Al's Morning Meeting

As newsrooms get smaller, one of my worries is what will become of newsroom archives. Newspapers are doing away with librarians, and TV station archives are often a total mess because some overworked chief editor is in charge of them.

That is why I was so thrilled to see this project from WHBQ-TV in Memphis, Tenn. It is fairly rare to see a local TV station invest so much energy in a non-commercial Web site, especially one dedicated to local history. The site, titled "A View From the Mountaintop," brings together remarkable videos from the Memphis sanitation workers' strike. The strike, and the demonstrations that followed, attracted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and generated the hatred that ultimately cost him his life.

I asked May-Lin Biggs, WHBQ senior Web producer, about the site in this edited e-mail exchange.

May-Lin Biggs

Al Tompkins: What was the vision behind this project? Why did you produce it?

Biggs: Every year for Martin Luther King Day and the anniversary of his assassination, our station pulled out the same archived footage it shot in 1968. The footage has barely survived several medium transfers, and my general manager, John Koski, said it simply did not belong on the shelf.

My news director, Ken Jobe, Flash designer Will Dotson and I met with the National Civil Rights Museum to talk about how we could present our footage, and then the vision for the Web site was born. We wanted to present this priceless "window in time" to a whole new generation that only knows of Dr. King and the immense struggles of the civil rights era through the pages in textbooks.
 
What stories are told on this site that have not been told before?

Biggs: The interviews with our own local civil rights heroes reflecting on the days with Dr. King in the "Obama Era" section of the site are truly fascinating. We are so fortunate to have chronicled this amazing intersection of history with the people who fought the hardest to grant many of our modern day rights.

The footage that aired in 1968 -- not of Dr. King, but of our city in turmoil amid sit-ins, riots and mountains of garbage -- for me, carried a renewed sense of civic pride when I saw the grandparents of my peers arm in arm, singing hymns in City Hall, fighting for the right of basic human dignity. While the stories may not be new, we hope that their context is.
 
It is pretty rare to see a local TV station produce an online project of this depth. How did you find the resources to produce it?

Biggs: Long days and many, many weekends! We are a small Web staff of three. Jeramia Trotter, who completes our "Web team trifecta," really stepped up to handle the brunt of the daily grind. Will and I collaborated on the design and content. I compiled and converted all of the video, created graphics and did part of the writing. Will did all of the programming and coordinated extensive content sharing with the National Civil Rights Museum; the Shelby County registrar's office, which provided evidence photos from Dr. King's murder investigation; and The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, which provided the front-page snapshots in our timeline.
I find no commercial logos or sponsorships on the page. Why?
Biggs: When the site debuted last year, we agreed that aside from links to our content partners, we would not embed ad zones on the page. The thought of a "Lose Weight Fast!" flashing banner on the Web site makes me twitch. This, of course, will change, as we have sponsorship in line for Black History Month in February, but at least the ads are for local businesses and can be designed to fit the page.
 
I see on the site that you will be adding more elements. What's next?

Biggs: Even though the site debuted last year, we've made many changes just recently. We added the "Obama Era" video player and more educational materials because the site was promoted as part of the Memphis City schools' curriculum. We'd love to add more interactive learning features to engage as many students as possible as the site continues to grow.