A public screening of the documentary “Eyes on Mississippi” begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17 in the Old Main Academic Center, Room 3320, on the Mississippi State University campus. The documentary examines the career of longtime journalist and political columnist Bill Minor, the “conscience of Mississippi,” as he was called. Minor witnessed and covered state and national politics for some seven decades.
The free screening of Ellen Ann Fentress’ film will be followed by a panel discussion of the intersection of gender, politics and journalism. Panelists will be Fentress, Donna Ladd, editor-in-chief and co-owner of the Jackson Free Press, and Marty Wiseman, professor emeritus of Political Science and Public Administration at MSU.
As one of the first women to cover the Mississippi statehouse in the 1980s, Fentress got a bird’s eye view of Minor at work; she later worked for him for 15 months at his “scrappy upstart” weekly, the Capitol Reporter, before moving on to a career as a freelance journalist for such publications as The Atlantic, the New York Times and Oxford American.
Sponsors of the event include the MSU Chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, Department of Communication, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, and the Gender Studies and Program.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.