Executive Director's Message

" Supporting programs like these was the reason the MHC was founded in 1972; they are at the core of our conception of the humanities."

I have seen this work up close during my travels over the last few weeks. When NEH Chair Shelly Lowe came to Mississippi, we visited the Chata Immi Cultural Center of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. Jay Wesley, the director of the Chata Immi Department, Dee Saunders, Coordinator of Choctaw Tribal Language Programs, and their project team showed us the amazing progress they have made creating a digital Choctaw dictionary. Funded by a grant from the NEH, this multimedia project seeks to preserve and teach the historic Choctaw language while featuring recordings of native speakers. Their ultimate goal is to show how Mississippi Choctaw is a modern thriving language.

In Bay St. Louis, former students and teachers of the Valena C. Jones school gathered for a community program to talk about their experience at the county’s historic Black school, an outgrowth of an oral history project funded by the MHC. Established around the turn of the century, Valena C. Jones served generations of Black children in Bay St. Louis and the surrounding county before closing in 1972. During the program, former students remembered receiving second-hand textbooks and few supplies in comparison to the white public schools in town. While they were treated as second-class citizens during segregation, they had first-class teachers who were dedicated to their students. The people in the audience, both alums and community members, expressed real excitement at this burgeoning effort to preserve the story of the Valena C. Jones School.

A few days later, I was in Lexington for a special tour of three of the town’s historic houses of worship organized by the Friends of Lexington Preservation. A large group of people, including local students, learned about the history of Temple Beth El Synagogue and Lexington’s once prominent Jewish community. Then, they heard the amazing story of Asia Missionary Baptist Church, which was founded by members of the Black community only a few years after emancipation in 1871. Their beautiful Gothic revival church, built in 1908, reflects the prominence of the congregation’s members only one generation after slavery. Finally, we toured the First Methodist Church, built in 1897, learning how the sanctuary was designed to make it so congregants could hear the minister without any electric amplification.

In each of these cases, NEH and MHC funding was used to preserve and share our vital local stories and rich culture. Supporting programs like these was the reason the MHC was founded in 1972; they are at the core of our conception of the humanities. And with continuing support from Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and friends like you, we can ensure the MHC is able to empower communities to tell their important stories and celebrate the cultural richness of our state.

This Giving Tuesday, we're asking for your help! While The Mississippi Humanities Council has been at the forefront of telling our state's story, your support can make a big impact on our ability to continue this work.

Your generosity will ensure that the stories of Mississippi are told, heard, and cherished for generations to come.

Make a difference and donate now. By contributing to the Mississippi Humanities Council, you're not just donating; you're investing in the exploration of our heritage, the promotion of diverse voices, and the cultivation of a shared understanding.

MHC Prison Book Club Expands

The Mississippi Humanities Council is taking its dedication to underserved populations to new heights by expanding our prison book clubs to now include men with capital punishment sentences, with low literacy skills and who also reside in a nursing home unit.

The men at Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP) with capital sentence punishments are reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson under the leadership of C. T. Salazar, a librarian at Delta State University.

At Marshall County Correctional Facility, a member of the Just Readers club tutors low-literacy students. At his suggestion, prison staff asked MHC to organize a club for men working to improve their reading skills. The new group focuses on shorter literary works, especially poetry. Facilitator Will Underland, a University of Mississippi graduate student, says one member expresses gratitude weekly for helping him think more deeply and another is now writing poetry. 

Because they have so little programming, a warden requested a book club for men who live in the MSP’s long-term care unit. While reading Cormac McCarthy’s The Border Trilogy, these readers asked for composition notebooks so they could take notes and journal. Facilitator Jeremiah Smith, cofounder of the Rosedale Freedom Project, reports several share their writings with the group.

Currently, MHC sponsors 11 book clubs at seven prisons, each led by a humanities scholar.  

MHC Wraps up Luciérnagas Family Reading Programs in Horn Lake, Starkville

The MHC offers Luciérnagas, a bilingual family reading program available for Spanish speaking communities in Mississippi. After a hiatus due to Covid, the program returned to Horn Lake and Starkville this fall to serve families with reading, discussion, and information about community services.

Through the hard work and dedication of the library staff and project coordinator, Carson Culver, the Luciérnagas program at Horn Lake has grown consistently over the years. This year, more than 20 families participated in the Fall programs, with support from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi and the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi. 

The Starkville Public Library's successful first-time program wrapped up in early November, thanks to the enthusiasm from project coordinator and YA Librarian Daisey Martinez. “My hope and wish is that we will continue building relationships that will go beyond Luciérnagas,” said Martinez, “and that the families participating will know that they’ll always have friends and supporters at the public library!” Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi generously sponsored Starkville’s first program.

