The National Educational Telecommunications Association awarded MPB Television a first place national award for content production. The NETA Awards honor achievements in public television.
MPB TV’s “Freedom Summer 1964” was recognized as Best in the Nation in the short form category by NETA. As commemoration for the 50th anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer, MPB produced a series of 53 public service announcements.
“Freedom Summer 1964” features interviews with individuals who were active in civil rights work that summer. The one-minute PSAs cover topics from African-Americans’ struggle to register to vote, to the idea and organization of the Freedom Summer, to the Mississippi Freedom Democrat Party’s challenge in Atlantic City.
“This series will reacquaint older Mississippians with their history and simultaneously inform younger Mississippians with stories they may not know,” said Edie Greene, MPB producer of the PSA series. “Since I’m not from Mississippi, I didn’t study its history in school. This has been an amazing story to learn. I am honored to be the producer.”
The MPB production team responsible for “Freedom Summer 1964” includes
Edie Greene (producer, writer and editor); Taiwo Gaynor (producer); Joey Gibson (videography) and Scott Colwell (online editor).
“The contribution of the Freedom Summer of 1964 was monumental to bringing about change in Mississippi and the South,” said Ronnie Agnew, Executive Director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting. “These glimpses into the lives of the people who gave up everything are important to understanding that contribution. Their roles deserve to be known.”
MPB’s Freedom Summer series are part of a partnership with the Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC). The program is financially assisted by the National Endowment for the Humanities through the MHC.
