Director's Message

Understanding Mississippi, with all its complexity, has guided the Mississippi Humanities Council since our founding fifty years ago.

MHC Awards Nearly $56,000 in Grants

The Mississippi Humanities Council is pleased to announce $55,700 in grants to nine Mississippi organizations in support of public humanities programs. The humanities programs funded in this major round include two annual literary festivals, an insightful tour of former slave dwellings, a documentary film exploring the life of Daisy Greene who led a Mississippi Delta oral history project in the 1970s, an inaugural banned books festival, and more.



“These projects reflect the imaginative ways our state’s cultural organizations, small and large, are using the humanities to deepen the public’s understanding of our unique Mississippi experience,” said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the MHC. “They represent a mix of tried-and-true programs supported by the Council for many years, as well as new and innovative approaches for exploring our state’s shared histories and cultures.”

Humanities grants are awarded to Mississippi nonprofit organizations in support of programs that foster the public’s understanding of our rich history and culture. Major grants are offered twice each year. Deadlines are May 1 and September 15. Please visit our Grants page on our website, or contact Carol Andersen, carol@mhc.state.ms.us, for additional information.

University of Mississippi—$7,500.00

The Twenty-Ninth Oxford Conference for the Book

Annual three-day event celebrating books, reading, and writing. The 2023 conference will explore a variety of topics, including ongoing work through research and books to illuminate a fuller history of slavery in the U.S. and the Caribbean South, the life and works of Oxford writer Larry Brown and the work emerging from the Mississippi poetry community.

Copiah-Lincoln Community College—$6,600.00

Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration

Annual event exploring southern history and culture through film and books. The 2023 festival theme will be “The Better Half: Fact, Fiction or Fable?” and will focus on the achievements of women and their contributions to a variety of sectors of home and civic life in the South and the nation.

Preserve Marshall County & Holly Springs, Inc. —$7,500.00

Behind the Big House Program & Tour

Educational tour of former slave dwellings, and related programs, offered in conjunction with annual pilgrimage of historic homes in Holly Springs. Joseph McGill of the Slave Dwellings Project and culinary historian Michael W. Twitty have committed to participate, as well as Tammy Gibson, a professional storyteller whose work focuses on illuminating the African American experience. Events will include lectures, tours, antebellum cooking demonstrations and more.

Mississippi College—$3,650.00

Mississippi Founders and Black Resistance

Speaker series to accompany MHC’s Mississippi Founders traveling exhibit at Mississippi College. Presentations will address topics related to the exhibit themes, including a lecture by Dr. Kellie Cherie Carter Jackson of Wellesley College, who will speak from her book, Force and Freedom, which analyzes the history of Black abolitionism, as well as from her forthcoming book project on Black responses to white violence.

Austin Film Society—$7,500.00

It’s In the Voices

Documentary film project exploring the life and work of Daisy Greene, who led the Washington County (Mississippi) Oral History Project from 1976-1979.



University of Southern Mississippi—$7,500.00

Yakni Achukma Okla Achukma (Healthy Land, Healthy People)      

Four public programs centered around a Medicine Wheel Garden, featuring indigenous and organic plant life, on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi. Sessions will cover topics related to native plants and their traditional uses.

Dr. John Bowman Banks Museum—$5,000.00

St. Catherine Street, Natchez, MS: Yesteryear through Today       

Multifaceted project to preserve and share the history of St. Catherine Street in Natchez, MS – a mini-version of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK. Activities will include development of a walking tour of the St. Catherine Street area and an oral history project with people who once lived in the area of St. Catherine Street.

The Bean Path—$5,450.00

The Meaning in Making for our Community: The Makers’ Narrative Toolbox         

Planning grant to fund facilitated conversations with “makers” in west Jackson communities in the 39203 Zip Code area, which will inform future public programs and offerings at The Bean Path, whose outreach includes a “Makerspace”—a collaborative, community workshop space to engage Jackson in S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math) pursuits.



Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting (MCIR) —$5,000.00

Mississippi Banned Books Festival

Free public banned books festival taking place in Spring 2023 at Millsaps College in Jackson. The goals of the festival are to draw attention to racial factors involved in book banning, to increase audiences’ awareness of what is happening in school and public libraries, and to launch conversations among students, educators and proponents of banning that could potentially lead to new strategies. The festival will feature both on-site events at Millsaps College and live-streaming options.

Voices and Votes Makes Final Stop in Vicksburg

The Smithsonian Institution's traveling exhibit Voices and Votes: Democracy in America is open at its final stop at the Catfish Row Museum in Vicksburg before leaving the state in mid-January 2023.

The exhibit opened with a ceremony yesterday (pictured above) featuring MHC program officer Molly McMillan, Catfish Row Museum Director Linda Fondren, Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs, and other local elected officials.

While on display, the museum has organized a series of free public programs in conjunction with Voices and Votes. There will be an "Ideas on Tap" panel discussion at Key City Brewery (Nov. 30) with Senator Briggs Hopson and Kyle Kirkpatrick, Assistant Secretary of State, Russ Latino of Empower Mississippi.

