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Pursuing The Past -- A Mississippi Newspaper Investigates Crimes of the Civil Rights Era
Clarion-Ledger News Stand

Agnew Becomes Clarion-Ledger's First African-American Exec. Editor
Update: Ronnie Agnew becomes the first African-American to lead the formerly pro-segregationist Jackson, Miss.-based newspaper. (8/23/02)

Clarion Call
Terence Smith reports on the surprising force behind renewed interest in civil rights-era crimes: Jackson, Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger newspaper, once considered a den of racist thought. (5/6/02)
Key Cases:

The Birmingham Church Bombing
Forty years after the bombing that left four young girls dead, Alabama continues its quest to convict the alleged perpetrators.

Update: A Birmingham, Alabama jury convicts former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry (left) in the 1963 church bombing that killed four young girls. (5/22/02)

The Freedom Summer Killings
Background on the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers that suggested collusion between law enforcement and the KKK. The murders are still an unsettled case.

The Medgar Evers Murder Case
Chronicling the thirty-year struggle to bring the civil rights activist's assassin to justice.
Extended Interviews:
Myrlie Evers-Williams Myrlie Evers-Williams
The widow of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and founder of the Medgar Evers Institute discusses The Clarion-Ledger's role in prompting the first successful prosecution of her husband's 1963 murder.
John Hammack John Hammack
Hammack, who began at The Clarion-Ledger in 1962, compares the newspaper's past editorial stance with the thoughts of his current workplace.
Harvey Johnson Harvey Johnson
The mayor of Jackson, Miss. discusses the evolution his city and The Clarion-Ledger underwent to disavow their segregationist past.
Bill Minor Bill Minor
A correspondent for The New Orleans Times-Picayune who chronicled the civil rights struggle in Jackson, Minor discusses the shift in attitudes he has seen in the city and The Clarion-Ledger.
Jerry Mitchell Jerry Mitchell
The Clarion-Ledger's investigative reporter describes how his articles on past racially-motivated killings have led to renewed legal interest in civil rights era crimes.

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