Last week, the MacArthur Foundation announced this year’s recipients for the highly-sought-after designations of MacArthur Fellows.  Among the award-winners of this coveted fellowship was Jerry Mitchell, a long-time reporter for the Jackson, Mississippi-based paper The Clarion-Ledger.  Mitchell – who was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006 – has been with that newspaper since 1986.  His work is being lauded because of his in-depth and unrelenting investigative reporting of tracking civil rights crimes.

As an NPR announcemnent stated, he “spent the past two decades reporting on unpunished violence during the civil rights movement in Mississippi and the South, beginning with the 1963 killing of civil rights leader Medgar Evers”, and is planning on taking occasional breaks from the newspaper to put forth even more time into this work post-award.

Accompanying the affectionately-dubbed “genius grants” is a $500,000 fellowship fund.

An audio clip (and corresponding transcript) of the September 28th interview by National Public Radio are available for listening and viewing online.

Sojourn to the Past commends Mr. Mitchell for his noble actions, and congratulates him on the recent honor.