Other programs include a presentation by Sara Dionne, the Warren County Election Commission chairwoman, and Jan Daige, Circuit Clerk, to provide educational opportunities on voting processes, including bringing in new voting machines and walking through the voting experience (Dec. 3). Later in December, Harvard scholar Donald Field Brown will present on the history of The Vicksburg Citizens' Appeal, an African-American operated newspaper during critical civil rights years (Dec. 20).

The free exhibit will be on display until January 20, 2023 alongside the museum's other collections that explore the history and diversity of the Vicksburg area. Visit the MHC web calendar for information about all upcoming Voices and Votes programming. For questions about the Museum on Main Street program, contact Molly McMillan.

MHC Sponsors Community Forum on Public Education in Hattiesburg November 30

As part of the "Democracy and the Informed Citizen" Initiative, administered by the Mississippi Humanities Council with support from the Mellon Foundation, the staff of The Pine Belt News will give the public a chance to learn about the performance of local school districts – and the individual schools within them – with an upcoming community forum featuring local superintendents and Mayor Toby Barker.

The forum, titled “How Do We Support Public Education,” will take place from 6-7:30 p.m. November 30 at Lake Terrace Convention Center in Hattiesburg.

Mayor Barker will moderate the event, asking questions of the following superintendents: Robert Williams (Hattiesburg Public School District), Matt Dillon (Petal School District), Steven Hampton (Lamar County School District) and Donna Boone (Forrest County Agricultural School District). Brian Freeman, superintendent of the Forrest County School District, wished to attend but will be out of town that week for a prior obligation. The panel will discuss trends in education and how the community can help foster excellence in our public schools.

The audience will be given the opportunity to address any questions or concerns with the panel. For more information on the event, call The Pine Belt News office at (601) 268-2331.

MHC Increases Minigrant Maximum to $2,500

The Mississippi Humanities Council has increased the upper limit for its minigrants from $2,000 to $2,500, effective November 1. Minigrant proposals are accepted on a rolling basis, with applications due at least four weeks before the start of the proposed project or event.

The MHC minigrants program supports projects that stimulate meaningful community dialogue, attract diverse audiences, are participatory and engaging, and apply the humanities to our everyday lives. Grants may be used to support public humanities programs, exhibits, the planning of larger projects, and the development of original productions in film, television, radio or online resources. The Council also offers special grants to support oral history projects around the state.

Applicants are encouraged to contact Carol Andersen before submitting project drafts.

Bring a Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker to Your Community

The MHC is now accepting applications for the Mississippi Freedom Trail. Since the last deadline, the scholars committee approved two new additions to the trail: A marker for Fannie Lou Hamer in Winona where she was beaten and arrested by law enforcement; another commemorating the African American experience in Greenville during the 1927 flood.

If you feel your community has a significant story to share about a place, person, or event relevant to the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, we encourage you to apply for a Mississippi Freedom Trail marker. From now until the end of 2024, all approved Freedom Trail markers will be free of charge with funding from Visit Mississippi. The deadline for applications is March 1, 2023. You can apply here, or contact MHC Program and Outreach officer John Spann.

Prison Book Club Expands to Two New Facilities

A Mississippi Humanities Council program launched in April is growing in popularity. Prison book clubs are expanding to new facilities and populations, with waiting lists as long as 40 people.

More than 150 men have participated in at least one of the nine clubs sponsored by the MHC. After beginning in Unit 30 of Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman (MSP), book clubs have extended to MSP’s Unit 29 with separate sessions held for men on death row and young adults, ages 19-21. Clubs are also meeting at South Mississippi Correctional Institution and Walnut Grove Correctional Facility.

Books by Mississippian Jesmyn Ward, two-time winner of the National Book Award, continue to be favorites. The participants for the original Unit 30 club are now reading their fourth book by Ward, who joined them by Zoom when they read Sing, Unburied, Sing. The readers have expressed how strongly they identify with the characters in Ward’s books, one saying, “I am JoJo.”

Another popular selection is Brittany Barnett’s, A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice and Freedom. First read by the men on death row at MSP, the clubs at SMCI and WGCF have also related to her memoir. Barnett has joined the discussions, either in person or by Zoom, answering questions about her life and justice-related work.

Barnett challenges the men to share their own stories. The book clubs typically include writing prompts. Participants’ responses have taken the form of memoirs, essays, poetry and fiction.

Several members of the Young Adult Book Club discovered a new genre as they read John Lewis’s graphic trilogy, March, co-written by Andrew Aydin and drawn by Nate Powell. The selection allowed them to explore the Civil Rights Movement and its connection to Parchman.

Continued book club expansion is possible through support from The James & Madeleine McMullan Family Foundation and the Mississippi Library Commission.

MHC Grant Will Help Highlight Cultural History of Natchez’s ‘Black Wall Street’

The Mississippi Humanities Council recently awarded a project grant to the staff of the Dr. John Bowman Banks Museum for a project that highlights the cultural history of St. Catherine Street.

