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I'm here today in the Cook Library on the Hattiesburg campus with one of our distinguished
alumni, James Bates. Now at Southern Miss, we believe our students should be involved
in significant dialogues of significant issues of the day, and we're going to get an opportunity
this week, our students will this week, to do just that when we see the opening of Mr.
Bates' exhibit, "Passing the Torch: Documenting the 21st Century Ku Klux ***." So, tell us
James, about what we can expect to see in this.
Well, there are 24 photographs hanging in the exhibit. We also have some original ***
robes, one from the 1940s on display. One is a child's robe from a three-year-old involved
in the *** here in Mississippi. The child that wore this robe is a 5th generation Klansman
from his mom's side and his dad's side. So the photographs are representative of 13 years
worth of work. They're all over the south, from Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas,
Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama. So I've spent a lot of time getting off work late on a Friday
and driving through the night to document rallies and cross-lighting ceremonies in multiple
states. I've tried really hard to make it a straight documentary project, so you have
everything from the children's involvement to the social gatherings to the marches in
public to the ceremony of the cross lighting. I understand you went into a career in Photojournalism
because you wanted to use the camera to make a difference in people's lives. How are you
going to do that through this exhibit? Yeah, really I was an advertising major here
at Southern, and I was beginning to take photography classes with Ed Wheeler over at Southern Hall
in the basement, and he was really instrumental in encouraging me to make a career in Photojournalism,
but it was really when I took time to be in Ed's office that I was able to see images
donated to the university by Charles Moore, civil rights photojournalist, who had come
to the university as part of the Powerful Days Book Tour, and he left those photographs
as a donation to the university. I was able to see through his work the power of making
change through photography. Charles' work from the Civil Rights Movement is largely
credited for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was able to show the nation through the
pages of Life magazine and other media outlets what was happening in the south at that time,
and it really inspired me to find a project that could have meaning in my lifetime that
hopefully I could leave behind that would make a significant contribution to society.
So, when I first started this project on the ***, I really felt in my heart that it needed
to be a long-term project, that perhaps it was that long-term project that I had been
searching for. So, in the beginning, none of the images were published in local newspapers
and that was a promise to the *** which help gave me access I think by presenting it as
a long-term project. So, I've documented their beliefs as they exist. I hope that in the
end people will see the work and come to have thought and discussion about race issues that
are existent in our country. What subjects are you passionate about in
photography? It's subculture, typically, maybe the homeless.
I've spent a lot of time photographing and just spending time with the homeless and their
needs. I serve on a non-profit ministry that reaches out to the homeless. I've photographed
the hippies of the Rainbow family, the ***. Any group that is perceived as a subculture
to our society draws me in. For one, I have a curiosity to try to better understand their
beliefs and their activities, and another; these are often groups who photojournalists
and journalists are not approaching so it gives me an opportunity to document unique
subject matter. I do the day-to-day work for the Sun Herald as a journalist, maybe business
assignments or daily news assignments or sporting events, but I really enjoy the subculture
work more. You've been named a member of the Hall of
Fame for the School of Mass Comm and Journalism. What did that mean to you?
It's quite an honor to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and I understand that the body
of work on the *** had a good part to do with that. It makes me very proud to not only
be inducted but to have this exhibit here at the university and to have so many departments
and yourself interested to be a part of it and sponsor it and encourage it. It's big.
Thank you, well said. James Bates.