OXFORD, Miss. – Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, authors of last year’s Pultizer Prize-winning book “The Race Beat ,” are to lead a discussion of the challenges and perils news reporters faced while covering the civil rights movement Thursday (April 23) at the University of Mississippi.
Sponsored by the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics , the free, public event is scheduled for 5 p.m. in the Overby Center Auditorium. The discussion coincides with the school’s observance of Journalism Week and the dedication of a bench on campus to commemorate Paul Guihard, a French reporter killed during the 1962 riot at the university.
Veterans of the “race beat” have been invited to attend and will be
recognized during the program, said Curtis Wilkie, Overby Center fellow
and Ole Miss journalism professor. “As many as 10 prominent reporters,
coming out of retirement from across the country, have indicated that
they will participate in the program,” Wilkie said.
“A
discussion of the news coverage of the civil rights movement, whether
limited to the events at Ole Miss or broadened to the 25-year period
after World War II, is an examination of journalism at its best and at
its worst,” said Klibanoff, a former editor of the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. “Ole Miss provides the perfect backdrop to any
critical review of the state of news coverage today. To have in our
presence some of the reporters who were eyewitnesses to the struggle
adds depth, dimension and no small amount of storytelling to the event.”
Roberts,
who reported on the movement himself for The New York Times before
going on to become editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer and lead the
newspaper to numerous Pulitzer Prizes, will discuss his own experiences
and draw comments from colleagues attending the program.
For
more information or to request assistance related to a disability, call
662-915-1692. To learn more about the Overby Center, visit http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/overby/ .