Witness to the Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement
Presenter: David Carson '94 (CIAS)
Staff photo journalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Webinar Date: 11-16-2018

Witness to the Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement

The fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer in 2014 sparked outrage in the local community, spread instantly on social media and erupted into protests around the country. The reaction forced a national conversation about race and policing, breathed life into the already established Black Lives Matter campaign and launched a new civil rights movement that continues today.

David Carson '94 (CIAS)
David Carson '94 (CIAS) / Staff photo journalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

RIT alumni David Carson '94 (CIAS) is a staff photojournalist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch documented the historic events that became part of our national psyche. The photo staff St. Louis Post-Dispatch was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for their coverage of Ferguson. The webinar will give people an inside look at the early days of what has become a new civil rights movement.

David Carson '94 (CIAS), Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer

David Carson '94 is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He began his career at 16 when his mother drove him to his first newspaper assignment because he would not have his license for another two months. Carson, a Boston area native, has worked at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since 2000. Before arriving in the Mid-west, he worked at the Naples Daily News in Florida, at the Providence Journal-Bulletin in Rhode Island, and as a freelance photographer in New England.

David's images are featured extensively in the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography that was awarded to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch photo staff. He has also won numerous other awards for his work over the years. In 2008, his multimedia project 'Reporting for Duty' won a regional Emmy award for Advanced Media – Interactivity. In 2009, he was part of a team that was recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in the 'Breaking News Reporting' category for their coverage of the Kirkwood City Hall shootings. He also was named the National Press Photographers Association Region 7 Photographer of the Year in 2011, 2010 and 2009. David is a 1994 alumni of RIT where he was a photojournalism major and international relations minor.