09/11/07

Presidential center in Arkansas to show AP exhibit of 1957 crisis

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- A 1957 profile of then-Gov. Orval Faubus, classic photographs and letters between newspaper editors and executives from The Associated Press are among the documents that will be on display in a new exhibit dedicated to the AP's coverage of the Central High integration.

The exhibit, which opens Wednesday at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, features documents from the AP Corporate Archives in New York.

"With All Deliberate Speed: The AP in Little Rock" includes photographs of the 1957 desegregation crisis, along with letters and memos from reporters and editors throughout the country on the AP coverage. The crisis was covered by longtime AP reporter Pat Morin, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work.

The exhibit will be on display through the end of October.

A panel discussion on the AP's coverage of the crisis will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Clinton Presidential Center. The panel discussion will be moderated by former Arkansas Gazette reporter Roy Reed, author of "Faubus: The Life and Times of an American Prodigal."

Panelists include Gene Roberts, co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Race Beat" and journalism professor at the University of Maryland; David R. Davies, a dean at the University of Southern Mississippi and author of "The Press and Race: Mississippi Journalists Confront the Movement"; Hoyt Purvis, University of Arkansas journalism professor; and Kathryn Johnson, former AP civil rights reporter who covered the movement throughout the South from her base at the AP's Atlanta bureau.