Executive Director's Message

You should feel just as comfortable reaching out to us; we are always happy to talk with you about your idea.

In this particular case, the representative had no special introduction to our staff. She just called us! You should feel just as comfortable reaching out to us; we are always happy to talk with you about your idea.

But being accessible is not just waiting by the phone or our email inbox to hear from you. Our staff is often on the road, attending MHC-funded programs, visiting council partners (and future partners), and spreading the word about the MHC. Yesterday, I drove to the Delta Correctional Facility in Greenwood for a completion ceremony for our prison education partners at Mississippi Valley State University. Since I was going to be in the area, I reached out to the new director at the Museum of the Mississippi Delta who I hadn’t yet met. Though she had only been in the position for a few months, I wanted to make sure she knew about the MHC and our long history of working with the museum and discuss ways we could support their work in the future.

Every year, I end my remarks at our awards gala with the phrase “we are YOUR humanities council,” and that spirit has long shaped the culture of the MHC. We exist to serve the people of Mississippi, so don’t be a stranger!

MHC Grant Applications Now Available Through Online Portal

The MHC is pleased to announce the unveiling of our new online grant application portal. Beginning today, June 23, we are transitioning to the online grant application portal, which is accessible through our website. Through this new portal, we have streamlined our application process from start to finish, making applications more accessible than ever. Much of the content remains the same; however, applicants will no longer need to format applications themselves or keep track of drafts. These drafts can now be saved into a link that can be used to revisit an application at any time. Additionally, the process saves MHC staff data entry time, which enables us to be more responsive with our answers and feedback. Our priority remains to be accessible to all Mississippians. We are excited to use this new tool to help us continue to be available to all our current and future partners across the state. If you have any questions or feedback about this new portal, please contact Evan Jones at ejones@mhc.state.ms.us.

MHC Awards More Than $75,000 in Spring Grants

The Mississippi Humanities Council is pleased to announce $75,479.50 in grants to 10 cultural organizations in support of public humanities programs. The humanities programs funded in this major round include a women’s literary arts series, a new exhibit highlighting Mississippi artist Walter Anderson’s bicycle tour across the Americas, a documentary film featuring the life and contributions of an African American Mississippi educator Dr. Jane Ellen McAllister, and more.

“These projects reflect the many diverse stories of our state, and the creative ways cultural organizations and filmmakers are documenting them,” said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the MHC. “We were very pleased to increase the upper limit of our grants this spring, from $7,500 to $10,000."

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 for major grants are May 1 and September 15. Please visit the Grants page on our website, or contact Carol Andersen for additional information.

Projects awarded include:

Mississippi Action for Community Education (MACE)—$9,750.00

Having Our Say: Women WriteHER Literary Arts Series

One-day public literary program, during the three-day Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival in Greenville, featuring 13 authors, humanities scholars, literary artists, and creatives reflecting on southern women of the Civil Rights Movement.

Invisible Histories Project—$8,000.00

Magnolia Memories: Mississippi’s LGBTQ History

Exhibit and related public programs documenting and exploring Mississippi’s LGBTQ history from the 1960s through the 2000s including text and artifacts, textiles, audio/visual content and art.

Jackson/Hinds Library System—$3,000.00

Our Stories, We Remember: Oral Histories of the Jackson/Hinds Library System Eponyms

Oral history project to capture memories of the people for whom the Jackson/Hinds Library System branches are named.

New Orleans Photo Alliance—$10,000.00

My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is: The Legacy of Jane Ellen McAllister

Documentary film project exploring the history of education, race relations and African American studies through the life and work of Vicksburg-native Dr. Jane Ellen McAllister.

GRAMMY Museum—$4,000.00

Highway 61: Traveling America’s Music Highway

Free museum day for community members and visitors to tour a new contemporary exhibit and panel discussion exploring the musical history along Highway 61 from New Orleans to St. Louis, including the Mississippi Delta.

Alex Foundation—$5,729.50

Landmarks in Humanities: Teaching Architecture, History and Culture with Historic Places

Free summer youth workshop engaging middle school students with local architecture, history and culture. Programming will take place at The Belmont 1857, a former plantation home in Greenville.

Walter Anderson Museum of Art—$10,000.00

Culture on the Open Road: Travel and Exchange in the American South

Series of public programs and dialogues focused on Mississippi artist Walter Anderson’s bicycle travels across the Americas, exploring topics such as the history and art of the Highwaymen, a group of mostly self-taught African Americans who devoted themselves to capturing Florida’s landscapes beginning in the late 1950s—landscapes Anderson encountered on his bicycle trips through the Sunshine State.