With the fall sessions wrapping up, the MHC is preparing to begin a winter Luciérnagas program hosted by the Pearl Public Library. If you are interested in participating in the Pearl program, contact MHC Program Officer Molly McMillan.

Luciérnagas uses bilingual and culturally diverse children's books to engage families with storytelling and discussion. The program encourages families to read together and to relate humanities-based themes like bravery and determination to their own lives. For more information or to learn how to host a Luciérnagas program in your community, visit our website.

‘Crossroads’ Closes Out in Brookhaven, Heads for the Delta

"Crossroads: Change in Rural America" is on the move from Brookhaven to Marks! The exhibit will leave the Lincoln County Library tomorrow and will open at the Quitman County Arts & Cultural Museum on December 2.

While in Brookhaven, the exhibit attracted various school groups from the southern part of the state and featured multiple rural-focused public programs. Lincoln County programs included a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Brookhaven native Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a presentation from Joe Brown of the Lincoln County Historical & Genealogical Society on the history of forestry in the region, a “movie on the lawn” night where families learned about Smithsonian museums, and a discussion on “Gardening Southern Style” from Felder Rushing.

"Crossroads" will remain in Marks until January 14, 2024. While there, the museum and partner organizations will host a series of free programs in conjunction with the exhibit. A full list of upcoming programs in Marks will be available on the MHC website soon!

"Crossroads," developed by the Smithsonian Institution's Museum on Main Street division, will be in Mississippi through June 2024. After its stay in Marks, it will travel to West Point, Rolling Fork, and Pontotoc. For more information or exhibit dates, contact Molly McMillan.

The 2023-24 tour of “Crossroads: Change in Rural America” is generously sponsored by the Tennessee Valley Authority. Special thanks to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College for transporting the exhibit for its first three stops in Mississippi!

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MISSISSIPPI HUMANITIES COUNCIL & MISSISSIPPI ARTS COMMISSION SUCCESSFULLY HOST NEH AND NEA CHAIRS FOR SPECIAL VISIT

The Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) and the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) successfully welcomed Chair Shelly Lowe (Navajo) of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and Chair Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to the state of Mississippi. This unique visit, spanning from November 1 to November 4th, provided an exciting opportunity for Mississippians to engage with and learn from the leaders of the two federal cultural endowments. NEH Chair Lowe’s visit also marked the NEH's funding of the 50^th anniversary of the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival. Chair Lowe participated in a series of events starting with a visit to Choctaw/Chahta Immi Cultural Center in Philadelphia. Other visits by the chairs included meeting with grantees 'Sipp Culture, the Utica Institute Museum at Hind Community College-Utica, the Two Mississippi Museums, and the Mississippi Museum of Art.

Shelly Lowe, NEH Chair, expressed, “In our few short days in Mississippi, we were able to see first-hand the extraordinary breadth and diversity of the state’s cultural and educational institutions and the vibrant communities they represent. We heard from representatives at the Chahta Immi Cultural Center how they are working to document the Choctaw language to be able to pass on important cultural knowledge to the next generation; learned at Jackson State University and Hinds Community College about educational initiatives and public programs that are expanding educational resources for students and highlighting HBCUs’ important history as centers of scholarship and opportunity; and saw how the state’s rich and complex history and heritage is being preserved and shared with millions at the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.”

The highlight for many was the public reception hosted at Smith Robertson Museum and the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival where both chairs participated in the closing panel discussion. This discussion explored the intersection of humanities, poetry, and cultural preservation, offering valuable insights and perspectives to all in attendance. The panel was made possible by grant support from the Mississippi Humanities Council, ensuring that it remained free and open to the public.

“I was especially honored to have the opportunity to celebrate generations of Black women writers and thinkers and pay tribute to the legacy of Margaret Walker at the 50th anniversary Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival. NEH is proud to work with our state partner, Mississippi Humanities, in supporting these excellent organizations and programs,” says NEH Chair Shelly Lowe.

MHC Supports Natchez Historical Society Lecture Series

The MHC is pleased to support the Natchez Historical Society’s 2023-24 lecture series which will bring a group of scholars to address a diverse array of topics related to the history of the lower Mississippi region.

September’s inaugural event drew over 100 people to hear journalist Stanley Nelson talk about the Ku Klux Klan’s murder of Ben Chester White in 1966. In October, Mimi Miller spoke about John J. Audubon’s time in Natchez, and Luc Borns talked about the Mississippi Blues tradition.

