OXFORD, Miss. — The combination of journalistic pressure
and hardball politics that produced Mississippi’s historic
Education Reform Act of 1982 is to be discussed by
participants of the struggle in a program Nov. 30 at the
University of Mississippi’s Overby Center for Southern
Journalism and Politics.
The free, public event at 11 a.m. in the Overby Center
Auditorium celebrates the 25th anniversary of the passage
of the legislation that established a kindergarten system
and provided greater funding for public schools in
Mississippi.
“The act represented a signature triumph for Gov. William
F. Winter’s administration,” said Curtis Wilkie, holder of
the Kelly G. Cook Chair of Journalism at UM. “The measure
had been opposed by many legislators reluctant to add to
the state’s investment in public schools.”
“I can think of no better example of how Southern
journalism and politics came together for a positive result
than the Education Reform Act,” said Charles L. Overby,
chairman of the Overby Center.
Several leading Mississippi newspapers, which favored the
education bill, joined forces with Winter in building
public sentiment that ensured passage of the measure.
At the time of the legislative battle, Overby was executive
editor of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson. The newspaper won
the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for public service for its
coverage of the issue and its strong editorial support of
the bill.
Overby will moderate the upcoming discussion, and Gov.
Winter will participate, along with three former associates
who played key political roles: David Crews, Dick Molpus
and Andrew P. Mullins Jr.
Journalists who reported on the controversy for various
daily newspapers in Mississippi will also be on the panel.
They include Fred Anklam, formerly of the Clarion-Ledger
staff and now an editor at USA Today; Billy Crews, who rose
to become publisher of the Northeast Mississippi Daily
Journal in Tupelo; and Lloyd Gray, who reported from
Jackson for the Sun-Herald in Biloxi in 1982 and is editor
of the Daily Journal.
The group will be joined by Tom Wacaster of Meridian, one
of the state’s leading advocates for education who recently
retired as head of the Phil Hardin Foundation.
The public education initiative attracted nationwide
attention a quarter-century ago and was called
Mississippi’s “coming-of-age story” during the
post-segregation period. It is also the subject of two
books by members of the Ole Miss community. Mullins,
executive assistant to Chancellor Robert Khayat, wrote
“Building Consensus” in 1992. This year, Kathleen Wickham,
associate professor of journalism, published “Winning the
Pulitzer Prize.”
For more information or assistance related to a disability,
call 662-915-1692.