Mississippi Humanities Council Newsletter - January 2021 |
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Executive Director's Message
Remembering Two Mississippi Giants
Over the past month, we have lost two Mississippi giants. At a time when such qualities are in short supply among our leaders, Governor William Winter and Dr. Cora Norman stand out for their lifetime commitment to truth, integrity, and public service.
Dr. Norman led the MHC from its founding in 1972 until her retirement in 1996. During her tenure, Cora shaped the Council in indelible ways. In 1972, not long after federally mandated integration, she worked to create an organization that reflected and served the full diversity of our state. While race remained a taboo subject in many parts of the state, Cora, working with a committed board and group of diverse humanities scholars, ensured the Council addressed this issue head-on, using the tools of the humanities to help understand how our difficult past underlay the contemporary challenges Mississippi faced. When other cultural organizations struggled with racial representation and working with Mississippi’s African American institutions, the MHC, under Cora’s leadership, never did.
When I became only the third executive director in the history of the MHC in 2013, I inherited this legacy. Over the course of my tenure, I have been inspired by Cora’s example, especially as I have seen other cultural organizations continue to struggle with issues of race. Often when I think about whether we should take on a controversial or challenging project, I think to myself, “what would Cora do?” The answer is usually clear since Cora was bold, never shying away from projects that challenged the status quo. I continue to be inspired by her vision of what the Council could be and how it must serve the people of Mississippi.
Like his friend Cora Norman, Governor William Winter also believed passionately in the importance of the humanities. Governor Winter spent 38 years as president of the board of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, helping lead that state agency to be more inclusive in the material it collected and the stories it told. It was this leadership that inspired Myrlie Evers Williams to entrust the state archives with the papers of her husband, Medgar, in 2002. Governor Winter led the way in securing private and public funding for the Two Mississippi Museums, which have helped rewrite our state’s history in a more honest and accurate way. He was also a lover of literature and presided over the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration for many years.
Governor Winter was a great friend of the Mississippi Humanities Council's throughout our 48 years of existence, participating in countless MHC programs. When we created the Cora Norman Award in 2015 to honor lifetime achievement in the public humanities, Governor Winter eagerly agreed to make the inaugural presentation honoring his friend Dr. Estus Smith. I fondly recall his beautiful remarks which highlighted Dr. Smith’s experience growing up as an African American in Mississippi during the worst of the Jim Crow era and how he served his community as a teacher and administrator at Jackson State University, and so much more. I have wonderful memories of that night with Cora Norman, William Winter, and Estus Smith, whom we lost in May last year, reminiscing on the progress Mississippi has achieved, thanks in no small part, to their contributions.
They both believed deeply that the future success of Mississippi must be built on an honest reckoning with our past. They inspired people with their commitment to truth and justice.
Both Governor Winter and Dr. Norman’s careers showed how the values of the humanities–integrity and the honest pursuit of truth–are essential parts of being a great leader. They both believed deeply that the future success of Mississippi must be built on an honest reckoning with our past. They inspired people with their commitment to truth and justice.
Neither Mississippi nor the Mississippi Humanities Council would be what we are today without the leadership of these two extraordinary people. Although they have now passed, their lives and memories will continue to bless our state.
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Dr. Estus Smith (left) with Gov. William Winter and Dr. Cora Norman at the 2015 MHC Awards Gala |
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Mellon Foundation Awards MHC $375,000 to Support College Education in Mississippi Prisons
The Mississippi Humanities Council is thrilled to announce a major grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support humanities education in Mississippi prisons. This $375,000 grant, part of the foundation’s “The Future of Higher Learning in Prison” program, will support humanities courses taught by Hinds Community College, Northeast Mississippi Community College, and Mississippi Delta Community College for the next two years as part of a new Community College Prison Education Consortium.
The Humanities Council, which has been supporting prison education programs for several years, has recently partnered with community colleges to help provide for-credit courses for incarcerated learners. This grant will enable the Council to expand these programs and hire a project coordinator to work with the community colleges and the Mississippi Department of Corrections to facilitate student enrollment and recruitment, course management, and teacher training.
“We are so excited about The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s support of this work,” said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the MHC. “Our ultimate goal is to help create a sustained statewide program of community college education in our state’s prison facilities.”
Hinds Community College has been offering for-credit courses at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl since 2018. Dr. Keri Cole, vice president of instruction, stated, “We believe deeply that offering these courses to incarcerated students furthers the essential mission of Hinds Community College. The Community College Prison Education Consortium will have a profound impact on our most underserved population.” This grant will fully fund eight humanities courses a year at CMCF.
Northeast Mississippi Community College has been teaching a range of courses at the Alcorn County Prison since 2017. According to Dr. Michelle Baragona, vice president of instruction, “We started offering these courses at Alcorn County Prison because we believe that it is our responsibility to serve the people of northeast Mississippi. By working with the MHC and the other two community colleges, we hope to inspire other educational institutions to serve the incarcerated learners in their area.”
