C-L reporter Jerry Mitchell gets John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship, $500,000
Clarion-Ledger investigative reporter Jerry Mitchell, who has won numerous awards for his more than two decades of reporting on unpunished killings from the civil rights era, is receiving a $500,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation for his work.
“I am so humbled by this,” said Mitchell, 50, who has worked at the newspaper since 1986. “It feels like a dream I haven’t woken up from.”
He is one of 24 MacArthur Fellows announced by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, a list that includes artists, writers and scientists the foundation believes show the ability to use their gifts improve the world.
Mitchell is the first reporter in Mississippi to ever win the award. Past MacArthur winners from Mississippi have included former Mayersville Mayor Unita Blackwell in 1992 and Dr. Aaron Shirley of Jackson in 1993.
“The purpose of the program is to promote creativity across a great range of fields in the interest of improving the human condition,” foundation president Bob Gallucci said.
To free up that creativity, the foundation is awarding Mitchell and the other MacArthur Fellows each a no-strings-attached grant of $500,000. Mitchell said he would use the money, distributed over the next five years, to continue his work on unsolved civil rights era crimes and complete a book.
Clarion-Ledger
9/21/9
Magnolia Tribune
