Jason Berry papers

Note written by Beryl Hunter and Laura Thomson

Jason Berry, New Orleans-born author, investigative reporter, civil rights activist, and film director was the former press secretary to Charles Evers during Evers' gubernatorial and senatorial campaigns (1971-1978) in Mississippi. A noted literary figure, Berry has published several books, including Amazing Grace: With Charles Evers in Mississippi (1973), Up from the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II (1987), Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children (1992), and Vows of Silence (2004).

Berry was born in 1949 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and graduated from Jesuit High School in 1967. He attended Georgetown University graduating cum laude with a Bachelors of Arts degree in English in 1971. During his time at Georgetown, Berry was the associate editor, then editor-in-chief, of the Georgetown Quarterly and founder and editor of Generation Magazine (1970-1971). Berry also worked for the political campaigns of Senators Edmund Muskie (Maine) and Lee Metcalf (Montana) and Governor Edwin W. Edwards (Louisiana) during that time.

Berry worked as a press secretary for Mayor Charles Evers' Mississippi gubernatorial campaign in 1971 and senatorial campaign in 1978. The results of his work with the gubernatorial campaign was his first book, Amazing Grace: With Charles Evers in Mississippi (1973), a work that examined the role of the Mississippi press in the campaign and the cultural transformation of Berry as a young college graduate. The book also investigated election analysis of voter fraud and violence at the polls. Tom Ethridge, a former journalist for the Jackson-Clarion Ledger sued Berry and his publisher E.B. Dutton and Company for libel. The case marks the attitudes of the South and the press as it relates to race relations and monitoring of the gubernatorial campaign of Evers.

From 1978 to 1980, Berry continued to write and became involved in video production and activism associated with franchising and regulating cable television. Berry also traveled extensively in Central American (1977) and Africa (1983). Berry was the recipient of awards for his journalism in the 1980s, including the Alice Patterson Journalism Fellowship (1986) and the Catholic Press Award (1983). He also completed his second book in collaboration with Jonathan Foose and Tad Jones, Up from the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II (1987).

Up from the Cradle of Jazzis considered a cornerstone publication for New Orleans musical history and was reissued in 2009 with an updated section about the music scene in the 1980s and the resurgence after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Berry continues to work as an investigative reporter and author culminating in a number of recent books, such as Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children (1992), The Spirit of Black Hawk: A Mystery of Africans and Indians (1995), Vows of Silence (2004), and Last of the Red Hot Poppas (2006). Berry has also worked as a documentary film producer since the late 1970s completing such films as Two Men from Mississippi (1979), profiles of Charles Evers and Bill Minor; Saga of a Neighborhood (1979); Carnival Time (1979); Journal (1979-1980), reporting on the background of cable companies; Up from the Cradle of Jazz (1980); and more recently Vows of Silence (2004), about the sexual abuse of Marcial Marciel, the founder of the Legion of Christ, and the cover-up of that abuse.