By Dylan Thatcher, Journalism ‘25, Tyler Lacey, Media Arts Production ‘25 for JOUR 4310 Gender, Race, and Class in Journalism and Mass Media with Victoria LaPoe, Spring 2025
During the spring 2025 semester, the staff of the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections worked intensively with Victoria La Poe’s JOUR 4130 class, Gender, Race, and Class in Journalism and Mass Media. The students explored, selected, and researched materials from the collections, then worked in small groups to prepare presentations. The students had the option to then expand their research into a blog post like this one for their final project.
Photographer Lynn Johnson was part of Life magazine’s team of reporters covering John William King’s trial for the lynching of James Byrd, Jr. in 1999. “Southern Justice” was the subsequent story that came from the trial, but it was never published. We held an interview with Lynn Johnson to gain insight into the circumstances of the article’s shelving. All quotes originate from Lynn Johnson in discussion with the authors via telephone in April 2025.
James Byrd, Jr. was walking home in Jasper, Texas on June 7, 1998, and was offered a ride from three white men. These men drove Byrd to country backroads and beat him before tying him to the back of a pickup truck, dragging him for three miles on Huff Creek Road, killing him, according to “All the Brother Wanted Was a Ride: Lynching and Police Powers in Texas” by Larvester Gaither. The three assailants left Byrd’s remains along the road and outside an African American Church, beginning an investigation into his death. Local authorities arrested Lawrence Brewer, Shawn Berry and ringleader John William King, three white supremacists, in relation to Byrd’s murder, according to “Race/Ethnicity: Race and the Academy” by C.J. Shlund-Vials. King’s trial began in January 1999.
Life magazine sent a team of reporters, including Ohio University alumna and photographer Lynn Johnson to cover the trial in Jasper, Texas. The subsequent story and its photos, titled “Southern Justice,” were powerful testaments of the hardship in Jasper, Texas. The reporters framed, or focused, “Southern Justice” around the people found in the wake of a gut-wrenching hate crime, making it remarkably relevant to everyday Americans.
Johnson found reporting on the trial to be difficult. “We were walking that road with those black circles and spending time with people in the African American community who were trying to help us understand. It was extremely emotional and disturbing,” says Johnson. The effort made by these reporters was crucial in avoiding misrepresentation within the story and photos.
“That kind of brutality is a message to everyone in that particular group. The fact that parts of his body were left along the road to the Black church was intentional. Just like the violence against people of color and immigrants today, it is meant to destroy the spirit and the will and the courage of that entire group. The thing to remember is that we are all in that group. We are all part of that group. We are all responsible for each other, and so there is no other, because eventually you will be the other.” – Lynn Johnson
Besides gaining access to the community of Jasper and the legal teams working on the trial, authorities granted Johnson and the Life magazine team access to the assailants, according to Johnson. In particular, Johnson reflected on the opportunity to photograph John William King himself. Johnson says, “That would never happen today.”
The bravery that Johnson and her counterparts showed in facing the hard truths of Jasper, Texas, and thus the country as whole, resulted in a poignant story that unapologetically reported on the malice and prejudice that exists in the U.S. In this, “Southern Justice” avoids the trappings of parachute journalism, in which journalists travel to unfamiliar locations, often for short-term coverage of significant events such as natural disasters or armed conflicts, as defined by Elizabeth Mohn.
While Life magazine was preparing “Southern Justice” for publication, the Columbine, Colorado school shooting occurred. On the morning of April 20th, 1999, two students gunned down and killed 16 of their fellow classmates. The Columbine shooting rapidly became a national news story, resonating with families across the country. Questions of gun violence and school safety became a worldwide conversation, according to “Frame-changing in the media coverage of a school shooting: The rise of Columbine as a national concern” by Glenn W. Muschert. The Columbine school shooting is still one of the most prolific mass shootings in U.S. history. Life magazine made the decision to pull “Southern Justice” from publication in favor of publishing more coverage of the Columbine shooting, according to Johnson.
When Life magazine decided to pull “Southern Justice,” the public did not notice as the Columbine Shooting dominated headlines. The decision to pull “Southern Justice” in favor of the Columbine shooting represents organizational constraints that Life faced in having to cover the breaking news story that was Columbine, according to “From Breaking News to the Traditional News Cycle: A Qualitative Analysis of How Journalists Craft Resonance Through Storytelling” by Victoria Bemker LaPoe and Amy Reynolds. In major publications like Life where two landmark and culturally significant events must be decided between, perceived bias must be considered.
During the interview, Johnson said that she felt fear and financial concerns informed Life’s decision to pull the story due to the uncomfortable nature of the story’s subject matter. Johnson perceived bias in Life’s decision, viewing the story’s shelving as an act of discrimination. It is unknown what the publication’s specific rationale was as Johnson and other reporters were not present. In Johnson’s eyes, the story of Byrd’s lynching and the Columbine shooting both deal with community violence, and both should have been published. Ultimately, Johnson left Life magazine following the cancellation of the story and came to Ohio University.
Advancing the conversation with Lynn Johnson, it appears that Life’s perceived hesitancy to cover racial violence can be traced to cognitive dissonance within the news industry and how it interacts with media ethics. Cognitive dissonance describes the feeling of two or more conflicting ideas that contradict each other and create discomfort, according to Psychology Today. It is a journalist’s duty to seek the truth and report it, according to the SPJ code of ethics.
While it is a journalist’s duty to seek the truth and report it, there are issues with this. Truth has been philosophically interpreted in many ways for thousands of years. This discrepancy can afford the media freedom in deciding which truth to report, according to “The Concept of Truth in Media Ethics” by Lay Nwe. When truth is considered in the scope of race-related coverage in the media, “The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media” by Stuart Hall supports the notion that uncomfortable conversations will be avoided.
“Southern Justice” going unpublished in 1999 displayed publishers’ hesitance to cover race-related issues. Has the mass media of today improved in consistently reporting minority groups’ truth in race-related issues? Further research must be done in this area.
Johnson concluded our interview by offering advice to up and coming reporters on keeping journalistic integrity. Johnson believes that journalists are only as good as their reputation and that good journalists must find outlets for their work that will honor the truth and the people in the story.
“It takes a lot of courage to face one’s prejudice and to understand that we all have prejudice. So, a story that reflects how far we must grow, that’s a brave act on the part of a publisher.” – Lynn Johnson
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