Virginia-Produced Public Radio Program Wins National Gabriel Award

May 18, 2012 — The public radio program "With Good Reason," produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, recently received a national Gabriel Award for its show, "The Legacy of Massive Resistance." The program won first place in the "Documentary, local release" category.

The report discusses the story of what Edward R. Murrow called "The Lost Class of 1959" – the children who had nowhere to go when some Virginia public schools closed their doors rather than accede to court-ordered integration. Associate producer Elliot Majerczyk produced the show, which features interviews with former locked-out students – black and white – who spoke together on the air for the first time about the consequences to them and their families of the state policy of "Massive Resistance."

The documentary also features interviews with historians and makes powerful use of archival material from Murrow's groundbreaking CBS special on the story, as well as clips from local television news coverage of the era.

The Gabriel Awards honor film, television and radio programming that "affirms the dignity of human beings and recognizes and upholds universally recognized human values such as community, creativity, tolerance, justice, compassion and the dedication to excellence." Recipients of this year's awards include radio programs created by National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio Netherlands Worldwide, among others.

This is the third Gabriel for "With Good Reason," the commonwealth's higher education broadcasting consortium, which presents engaging conversations with leading scholars at Virginia's public colleges and universities. The show is heard weekly on Virginia's public radio stations, as well as stations in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Georgia, Alaska, California, Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan.

Archived programs can be heard by podcast and online. The program's producers include host Sarah McConnell, associate producers Majerczyk and Kelley Libby and executive producer Andrew Wyndham.

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