MURFREESBORO — A trio of insiders will discuss the challenges of reporting on last
summer's Ferguson, Missouri, shooting death and the protests and questions in
its aftermath in a free public event set Tuesday, Feb. 10, at Middle Tennessee
State University.
“From the Front Lines of Ferguson: Covering
the New Civil Rights Movement” is set for 7 p.m. inside Tucker Theatre. A
searchable campus parking map is available at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParking14-15.
The discussion, presented by the John
Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies at MTSU, will
examine the First Amendment aspects of the Ferguson case from a front-lines
vantage point with the help of St. Louis Post-Dispatch
photographer/videographer David Carson, St. Louis 21st Ward Alderman Antonio
French and USA Today reporter Yamiche Alcindor.
The three also will provide firsthand
insights into the media coverage and criminal justice aspects of such a
volatile, high-profile news story. Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager,
was fatally shot Aug. 9 by Darren Wilson, a white police officer, in the predominantly
African-American St. Louis suburb. Protests over the shooting continued for
weeks afterward in the Ferguson area, and when a grand jury decided in November
not to indict Wilson, protests raged anew and extended around the world.
The panelists have been in the thick of the Ferguson
coverage since its beginnings.
Carson, a Boston native and veteran
international photographer, has worked at the Post-Dispatch since 2000. Wearing
military-grade body armor and a helmet and carrying a gas mask, cameras, multiple
lenses and a full backpack of gear, he was knocked to the ground by a blow to
the head from Ferguson protestors during one of their confrontations with
police. Carson’s photos of Ferguson have been seen in the Post-Dispatch and in national
and international media outlets.
French, a community activist who is serving
his second term as city alderman from his home district, has been part of
Ferguson's peacekeeping force as well as one of the most active social media
reporters through updates and short videos via his Twitter account. He was
arrested for unlawful assembly in the early days of the Ferguson protests and
opened a community outreach center after the Brown shooting, only to see it
burned down in the protests that followed the grand jury decision.
Alcindor has been a staff reporter for USA
Today since 2011. As a member of the breaking national news team, she’s also
covered the bombing of the Boston Marathon, the shooting at Sandy Hook
Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, and the trial of George Zimmerman in
Sanford, Florida. In Ferguson, her coverage included embedding herself with the
St. Louis County Police Department’s Tactical Operations Team to cover the
protests and gaining the trust of Brown’s family to get their views on the
grand jury decision.
“The Ferguson story in many ways parallels
the Freedom Rides during the civil rights movement of the early 1960s,
something John Seigenthaler was intimately involved with as a Justice
Department aide in the Kennedy administration,” said Pat Embry, director of the
Seigenthaler Chair.
As an aide to Attorney General Robert
Kennedy, Seigenthaler took a lead pipe to the head from a Ku Klux Klansman as
he rushed to protect Freedom Riders arriving in Montgomery, Alabama. He
later became one of the country’s most passionate First Amendment advocates as
editor, publisher and president of The Tennessean and the founding editorial
director of USA Today. Seigenthaler died last July at age 86.
MTSU
established the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment
Studies in 1986 to honor the iconic journalist’s lifelong commitment to free
expression. The Seigenthaler Chair supports a variety of activities related to
free speech, free press rights and other topics of concern for contemporary
journalism, including distinguished visiting professors and visiting lecturers
at MTSU, research related to free expression, seminars and meetings dedicated
to expressive freedom and hands-on training for student journalists through the
Seigenthaler News Service.
“First Amendment rights of freedom of
speech, of the press, of the rights to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government
for a redress of grievances all have come into play in Ferguson and elsewhere
in the country,” Embry said.
“Police, protestors and the press have an
ongoing stake in protecting our civil rights while at the same time preserving
the peace.”
Learn more
about MTSU’s John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies
at http://mtpress.mtsu.edu/seigenthaler.
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