Jerry Mitchell, a senior investigative reporter with Mississippi Today, is the winner of the 2024 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence in recognition of his body of work and lifelong commitment to investigative journalism.
The medal, administered by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, honors the life of investigative journalist I.F. Stone and is presented to a journalist or journalists whose work captures the spirit of journalistic independence, integrity and courage that characterized I.F. Stone’s Weekly, published from 1953 to 1971.
“I believe journalism is one of the world’s most noble professions, and I feel so honored and humbled to receive this award. God has truly blessed me, far beyond what I deserve,” Mitchell said.
In 2019, Mitchell co-founded the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, which became part of Mississippi Today in 2023.
Over four decades, his stories have exposed injustices, corruption and abuse of power in the American South. His work has prompted prosecutions, important reforms of state agencies and firings of state board officials and helped lead to a woman being freed from Death Row.
His cold case investigations helped lead to convictions of Ku Klux Klansmen some of the nation’s notorious civil rights-era crimes. Those attacks include the 1963 assassination of Mississippi NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers, the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four girls and the 1964 slayings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andy Goodman and Mickey Schwerner.
Despite death threats and the objections of readers opposed to his investigations, Mitchell has persevered in his reporting.
His work also led to the 2016 conviction of Felix Vail, the longest delayed conviction in a serial killer case in U.S. history. Vail, who authorities believe killed at least three women, was prosecuted nearly 54 years after he murdered his first wife.
In 2023, Mitchell and his colleagues produced “Unfettered Power: Mississippi Sheriffs,” a series co-reported by The New York Times and the MCIR at Mississippi Today. That reporting including the torture and sexual abuse of two Black men and a third white man by six now former Rankin County law enforcement officers, leading to their recent sentencings in state and federal court. A bill may soon arrive on the governor’s desk that would would expand oversight over the state’s law enforcement, allowing the state board that certifies officers to investigate and revoke the licenses of officers accused of misconduct, regardless of whether they are criminally charged.
In addition, MCIR’s prison project, produced in partnership with the ProPublica Local Reporting Network, led to a Justice Department investigation of serious problems inside Mississippi prisons, which is continuing.
“In every sense imaginable, Jerry has blazed a path for journalists to follow.,” said Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Adam Ganucheau. “He’s set the gold standard for society-changing, powerful local investigative journalism. I’m among the countless journalists who strive every day to have the impact he’s had on the world around him, and I’m fortunate to work with him and learn from him. This award is so very deserving.”
I.F. Stone Medal jury member Bernice Yeung said the work Mitchell and his colleagues produced on “Mississippi’s lawless and abusive law enforcement agencies is a powerful demonstration of how Jerry Mitchell’s hard-charging yet collaborative approach can help our industry find a way forward.”
Mitchell “has elevated and provided opportunities to the next generation of investigative reporters,” Yeung said.
Michael Riley, another selection committee juror, added, “I think the continued work coming from MCIR – and its collaboration with Mississippi Today – really does show the profound and ongoing influence Mitchell has had in Mississippi and nationally.”
Juror Jasimine Brown noted how MCIR has helped to “bolster local coverage and struggling newsrooms” by providing its work free to news outlets across the state, also a hallmark of Mississippi Today.
“They have also established the MCIR Immersion Program, which works to train and inspire the next generation of investigative reporters,” Brown said.
Mitchell began his career in 1983 at the Sentinel-Record in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1986, he joined The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, and worked there as an investigative reporter for 32 years before co-founding the MCIR.
“Through his dogged and thoughtful reporting, Jerry Mitchell has not only brought accountability and change but inspired a new generation of reporters to pick up the mantle of investigative journalism, said Mitchell’s longtime editor Debbie Skipper, who has worked with him on his reporting projects since the 1990s and joined the Mississippi Today in October 2022 as the justice and special projects editor.
A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2006 and longtime member of Investigative Reporters & Editors, Mitchell has won dozens of the nation’s top journalism awards and received a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2009. In 1998, he was among four journalists honored at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
His memoir about his pursuit of civil rights cold cases, “Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era,” was published in 2020.
Mitchell will receive his medal during a ceremony at the Nieman Foundation in May.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
