An estimated 3,000 national and international journalists flocked to Oxford, Miss. last week to have a glimpse of history and the mania surrounding the 2008 presidential debate on foreign affairs.
Among them were 10 mass communications students from Jackson State University campus television station JSU22. Their goal was to serve as a multimedia team for Black College Wire and other media outlets.
“Traveling to the debate was a great learning experience, because I had a chance to meet a lot of professional journalists,” said senior broadcast journalism major Renita Allen. However, she noted there were difficulties. The JSU students were told by an Ole Miss official that the university and the United States Secret Service allowed only mainstream media and Ole Miss student media to obtain credentials.
After waiting for several and negotiating with the officials, three of the ten were given credentials for the campus but none were allowed to attend the debate.
“I like the fact of being a part of a historical event that involves a candidate that could possibly be our first African-American president”, said senior broadcast production major Jackie Loggins.
The students also produced a package about the history of James Meredith’s Ole Miss experience that aired on Mississippi Public Broadcasting the night before the debate.
Throughout Friday, the students canvassed the campus attending panel discussions, interviewing students and network news anchors while documenting their experiences along the way.
Jackson State University political science students Lafeyounda Brooks and Tyrone Hendrix, both field organizers for the Jackson, Miss., Barack Obama Campaign, were among hundreds of student leaders and volunteers at the event.
Brooks said the upcoming election is so vital because the young people’s vote is very important. “If you look back on the civil rights movement, every change that came about at that time started because of young people,” Brooks said. “I believe if you desire a change it has to start with the young people you’re representing for tomorrow. You’re not making plans for today, you’re making plans for tomorrow.”
Brooks was one of a handful of non-media people allowed to actually meet with Obama when he arrived on the Ole Miss campus.
Aside from the fact that the debate was held in Mississippi, the significance of its Ole Miss location dates back to September 26, 1962 when James Meredith was denied admission for the third and last time by former Governor Ross Barnett.
Forty-six years ago, Meredith changed the confederate ideology of Mississippi’s education system when he became the first black student to integrate an academic institution in Mississippi. Before attending Ole Miss, Meredith attended Jackson College, now known as Jackson State University.
Tiffany Edmondson is a Jackson State University mass communications student and a contributor to Black College Wire.
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