Coahoma Community College—$10,000.00

2023 Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival

Annual festival examining the life and works of playwright Tennessee Williams. The 2023 festival will explore two Williams’ plays, The Unsatisfactory Supper and Twenty-seven Wagons Full of Cotton, upon which the controversial 1956 film Baby Doll was based.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—$5,000.00

Okay, Mr. Ray!

Documentary film about a beloved Vicksburg auctioneer and storyteller, Ray Lum, using footage collected more than 50 years ago by folklorist William Ferris. The film project is presented as a tribute to the power of storytelling and oral traditions to understand a particular place and time.

Jackson State University- 10,000.00

Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival

Fiftieth anniversary celebration of a groundbreaking conference for Black women writers hosted by Margaret Walker at Jackson State University in 1973. Like the original, the 2023 festival will feature several leading contemporary Black women writers.

MHC supports Youth Poetry Workshop

The Rosedale Freedom Project is offering two five-day intensive Summer Poetry Workshops for 7-12-graders during their Freedom Summer Programming. The first wraps today while the second workshop is set to begin June 26-June 30. Mississippi-based Latinx poet C.T. Salazar will host Fellows recruited from West Bolivar and Sunflower counties. Salazar will also invite other poets from the area to participate.

During the workshops, the Fellows will read and analyze Ashley M. Jones’s anthology Reparations Now!, while experimenting with form and content within their own poems that they will create. Jones’s work aligns with the mission of the Freedom Projects, which is “to support Fellows to engage literature, history, and the study of social forces through artistic production.” The Fellows’ poems will be collated into a short collection reflecting their work during the workshop. The culmination of the project will be a public showcase on July 13 and 14 to which families and community members will be invited to see performances of the poems. Salazar and other poets will attend in person to give a brief talk with the audience about their work with the Fellows, and Jones will also be invited to attend virtually. During the showcase, audience members will have time to ask questions, and each audience member will be provided a copy of the poems the Fellows perform. 

Save the Date for MCHEP Conference

The third annual convening of the Mississippi Consortium for Higher Education in Prison (MCHEP) will be September 11-12 at Eagle Ridge Conference Center in Raymond.

Ved Price, executive director of the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, will be the keynote speaker. Price served as a program assistant at St. Francis Center in Denver before joining the national organization as executive director. As a program assistant, Price supported clients who were navigating incarceration, homelessness, mental health, addiction, affordable housing, and workforce development.



The free two-day conference will include breakout sessions relating to prison education for college administrators, instructors, and those working in reentry.

For more information contact Project Coordinator Carla Faulkner.

Email: cfalkner@mhc.state.ms.us.

Prison Education Programs Continue to Expand

Meridian Community College joined the Mississippi Humanities Council Prison Education Program this summer by offering its first course at East Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF).

“We are always excited to see this program grow, but since potential students at EMCF have reached out to MHC requesting classes, we are thrilled Meridian Community College is filling that void,” MHC Executive Director Stuart Rockoff explains.

Meridian Dean of University Transfer Education Chad Graham commented, “Our mission is to improve the community's quality of life, and this program provides MCC the opportunity to include EMCF in this mission. We are excited about this opportunity and eager to continue the partnership with MHC.”

With the addition of courses at EMCF, Mississippi now has prison education programs in nine of the 21 state and regional prisons (43 percent). According to the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, only 12 percent of prisons nationally host college courses.

A grant from the Mellon Foundation enables MHC to financially support colleges to offer courses that help individuals in Mississippi prisons gain associate degrees. Schools eligible for Pell funding in prisons receive grants to provide academic support.



For more information about the MHC prison education program, contact Project Coordinator Carla Falkner cfalkner@mhc.state.ms.us

MHC Welcomes Summer Intern



Mississippi State University graduate student Rheagan Case is assisting the Mississippi Humanities Council program staff as a summer intern. An English major, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from MSU and will begin her second year in graduate school this fall.

A Mississippi native, Case grew up in Florence and has a large family network throughout the state. Her graduate studies emphasis is creative writing, and she plans to write a poetry thesis as part of her graduate degree. Although she is assisting in all program areas with the Council, including reviewing humanities grant applications and attending Council-funded humanities events, she is particularly applying her writing skills to Council communications.

“I am very excited about all the new things I will be learning over the course of the summer,” Case said. “I have had a warm welcome from all the staff here at MHC, and I am glad that I will be able to work with each member on the Council to gain a more comprehensive understanding of what exactly the MHC does and accomplishes in the state of Mississippi.

