June was a tough time to be a Baptist. That’s when Edgar Ray Killen, now 80, was tried and convicted for the 1964 murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Mississippi.

It was not Killen’s conviction that made life hard for Baptists. What made it difficult were media reports that constantly noted that the unrepentant racist is a Baptist and a preacher. “Every time I saw the coverage, I winced,” says Gary Nelson, the general secretary of Canadian Baptist Ministries.

The coverage came at a time when the North American media is going to great lengths not to malign or misrepresent Muslims over acts of terrorism committed by a few people in the name of Islam. But the same courtesy wasn’t extended to Baptists in the Killen case. For example, reporters constantly used the word “Baptist” as a catch-all term.

Killen is indeed a Baptist. But what kind of Baptist? The media almost never said what church he belonged to. According to Jerry Mitchell, the reporter at the Jackson, Mississippi. Clarion-Ledger whose investigative work resulted in Killen’s conviction, he is a member of the Smyrna Baptist church, an independent congregation that doesn’t belong to any Baptist denomination. “He’s not in the mainstream,” Mitchell says.

Some media outlets did give Killen’s denominational affiliation, but got it wrong. In a few accounts, he was listed as either a Southern Baptist or an American Baptist. ”He’s not a Southern Baptist,” says Erin Curry, a staff writer at Baptist Press.

“He’s not an American Baptist pastor,” says Rick Schramm, the deputy general secretary for communications for the American Baptist Churches, U.S.A. “His [racist] beliefs are about as antithetical to our beliefs as you can get.”

Then there’s the matter of Killen being a preacher. The media never noted that Killen has no formal Bible college or seminary training. Mitchell says he is a “jack-leg” preacher—a southern expression for someone who isn’t qualified to preach “but does it anyway.”

“He has some sort of ordination, but no seminary training,” Mitchell says, noting that his ordination likely comes from his local church. He doesn’t “have the approval” of any denominational body, he adds.

Finally, the media didn’t tell the whole story. It’s not hard to understand why reporters would be attracted to the story of a preacher turned killer. But just as compelling is the story of how Killen came to trial in the first place. It’s all because of the investigative work of a man who felt his Christian faith compelled him to pursue justice for the three dead civil rights workers—the journalist Jerry Mitchell.

It all started in 1989, when Mitchell saw the movie Mississippi Burning. That movie, about the killing of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, proved to be a turning point in his life. After seeing it, he began a 16-year crusade to get the state to reopen the case and bring the killers to justice.

Along the way, he delved into a number of other unresolved racially-motivated murders from the past. As a result of his dogged investigative reporting, the state of Mississippi and five other southern states reopened 23 murder cases; so far, 21 people have been found guilty, including Killen and Byron de la Beckwith, who was convicted in 1994 for the 1963 killing of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

For Mitchell, a member of the Skyway Hills Church of Christ in Pearl, Mississippi , hunting down the killers was just a matter of putting his faith into practice. “God loves justice, it says in the Psalms,” he says. “It says it over and over again, not just one time. As Christians, we have to be people of justice too. I don’t think God ever intended for someone to walk away from a murder.”

Of his role in getting the cases reopened, he says: “It’s been an amazing journey, and one that I believe God has blessed. All I am is a tool in God’s hands.”

What lessons can be learned from this experience? For the media, it means being just as careful when it comes to reporting about Christian groups as it is with Muslims, making sure not to tar all members of a denomination with the same brush. Reporters also need to distinguish between the various kinds of Baptists, Mennonites, Lutherans, Pentecostals and other groups—they are not all alike.

But for Baptists and other Christians, it means taking time to help reporters find their way through the maze that makes up their various groups. A member of a Baptist church may understand the differences between Southern, American, Free Will, Regular and Cooperative Baptists, to name just a few, but outsiders—including most reporters—can hardly be expected to understand the subtle distinctions, or to know who to call about a story involving a Baptist church member.

June was indeed a tough time to be a Baptist. But it was also a time for all Christians to take comfort from the knowledge that for every person like Edgar Ray Killen—someone who promoted hatred and violence in clear violation of the Bible’s message of God’s love for all—there are many more people like Jerry Mitchell, who used his faith to promote justice, and to make the world a better place.