Donna Ladd

Journalist and Editor

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I, the Southern Muckraker

06.21.2017 by Donna Ladd // Leave a Comment

When Southern Living magazine called to ask me for a photo, I was immediately suspicious. Let’s just say that I’ve never thought of myself as the Southern Living type. But, I’m honored that the magazine chose me on the “Innovators Changing the South” with the following write-up. It was quite the surprise, to say the least, and I’m honored to be among the other innovators on the list:

Donna Ladd is an old-fashioned muckraking journalist with a sharp modern voice. She helped create Mississippi’s The Jackson Free Press, and her columns and reporting make national news as she takes bold stances that contrast typical Southern stereotypes. In addition to being a writer, she’s a speaker and a teacher with particular focus on children in vulnerable situations, race relations, and police reform.

Categories // Media coverage, The South

That Time I Was Featured in Glamour with a Hero’s Daughter

06.21.2017 by Donna Ladd // Leave a Comment

No, I wasn’t featured in Glamour because of my, well, glamour. Magazine writer Sheila Weller found me when she was determined to do a story about women somehow connected to the 1964 Klan murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in my hometown—by men that my family knew, as I’ve written about many times because, yes, I do believe in “dredging up the past.”

The most powerful part of the experience was meeting James Chaney’s daughter, Angela, who was about my age and even a fellow vegetarian (that we Mississippi women were both vegetarians surprised the Glamour crews from New York and California no end). The day of the photo shoot had many angles to it, far beyond my feeling somewhat exploitive having my photo taken with Chaney’s daughter at the site of the murders. Still, I wouldn’t take anything for the experience.

Below is a PDF of the story, which won awards for Sheila Weller—who became a friend who has helped me many times, especially with connections. I also wrote this column about an argument of sorts that I and a famed civil-rights leader had with members of the Glamour crew at the site of Mount Zion, the church the Klan burned to lure the three men to Philadelphia in order to kill them.

“Two Women Joined by Murder” – View PDF.

Categories // Media coverage, Race

Donna Ladd

I'm Donna Ladd, an investigative journalist and editor focused on justice, crime, race, kids, policing and politics in Mississippi, New York City and nationwide. I'm a freelance journalist and co-founded the Jackson Free Press. I have an investigative crime reporting fellowship through the Quattrone Center at Penn Law and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

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