black students with networking and professional development, as well as to uplift the ebony eagle and impact the culture of American University. For more information to get involved, please pick up a postcard at reception. I am proud to be an ebony eagle and applaud all of our groups for their ongoing commitment to au by enhancing the experience of current students through the great events like the one tonight. We welcome you to enjoin us in perception,andur for our reception, and again thank you very much. [applause] [chatter] American History tv is on cspan3 every weekend. All of our programs are archived on our website at www. Cspan. Org history. You can watch lectures in college classrooms, tours of historic sites, archival films, and see our upcoming programs at www. Cspan. Org history. Next on lectures in history, randolphmacon College Professor evie terrono teaches a class about africanamerican art in the 1960s and 1970s. She highlights how artists of the period created works reflecting on racism and the black is beautiful movement. Her class is about one hour and 45 minutes. Prof. Torrono our focus today will be on the ways in which africanamerican Women Artists essentially in the civil rights period of the 1960s and 1970s responded to gender and racial shifts. In our previous class we already covered the responses among africanamerican male artists, so we are going to encounter some radical differences. I use these covers from life magazine to alert you to some of the truly momentous chs