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Some DNC costs come out of Rogers’ own pocket
Jim Morrill
Posted: Sunday, Feb. 05, 2012

Johnson C. Smith joins in with stories, new website

The convention is one of the catalysts behind the new RUN DNC website at Johnson C. Smith University.

But it isn’t the only focus of the multimedia page, which launches Friday. Through videos, photos and writings, as many as 400 students will be “digitelling” stories on and off campus leading up to the convention.

A big part of their storyline will be reports about the campus’ westside – its civil rights and political history, its citizens and the present-day happenings that tie in with the rest of urban America.

“When all the reporters come, either we can tell the westside stories, or someone else does,” said Laurie Porter, communication arts professor and one of several faculty members leading the project, including Tonya Williams.

Porter’s reference is to the expected 15,000 media members. “If they want unique westside stories, they will come here,” she said.

One of the video stories discusses “the difference one westside student can make.”

It’s about Charles Jones, JCSU class of 1958, who as a student helped organize lunch counter sit-ins. He was part of the Freedom Riders, in which hundreds rode buses in the deep South to challenge segregated public transportation.

Still to come: contests and Apple iPod Touch giveaways that will draw more campus students and West Charlotte High students into the project.

Local Web experts Raquel Velez and Laura Mitchell – a westside resident – volunteered to create the logo and website for the run-dnc-2012.org project.  Celeste Smith

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