Mississippi Delta Community College was preparing to launch a prison education program at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman this past spring when it was suspended due to COVID-19. With support from this grant, MDCC will be launching virtual course offerings for students at Parchman in the spring semester. Teresa Webster, vice president of instruction, said, “MDCC is dedicated to improving the community through intellectual and cultural opportunities, and we believe that community includes incarcerated students. With support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, we will finally be able to begin our work at Parchman, teaching at least four humanities courses a year.”
According to Shaniece Mabry, director of education for the Mississippi Department of Corrections, “This grant will help transform the educational opportunities available in Mississippi prisons. Education plays a critical role in breaking the cycle of recidivism by providing the men and women in our correctional system with opportunities to succeed in their communities when they leave our facilities.”
The Mississippi Community College Board (MCCB) worked with the Mississippi Humanities Council to help build the consortium with the participating community colleges. “I appreciate the Mellon Foundation for providing resources to Mississippi and also offer my congratulations to the Mississippi Humanities Council and the other participants in the Community College Prison Education Consortium for securing the grant,” said Dr. Andrea Mayfield, executive director of the Mississippi Community College Board. “The MCCB is proud to have helped with this effort as funds will help provide quality education to those in most need of help.”
“We hope this grant will encourage other Mississippi colleges and universities to offer humanities courses to incarcerated learners in their area. Ultimately, we hope this program grows beyond the Mississippi Humanities Council to become an established part of higher education in our state,” said Dr. Rockoff.
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MHC Welcomes New Project Coordinator
The Mississippi Humanities Council welcomes a new staff member, Carla Falkner, project coordinator for the Council’s prison education program.
Falkner will serve as the key liaison between the Council and its partners in a major new initiative, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to offer college courses in Mississippi prison facilities. The Council was recently awarded a $375,000 grant, part of the Foundation’s “The Future of Higher Learning in Prison” program, to support humanities courses taught by Hinds Community College, Northeast Mississippi Community College, and Mississippi Delta Community College for the next two years as part of a new Mississippi Community College Prison Education Consortium.
Falkner brings rigorous humanities scholarship and a deep knowledge of regional educational systems to the Council’s prison education initiative. After moving to Mississippi from Texas, Falkner received a master of arts degree in history from the University of Mississippi. During her 30-year career as a history instructor and academic division head at Northeast Mississippi Community College, she also served two terms on the MHC board of directors. Recently retired from NEMCC, Falkner will now work to improve processes for enrolling incarcerated students in academic programs and creating systems for providing academic support for students in limited environments.
“In the community college setting, I witnessed the power of higher education to change lives,” says Falkner. “College courses in prisons dramatically reduces recidivism by restoring a sense of purpose and value to the individuals. As a believer in the Council’s motto, ‘The humanities are for everyone,’ I am excited to be a part of this work, and I am looking forward to working with our various partners in this project and seeing its impact.”
The Mississippi Humanities Council has been supporting prison education programs for several years. The Council’s goal, with Mellon Foundation support, is to create a sustained statewide program of community college education in our state’s prison facilities. The first courses under the Council’ new initiative will begin this spring when Mississippi Delta Community College begins offering courses at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, courses will be conducted remotely by an MDCC instructor with students participating via livestream television.
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Crossroads Heads to Scooba, Prepares For February Opening
On January 5, the Smithsonian Institution’s Crossroads exhibition arrived on the campus of East Mississippi Community College in style. The exhibition, which was most recently on display in Mount Olive, was transported to Scooba by the EMCC commercial trucking program on the college’s new football trailer (you can read more about the school’s famous football team here). The exhibition will open on campus in early February and will remain on display through mid-March.
Crossroads will open in the Tubb-May Memorial Library on February 8 and will be free and open to the public to visit. In conjunction with the exhibition, the library has organized a series of public programs that focus on rural life and identity. These programs include a presentation by Crossroads state scholar Dr. John Green on rural population studies on February 15, a presentation by MSU Extension Services specialist Dr. Rachael Carter on February 22, and a presentation by MHC Speakers Bureau member Dr. Brinda Willis on African American outmigration on March 15. More information on Crossroads’ run in Scooba can be found on the MHC calendar.
Through artifacts, images, text, and interactive elements, Crossroads explores rural identity, the importance of land, how rural communities manage change, and much more. After the exhibition departs Scooba in March, it will travel to Columbia, where it will be on display at the Marion County Museum and Historical Society. Crossroads will also travel to Greenwood and Waveland before leaving Mississippi in August 2021. Crossroads’ Mississippi tour is supported by a generous grant from Entergy Mississippi.
More information about the exhibition and its Mississippi tour can be found on the MHC website.
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MHC Continues Partner Series with Mass Humanities
In December 2020, the MHC launched a new, six-month partnership with Massachusetts Humanities to connect Mississippians and Massachusettsans over shared stories and histories. On February 18, the third program in the six-part series will take place to address coastal heritage in both states.
