When we add a new beat at MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, we want it to expand our coverage, but also to deepen it. Knowing what’s happening isn’t worthwhile without knowing why it’s happening, what’s at stake for the community, where the power lies, how change can be made.
As we developed our government accountability beat, we knew we wanted it to start not with the policymakers but the movement makers. And not just them; we wanted the beat to explore the idea of government for the people, to embrace the democratic ideal that those in local and state positions work for the community, and should be held to that standard by the community.
Thankfully, we’ve finally been able to fill that role with someone who knows Memphis pretty well. Katherine Burgess joins the team, after five years at our founder Wendi C. Thomas’ old stomping ground, The Commercial Appeal. Before that, Katherine worked at the Wichita Eagle.
A graduate of Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, Katherine has loved journalism a long time. Her interest, she told me, began as a teenager growing up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Her father worked in poverty alleviation and anti-human trafficking. “I found myself caring about those issues and wanting to raise awareness so they could be addressed,” she said. “Journalism was a natural fit.”
She moved to Memphis five years ago and quickly fell in love — with the “determined people, varied neighborhoods and picturesque sunsets. Memphis is a place that can seep into your bones,” she says. “It’s a good place to tell powerful stories and an equally good place to put down roots.”
We believe she’ll bring that love of Memphis and Memphians, that passion for what journalism can do and her sharp reporting skills to the government accountability beat, to showing, as she put it, “how government can help or harm the people it serves.”
As we move into a new year and a new mayoral administration, Katherine will help our coverage be not just wide but miles deep.
Adrienne Johnson Martin is co-executive director of MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact her at adrienne.martin@mlk50.com
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