From what I have learned so far, the MHC plays a vital role in maintaining numerous programs that help further the understanding of humanities as it pertains to our state, and I am honored to be a part of an organization that does such great things.”

After her graduate degree at MSU, Case plans on continuing her education with a PhD in English. “I want to teach creative writing at a university level after I obtain my PhD,” she said.

MHC host Juneteenth Program with Fahrenheit Creative

What is the legacy of Juneteenth in this country? On June 16th, that question was answered by some of the state’s foremost scholars. Before Juneteenth, the MHC partnered with Fahrenheit Creative Group to host a program titled, “The Legacy of Juneteenth: Are We Really Free?” The program included a discussion between Dr. Daphne Chamberlain (Tougaloo College), Dr. Louwanda Evans (Millsaps College), C. Leigh McInnis (Jackson State University) and Dr. D’ Andra Orey (Jackson State University). The conversation was moderated by our own John Spann, who asked questions that encouraged the panel to more deeply about freedom as it pertains to Black Mississippians.

As a sociologist, Dr. Evans gave an interesting perspective as she analyzed the difference between freedoms and rights. Dr. Orey’s outlook gave the audience an overview of political freedom for African Americans and the evolution of various systems that hinder that political freedom. Dr. Chamberlain’s approach discussed the historical importance of Juneteenth and its continued legacy in the ongoing fight for liberty and justice for all.

Lastly, Professor McInnis’ perspective inspired the audience to continue uplifting and supporting Black communities. Fahrenheit Creative Group provided the venue, The Orchid Bed and Breakfast, free barbeque, and refreshments. We offer a special thanks to Mississippi Public Broadcasting for recording the event as content for an upcoming documentary.

Freedom Trail News



On July 7 at 1pm, there will be an unveiling of a new marker on the Mississippi Freedom Trail honoring the life and civil rights work of Lawrence Guyot, Jr. MHC is thrilled to announce this new addition to the trail, the first in the city of Pass Christian.

The Council has been working with the community and elected officials for many months to get this marker done. Special thanks to the Mississippi Freedom Trail task force which approved the creation of this marker, the family of Lawrence Guyot, Jr., the city officials of Pass-Christian. The unveiling of this marker is free and open to the public and will be a part of the Guyot family reunion taking place the weekend of July 7th.

The location of the marker and the ceremony will be on Handy Lane in Pass Christian, MS. To get more information about the Mississippi Freedom Trail and the Lawrence Guyot Jr. marker unveiling, contact John Spann, our program and outreach officer, at jspann@mhc.state.ms.us

The Mississippi Freedom Trail is administered by Visit Mississippi in partnership with the Mississippi Humanities Council. Support for this collaboration is made possible by a State Tourism Grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

MHC Travels to Natchez for Board Retreat

Thank you to Natchez National Historical Park Superintendent Kathleen Bond for hosting MHC staff and board members at their Melrose Site.

MHC Partners with MDAH, MS Film Office to Host Monthly Film Screenings



The Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) is partnering with the Mississippi Film Office and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to bring free, high-quality documentary film screenings to public audiences each month for the next year. Half of the films will be screened as part of the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, a program of South Arts. South Arts is a nonprofit regional arts organization that supports artists and organizations through grants, fellowships, and programs and works to increase access to arts and culture. The remaining screenings will be films specifically highlighting Mississippi history and culture, which are often directed by Mississippi filmmakers.

All screenings will take place in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building in Jackson.

Up first will be Promised Land: The Story of Mound Bayou, a documentary film about a small town deep in the Mississippi Delta that holds a story unlike any other. Mound Bayou was founded in 1887 by formerly enslaved people who were on a mission unheard of at that time. The fertile, flat ground was the promised land that would show black Mississippians what the future could be. Here, they found independence, empowerment, and possibility. Promised Land: The Story of Mound Bayou will be screened Sunday, July 2, at 2 P.M. in the Neilsen Auditorium at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, accompanied by a presentation on Isaiah T. Montgomery, founder of Mound Bayou, by political scientist and Mound Bayou native Dr. Matthew Holden.

Future screenings will be announced as films are confirmed.



“We are delighted to help bring this year-long series of film screenings to Mississippi audiences,” said MHC Assistant Director Carol Andersen. “Documentary films have a unique capacity to inform, inspire and engage audiences, and to contribute to our understanding of our history and our present.”