Kelli Kyle Provides Coverage to NBC News of Selma March 50th Anniversary Commemoration

2015 Mar 18

Kelli Kyle, a sophomore journalism major in the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College, traveled to Alabama as part of a team of student journalists to document and provide coverage to NBC News of the 50th anniversary Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights.

The Park School partnered with NBC News to provide coverage used for "NBC Nightly News" and at NBCnews.com. On Sunday, March 8, Kyle and the team of student journalists streamed live coverage of the march reenactment through NBC's Stringwire online platform.

A series of events highlighted the march and its place in the Civil Rights movement, with what became known as "Bloody Sunday" shocking the conscience of the nation and helping lead to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

James Rada, associate professor of journalism in Ithaca College's Roy H. Park School of Communications, led the team of six student journalists to Alabama. Kyle interviewed some of the original marchers and put together stories on such activities as a mentoring program for young men in Selma and a community art project.

"So much of what we know about our past, and even much of what we experience in the present, comes through textbooks or the two-dimensional media provided by television, computers and smartphones," said Rada. "These students immersed themselves into the commemoration of an actual historical event on the site of that event, with people who participated in that event. And through that, they broadened their horizons in a way that we just can't achieve in the classroom."

The group documented the weekend via Twitter at #icparkselma50.

Kyle also participated in an online discussion on Tuesday, March 10, hosted by PBS's EduationShift website, which focuses on innovations in journalism education.

BuzzFeed featured several photos taken by Kyle in "Selma Bridge Crossing Almost Canceled Due To Large Crowd Numbers, But Demonstrators March On."