Race Against Time selected for the 2025 Tupelo Reads program

TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) – A community-wide reading program to promote literacy will include a book that examines four murders during the Civil Rights era that went unsolved for decades.

Race Against Time by Jerry Mitchell is the 2025 Tupelo Reads selection. Mitchell spent years investigating the murders of Medgar Evers, Vernon Dahmer Sr., the four young girls killed in the Birmingham church bombing were killed and to investigate the murders of the Freedom Summer workers.

His work led to the conviction of those responsible for the crimes that shocked the nation in the early 1960s. Mitchell will be a guest at the Tupelo Reads event at the Lee County Library on February 26th.

Chairwoman Lisa Reed said she hopes many will feel a deeper appreciation for Mitchell’s persistence and determination in seeking the truth.

“I knew about it, I grew up with it, but I had no idea. He put himself at personal risk with a lot of investigative journalism. You will see this in the first pages of the book. It was triggered by watching the movie “Mississippi Burning” and realizing it was never solved. And it’s amazing work and he’s given talks like this all over the country,” said Lisa Reed, chairwoman of Tupelo Reads.

Mitchell will visit Tupelo High School prior to the Tupelo Reads event at the Lee County Library. He will speak to English students about the book and his research.

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