Jerry Mitchell comes to UCF on Oct. 19

The internationally acclaimed investigative journalist, Mr. Jerry Mitchell, will be visiting NSC & UCF on October 19, 2010; he will be speaking in the Student Union’s Pegasus Ballroom starting at 6 PM as the COS Distinguished Speaker.

This presentation is open to the public and of course UCF students (as well as faculty and staff).

Professors may wish to consider including this presentation on your syllabus and encouraging your students to attend. They will find Jerry’s narrative compelling and they will have the change to interact with someone who has not only “covered” history but who has also “made history” and even “changed history” through investigative journalism.

Following his COS Distinguished Speaker presentation, there will be a semi-private reception for NSC faculty, staff, alumni, UCF administrators and selected guests held in the Student Union’s Cape Florida Ballroom. Please hold this date and these times on your calendar as we would like to see you all there.

Jerry Mitchell is an investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger, the newspaper of Jackson, Mississippi. His tireless investigative reporting has convinced authorities to reopen seemingly cold murder cases from the Civil Rights Era, prompting one colleague to call him “the South’s Simon Wiesenthal.” In fall 2009, he received a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation.

Mitchell was a court reporter for the Clarion-Ledger in 1989 when the film Mississippi Burning inspired him to look into old civil rights cases that many thought had long since turned cold. His investigations have led to the arrest of several Klansmen and prompted authorities to reexamine numerous killings during the civil rights era.

In 1996, he was portrayed in the Rob Reiner film, Ghosts of Mississippi, about the murder of Medgar Evers and the belated effort to bring killer Byron De La Beckwith to justice. He was featured in The Learning Channel documentary Civil Rights Martyrs that aired in February 2000 and was a consultant for the Discovery Channel documentary Killed by the Klan which aired in 1999.

Here is a brief bio about Jerry:
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/SPECIAL17/60416008/

Here is a link to the video clip of Jerry’s recent appearance on the “Colbert nation” TV show:
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/252727/october-15-2009/jerry-mitchell