The project is titled “St. Catherine Street, Natchez, MS: Yesteryear through Today” and will use tours, photographs, oral history, and a brochure to share the rare and untold history of the people, buildings, culture, and businesses on the street from as far back as the 1930s, according to Project Director Thelma Newsome.

“Some people view St. Catherine as a mini version of ‘Black Wall Street’ of Tulsa, Oklahoma, because of its thriving black businesses and cultural development in the past,” said Newsome. “The small business is what helped to carry the people along all these many years. They were especially vital in a time of heightened racism and discrimination.”

Newsome, a lifelong resident of St. Catherine, said the street once boasted of thriving businesses that included barbershops, restaurants, grocery stores, laundromats, drycleaners, service stations, shoe repair shop, and beauty shops.

Although many of those businesses are gone, they had stories that need to be told about their existence and the impact they had on the community, Newsome said.

“This is a project whose time has come,” said Dora P. Hawkins, one of the organizers. “The Dr. John Bowman Banks Museum staff is elated to introduce St. Catherine Street, Natchez, to the world and to reintroduce the street to Natchez. In our research, we are finding so many interesting facts about this street and, it appears, we are only at the tip of what’s available.”

The tour experience will begin at Forks of the Road and end at the Rhythm Night Club Memorial Museum.

Pictured above is Rasberry Grocery Store: Doris Rasberry, right, with customers inside Quality Grocery and Market on St. Catherine Street. This business is one of many that will be featured in the St. Catherine Street history project, “St. Catherine Street, Natchez, MS: Yesteryear through Today.” Doris and her husband, Robert, opened the store at 158-160 St. Catherine St. at the end of World War II. For almost 40 years, it served the residents of the St. Catherine area. Photo courtesy of Rasberry Collection, Historic Natchez Foundation.

Upcoming MHC-Sponsored Events

Voices and Votes in Vicksburg

November 19, 2022 - January 20, 2023

Catfish Row Museum, Vicksburg

The Catfish Row Museum in Vicksburg is hosting Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, a Smithsonian traveling exhibition, now until January 20, 2023. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

Voices and Votes events in Vicksburg:

November 30, 5:30 p.m., Key City Brewery: “Ideas on Tap: Democracy and Voting" with Senator Briggs Hopson, Kyle Kirkpatrick, Assistant Secretary of State, and Russ Latino of Empower Mississippi.

December 3: Sara Dionne, the Warren County Election Commission chairwoman, and Jan Daige, Circuit Clerk, to provide educational opportunities on voting processes, including bringing in new voting machines and walking through the voting experience.

December 10: Fashion Politics Exhibit with local/national fashion designer Raymond Banks.

December 20: Donald Field Brown, Harvard Scholar, will provide the history of The Vicksburg Citizens’ Appeal during critical Civil Rights years.

January 4, 2023: Presentation from Voices and Votes state scholar Dr. Rebecca Tuuri, “Democracy in Mississippi: Race, Violence and Power in the Struggle for the Vote.”

Learn More

Mississippi Founders Traveling Exhibit

October 1-November 28

Oren Dunn City Museum, Tupelo

The Mississippi Founders traveling exhibit is now on tour through the state. This special exhibit is funded through the National Endowment for Humanities special "More Perfect Union" initiative.

Exhibit Dates:

• Quisenberry Library (Clinton): Nov. 21-Dec. 2, 2022
• Margaret Walker Library (Jackson): Dec. 21, 2022-Feb. 1, 2023
• Delta State University (Cleveland): Jan. 3, 2023-Feb. 1, 2023
• Mississippi College (Clinton): Feb. 1, 2023-Mar. 10, 2023
• Quitman County Arts Council (Marks): Feb. 1, 2023-Mar. 10, 2023
• Eudora Welty Library (Jackson): Mar. 10, 2023-Apr. 14, 2023

Housing Insecurity in Mississippi Exhibition

November 1 – January 31

Margaret Walker Center, Jackson State University

This exhibition displays work from a project out of the Mississippi State University School of Architecture. It collects narratives and documents the lived spaces of individuals and communities that have experienced, are experiencing, or are working to relieve housing insecurity and evictions in Mississippi.

Learn More

Community Forum: How Do We Support Public Education

November 30, 6:00 p.m.

Lake Terrace Convention Center, Hattiesburg

As part of the “Democracy and the Informed Citizen” Initiative, administered by the MHC with support from the Mellon Foundation, the staff of The Pine Belt News will give the public a chance to learn about the performance of local school districts—and the individual schools within them—with an upcoming community forum featuring local superintendents and Mayor Toby Barker.

Learn More

Speakers Bureau: Mississippi Telling

December 12, 8:45 a.m.

Oxford Intermediate School Library, Oxford

Dr. Rebecca Jernigan provides an overview of the storytelling Renaissance in America with emphasis upon the oral tradition in Mississippi.