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This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Editor’s note: This press release was drafted and released by the National Press Club and is republished with permission.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Press Club is honoring Mississippi Today — a nonprofit, non-partisan newsroom based in Jackson, Mississippi — with its highest honor for press freedom, the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award. 

Mississippi Today is currently involved in a legal case to protect privileged documents used in producing a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation and named in an ensuing defamation case brought by the state‘s former governor. The case has wide-ranging implications for press freedom in the United States, including journalist-source protections. 

“In a country that holds freedom of the press as one of its core rights, it is shocking that any court — let alone the highest one in a state — would require reporters to hand over their sources simply because the governor was upset to be caught red-handed misusing federal welfare funds,” said Emily Wilkins, president of the National Press Club. “Mississippi Today’s reporting shined light on a critical issue impacting thousands of Americans, and we hope this award both honors their work and draws attention and support for their case.” 

Mississippi Today is an authoritative voice on politics and policy in the state of Mississippi and produces essential coverage on education, public health, justice, environment, equity, and more. 

The outlet won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for its investigation into a $77 million welfare scandal that revealed how the state’s former governor, Phil Bryant, used his office to benefit his friends and family. 

Bryant then sued Mississippi Today and its CEO Mary Margaret White in July 2023, claiming that the series defamed him. Editor-in-chief Adam Ganucheau and reporter Anna Wolfe were added as defendants in May 2024, according to an editor’s note on the outlet’s website.

On June 6, 2024, Mississippi Today appealed a county judge’s order to turn over privileged documents in relation to the defamation lawsuit. The Mississippi Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the newsroom’s appeal.

“Ours may be a Mississippi case, but the ramifications absolutely could impact every American journalist who has long been granted constitutional protections to dutifully hold powerful leaders to account,” Ganucheau said. “But this fight is not just about protecting journalists and our sources. We’re also fighting to ensure every single American citizen never loses a fuller understanding of how leaders truly operate when their doors are closed and they think no one is watching. As we continue to stand up for press freedom everywhere, it’s truly humbling to be recognized by the National Press Club in this way.”

A team of attorneys is representing Mississippi Today in its case: Henry Laird at Wise Carter; and Ted Boutrous Jr., Lee Crain, Sasha Duddin, and Peter Jacobs at Gibson Dunn. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press is also providing legal support.

The John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award is named for a former National Press Club president who fervently advocated for press freedom. By selecting Mississippi Today as the domestic honoree, the Club and the Institute are committing to monitor and support this precedent-setting case for the First Amendment protection of reporters’ privilege. 

The National Press Club will confer the 2024 Aubuchon awards, along with the Neil and Susan Sheehan Award for Investigative Journalism during its annual Fourth Estate Award Gala honoring Axios’ Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen on Nov. 21 in Washington, D.C.   

The gala dinner is a fundraiser for the Club’s nonprofit affiliate, the National Press Club Journalism Institute, which produces training to equip journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire civic engagement. Tickets and more information for the event can be found here.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Sept. 25, 1961

Herbert Lee became the first local person killed because of his fight for voting rights with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. 

Before SNCC’s work began, only one Black Mississippian had been registered to vote in Amite County. Lee stood up to change that, working with SNCC leader Bob Moses to help register Black voters. 

Days later, the dairy farmer and father of nine pulled up to a cotton gin with a truckload of cotton, and his neighbor and childhood friend, E. H. Hurst, a member of the white Citizens’ Council and a representative in the Mississippi Legislature, approached Lee with a gun in his hand. 

“I won’t talk to you unless you put that gun down,” Lee was quoted as saying before Hurst charged forward and shot him. 

Hurst’s father-in-law happened to be Billy Ray Caston, a cousin of the local sheriff who had attacked Moses days earlier with the blunt end of a knife after Moses had taken two more Black Americans to the courthouse to register to vote. 

Hurst fatally shot Lee, claiming that he was acting in self-defense after Lee brandished a tire iron. Hurst’s story sounded more than a little improbable — he claimed he hit Lee in the head with a .38-caliber pistol and that the gun accidentally discharged, killing Lee. 

Although there were Black witnesses to the shooting, the sheriff intimidated them into supporting Hurst’s story, and the local coroner’s jury refused to indict him. 

At Lee’s funeral, his wife came up to Moses and said, “You killed my husband!” Moses had no reply and said later, “It is one thing to get beaten, quite another to be responsible, even indirectly, for a death.” 

Lee’s death was honored by Bertha Gober in the song, “We’ll Never Turn Back,” which became the SNCC anthem in Mississippi. He is among the 40 martyrs listed on the National Civil Rights Memorial.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.