We all have at least a vague idea of what a whistleblower does and what they look like. Usually that image is of a shadowy figure in a parking lot at night, like the famous Deep Throat in America’s greatest scandal, Watergate. But it can be easy to forget that whistleblowers are, at the end of the day, simply normal people with normal lives – lives they are willing to put in jeopardy to do what is right.

 

One such person is Michael McCray, founder of the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival. A native of Pine Bluff, he attended Florida A&M University and earned a Bachelor of Science. Following Bill Clinton’s successful run for president, McCray was quickly pulled into the White House and had a promising career ahead of him. That promising career was dashed when he discovered 40 million dollars worth of fraud and made the decision to do the right thing. It was an isolating experience for him, leading to years of legal conflict, backlash and blackballing for a case that, in the end, was unsuccessful. Even after the case ended and he finished law school at Georgetown, the blackballing prevented McCray from practicing for two more years. 

 

However, things really turned around for McCray when he attended the conference for the 2007 Whistleblower’s Week in Washington D.C. There, McCray found a community that put an end to his feelings of isolation, and he dedicated his life to fostering that community. Together with Marcel Reid, another whistleblower who uncovered the misuse of funds in the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or ACORN), the two expanded the conference into the Whistleblower’s Summit for Civil and Human Rights and centered it around July 30, National Whistleblower’s Day. As part of the summit, they did showings of whistleblower movies like the award-winning All the President’s Men. Festival organizers soon noticed that movies about whistleblowers were much more popular than the whistleblowers themselves, making it an excellent way to bring in people who were not a part of the community. This led them to rebrand as the Whistleblower’s Film Festival.

 

This year is the film festival’s 10th anniversary, and the theme is “Does the Truth Still Matter? 50 Years After the Watergate Break-in.”

 

McCray is calling for the public to take part, whether by attending the festival virtually or in-person or by submitting a film. Because whistleblowing is an act meant to uncover different forms of wrongdoing, the festival features films about much more than just whistleblowing itself. According to a statement from the organization, “[The festival] seeks to shine a light on stories of courage and perseverance in the face of injustice and to encourage individuals to stand together to achieve human rights for all.

 

“We are looking for films about whistleblowers, the First Amendment or that touch on one or several human rights issues that are connected to our areas of work including but not limited to freedom of expression, women’s rights, discrimination, communal violence and defending human rights.” 

 

In general, they also seek to highlight diversity among whistleblowers; in McCray’s words, “When people imagine a whistleblower, they tend to imagine a Caucasian male.” But both he and Marcel Reid are African American, and he reminds us that Martha Mitchell, another Pine Bluff native who was known as “the Mouth of the South,” was the true whistleblower behind Watergate and Deep Throat. Their organization was also the first to organize whistleblowers around issues of civil and human rights, where it had previously been seen as a matter of public health and safety.

 

 

Despite the rebranding, film showings are still only one aspect of the summit. It will also feature a panel of authors of whistleblower books and a suite of awards, including the Martha Mitchell Award, the Frank Wills Award, named after the security guard who discovered the Watergate break-in, and the Pillar Award for Human Rights – awarded to politicians, activists or journalists for their achievements in civil or human rights. Attendants will include famous whistleblowers like Frank Serpico and Jeff Wigand and politicians like Senator Charles Grassley, Representative Elijah Cummings and “Jonestown” survivor, Representative Jackie Speier.

 

 

To learn more about McCray and the festival’s history, read his interview with us from May 2022, and to find out more about the upcoming festival this July and buy tickets, visit their website at www.whistleblowersummit.com.