The series began in December with a program that explored images of both states as reflected in literature. In January, the series continued with a program about Freedom Summer and the connections that both states shared during the fight for civil rights. The January program featured Civil Rights Movement veterans and current civil rights activists and scholars.
The February program will use an environmental lens to address coastal traditions in both states. In particular, the program will look at fishing heritages in both states as a way to address economic and cultural changes in both Mississippi and Massachusetts. The program will feature scholars and members of the fishing industry from both states, as well as a chance for breakout discussions among the audience.
More details on the program and registration information can be found on the MHC website.
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Grant Program Spotlight: Scott Ford House & Mississippi Midwives
The Scott Ford House, Inc. project in Jackson, MS, aims to collect, preserve and retell the histories of African American midwives and the critical role they played in the health of African Americans. The project has received grant support from the Mississippi Humanities Council for various phases of its work to gather data, memorabilia and oral histories about the “granny midwife” story in Mississippi.
“While our project seeks to inform and to discuss 20th century perspectives of Mississippi midwifery, it is important to remember that midwifery is as old as human history,” says project director Dr. Alferdteen Harrison. “Certainly, the midwives helping families give birth to healthy babies is a 20th century legacy of the Jim Crow South, including Mississippi. After Reconstruction, for many African American people who lacked the means to go to the segregated facilities for colored mothers, midwives were among the most important providers of health care in the southern U.S.”
Harrison is leading an effort to restore the Scott Ford House complex (two homes, wash house, gardens and chicken coop), located in the heart of Jackson’s Farish Street Historic District at 136 and 138 East Cohea Street, to serve as an operational urban museum complex. The Scott Ford houses were built from 1891 to 1892. Mary Green Scott, a formerly enslaved woman, and her daughter and son-in-law, Virginia and John Ford, were among the first African Americans to build homes on Cohea Street after the Civil War ended, and their descendants owned the properties for more than a century. Virginia Ford was a practicing midwife serving the African American community by attending births and providing basic medical care during the Jim Crow era when African Americans had little access to most of the area’s doctors and hospitals.
The project has received support from the Mississippi Legislature through the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, as well as other sources, to acquire the homes from the city of Jackson and begin physical restoration of the Scott Ford structures. The Mississippi Humanities Council has funded research and public outreach efforts to collect and share the history and the importance of midwifery in the lives of African Americans.
Throughout much of 2020, Harrison and a team of scholars hosted community dialogues (in virtual format due to COVID19) in Jackson, Natchez, Biloxi and Tupelo to both share their research and also to explore regional differences and similarities in the midwife experience across the state. Programs included panel discussions with historians, archivists and experienced midwives; an exhibit of midwife artifacts; a video on the historical context of the Scott Ford home and Virginia Ford’s contributions as a Jim Crow-era midwife; a dramatic presentation, bringing to life the work of 20th century midwives in Mississippi; and audience dialogue with the panelists.
“(Audiences especially responded to) the excellent personal experiences presented by Nurse Midwife Genevieve Feyen and OB/GYN Freda Bush, which brought a lot of reality to the actual work of the midwife,” Harrison said. “The result of this phase of our project is we—and our audiences—have a clearer understanding of who the historical African American granny midwife was who lived at 138 East Cohea Street in Jackson.”
Harrison and her team plan to expand their research to other regions of the state to further develop and refine the story of the Mississippi midwife and to collect additional oral history memories of the 20th century midwife experience. Eventually, the artifacts and recorded histories they collect will be housed in the Scott Ford House museum complex in Jackson both for general public visitors and academic research.
To learn more about the Scott Ford House, Inc. project or to support their work, visit their website at www.scottfordhouse.org.
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Interested in exploring COVID-19’s lasting impact on our society? Host one of the MHC’s three Humbox community discussion programs to learn how history, bioethics, and public health shape our understanding of COVID-19. More information on hosting a free Humbox can be found on the MHC website.
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2021 Humanities Teacher Award Lectures Begin
Humanities Teacher Award lectures are starting this month, and will continue in February and March. One outstanding humanities educator at each of the state's institutions for higher learning is selected each year for this award, which includes a cash award and special recognition at the Mississippi Humanities Council's annual awards gala in March. These lectures offer Mississippians a unique experience to hear scholarly presentations on a wide range of humanities subjects. To comply with COVID-19 restrictions and precautions, many of these lectures will be available for viewing via live stream, so be sure to check the MHC web calendar and Facebook page for links to individual programs. Upcoming lectures include:
January 26: Nathaniel Ward, Itawamba Community College, "Crossing the Bar: Attaining Student Success"
January 26: Dr. Joshua Dohmen, Mississippi University for Women, "Acknowledging Vulnerability"
February 15: Jamey Shannon, Mississippi Delta Community College, "The Art of Songwriting"
February 19: Joshua Maeda, Meridian Community College, "Why Live?--Isn't There an App For That?"
February 21: Byron Chatman, Rust College, "Natalie Doxey: Ambassador of Goodwill"
A full list of 2021 Humanities Teacher Award winners will be available soon on the MHC website.
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