Upcoming programs will feature presentations from David Nolen, Roscoe Barnes, Max Grivno, James Wiggins, and Ariela Gross. Visit www.natchezhistoricalsociety.org to learn about the Natchez Historical Society and its MHC-sponsored lecture series. The programs are always free and open to the public and held at the Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St.

University of Mississippi Center—$10,000

The Thirtieth Oxford Conference for the Book

Annual three-day conference celebrating books, reading, and writing with author panels and lecture sessions, as well as book-signings and writer exchanges.

Mississippi College—$4,350

Something Better for My Children: Black Education in and Freedom                                                 

Public lecture by award-winning historian, author and professor Dr. Crystal Sanders of Emory University, as part of Mississippi College’s continued effort to bring lived and scholarly expertise of the African American experience to MC students and the metro Jackson community. Sanders will share her award-winning research from her book A Chance for Change: Head Start and Mississippi’s Black Freedom Struggle. Sanders’s lecture will serve as the keynote for a month-long commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Brown decision.

Copiah-Lincoln Community College—$10,000

Rites, Rituals, and Religion in the Deep South

Annual event exploring southern history and culture through film and books. The 2024 festival, “Rites, Rituals, and Religion in the Deep South,” will include scholarly presentations and various public events examining topics such as death and burial rites, historical cemeteries and their influence on landscape architecture, mourning practices, church rituals, voodooism and antebellum Christmas traditions. Sessions will illuminate how early Mississippians used these traditions to establish cultural norms, institutional practices, and patterns of social responsibility which continue to define us today.

The Mississippi Aviation Heritage Museum—$10,000

Mississippians in the Vietnam War Exhibit

The creation of a permanent exhibit highlighting Mississippians who served in the Vietnam War.

The Rosa Foundation—$10,000

Behind the Big House 2024

Educational tour of former slave dwellings, and related programs, offered in conjunction with annual pilgrimage of historic homes in Holly Springs. Both Joseph McGill of the Slave Dwellings Project and culinary historian Michael W. Twitty will participate, as well as Tammy Gibson, a professional storyteller whose work focuses on illuminating the African American experience. The 2024 event will also bring back Dale DeBerry, artist, storyteller and brickmaker, who will demonstrate how enslaved men and women created construction materials for the “big houses.” Events will include lectures, tours, antebellum cooking demonstrations, African American genealogy presentations and more.

Mississippi Museum of Art—$5,800

Depictions of Mental Health in American Film

Collaborative public panel discussion series to explore depictions of mental health and illness in American cinema. The discussion series will take place in conjunction with an upcoming exhibition at the Mississippi Museum of Art about an itinerant optometrist whose mental illness and subsequent disappearance resulted in his erasure from the family history.

Jimmie Rodgers Foundation, Inc. —$7,870

The Jimmie Rodgers Foundation Music History Seminar, Rodgers: Blues to Bluegrass                     

Public history seminar exploring the intersection of the work of music artists Bill Monroe (the “Father of Bluegrass”) and Jimmie Rodgers (the “Father of Country”).

The Alluvial Collective—$10,000

Critical Places: Mississippi Sites of Slave Rebellion Community Engagement                                      

Photo exhibit, dialogue circles and panel presentations exploring historic sites of rebellion by enslaved men and women in Mississippi.

Operation Shoestring—$5,500

Raising Children in Central Jackson Oral History Project Phase II: Community Engagement          

Phase II of an oral history project to capture the memories, opinions and beliefs about being raised and raising children in central Jackson.

International Museum of Muslim Cultures—$10,000

“Discovering the Soul of Oman and Mississippi” through Basel Almisshal's Lens                             

Photography exhibit contrasting and comparing Mississippi and Oman, two vastly different landscapes with similar histories and cultural integrations from Africa, through the lens of photographer Basel Almisshal

Pike School of Art-Mississippi—$4,950

LOCKED / LABELED

A series of four panel discussions examining various aspects of the criminal justice system, part of a larger art project and platform for formerly incarcerated individuals to share their stories and encourage dialogue about the juvenile system in Pike County. The aim of both the art project and the panel discussions is to address the dual challenges faced by formerly detained youth: the physical imprisonment (locked) and the societal stigma and stereotypes that came with it (labeled).

Mississippi Department of Archives and History—$6,700

Increasing Access with MDAH’s Digital Archives

Digital exhibits highlighting two important topics in Mississippi history—Freedom Summer and Eudora Welty. The exhibits, while aimed at educators and students, will be available to the general public, once online. Contextualizing historical essays will be created to accompany both digital exhibits.