Executive Director's Message

Recognizing the essential humanity of others leads to empathy and greater understanding and is central to the work of the Mississippi Humanities Council. 

Unfortunately, this core belief of the humanities can sometimes cause controversy. Last month, the Alabama Department of Archives and History was threatened with cuts to their state funding for sponsoring a lecture about the history of the LGBTQ community in Alabama. That same month, the Mississippi Humanities Council awarded a grant to the same organization, the Invisible Histories Project, to develop an exhibit about the history of Gays and Lesbians in Mississippi. The Invisible Histories Project works to fill in major gaps in the historical record to document and preserve the history of LGBTQ life in the Deep South, which has often been hidden. This exhibit will center the humanity of its subjects and share stories and a perspective that has often been missing from our state’s history. Thus, it is a perfect fit for our grants program.

Behind our motto “the humanities are for everyone” is the belief that everyone’s life and story have value. Put another way, the humanities ARE everyone, encompassing all our stories and human experiences. At their best, the humanities help us understand the lives and experiences of those different from us, and in the process, help us understand ourselves more deeply. And as our country grows more divided culturally and politically, the only possible solution begins with recognizing the humanity of those on the other side. Using people first language and giving communities a platform to share their own stories are important steps in doing that.

'See us Differently' Exhibit

Incarcerated Writers Changing their Narrative

A unique exhibit at next month’s Mississippi Book Festival will showcase books written, illustrated, and hand-bound by authors creating extraordinary works while incarcerated.

See Us Differently will be on display during the August 19 Festival in the Rotunda of the Mississippi Capitol. MHC will host a session at 10:45 a.m. in Room 103 that features Georgia educators involved in the project, prerecorded interviews with some of the authors/artists, and information on higher education and humanities programming in Mississippi prisons.

An ongoing exhibit since 2013, See Us Differently was originally a project of Common Good Atlanta and college students at Phillips State Prison in Buford, Georgia. When Bill Taft, who currently co-directs Common Good Atlanta, taught creative nonfiction writing at the prison in 2012, he found the students struggled with the writing process. 

Taft explains, “To make the process real, we spent one class studying the history of the book and ways that different cultures used available resources to create a writing surface.” From Nicole Howard’s The Book: The Life Story of a Technology, “We learned that the book we take for granted today grew out of a long, slow, frustrating, horrible process dating back to the Sumerians scratching cuneiform into lumps of wet clay—for hundreds of years.”

Taft then challenged the men to make their own books using discarded materials. Over the next four weeks, the students divided into three groups, and each produced a book using the best essays the class had written. Suddenly the writers were willing to revise, and refined their anthologies, adding title and cover, illustrations, creative bindings, introductions and author biographies.

“The classroom at the prison became much like the scriptorium at a medieval monastery,” explains Taft. “Each man in the group took on a different aspect of production. Visual artists created drawings. Others fabricated covers. Editors chided contributors for failing to turn in revisions on time.” As a diverse group of men came together in an act of DIY publishing, the results exceeded expectations, Taft said.

Over the next few years, the project continued as more books were produced. The entire collection became a part of Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript and Rare Book Library. Five books from that archive will be exhibited as part of the See Us Differently exhibit at the Mississippi Book Festival August 19th in Jackson.

The title of the exhibit was inspired by one of the students, who wrote, “We appreciate you so much for not buying into the usual stereotype that we are not worth educating. We thank you for realizing we were human beings before we came to prison. Through your efforts, the world will now see us a little differently.”

Joining Taft at the Festival to discuss this unique process will be Patrick Rodriguez, co-executive director for the Georgia Coalition for Higher Education in Prison and the director of special projects for Common Good Atlanta.

The exhibit will also include books created by Mississippi Delta Community College students at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman in a class taught by art instructor Jennifer Woodard.

Next Major MHC Grant Deadline Approaching

If your organization is interested in applying for a grant, please join the Mississippi Humanities Council for a virtual grant workshop and information session August 9. The workshop is free, but registration is required.

The Mississippi Humanities Council grants program supports projects that stimulate meaningful community dialogue, attract diverse audiences, are participatory and engaging for the public 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.

For our upcoming grant rounds, the MHC invites organizations to use our new MHC Grants Application Portal. MHC staff will offer a demonstration using the portal and will answer any questions you may have about the new application process during the workshop. 

Smithsonian Prepares For 10-Month Mississippi Tour 

The Smithsonian is on its way to Mississippi! Through a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street (MoMS) division, the Mississippi Humanities Council is bringing Crossroads: Change in Rural America, an interactive multimedia exhibit, to Mississippi. This tour of Crossroads, generously sponsored by the Tennessee Valley Authority, will visit six Mississippi communities from August 2023 through June 2024.

While at its first stop in Wiggins (August 26-October 8), Crossroads will be on display at the Ferris B. O’Neal Senior Community Center. The exhibit is free and open to the public to visit. In addition to hosting the exhibit, the Stone County Economic Development Partnership will also host a series of public programs related to Crossroads. Details about upcoming programs will be released soon, so stay tuned! 

Leah Kemp of the Fred Carl Jr. Small Town Center at Mississippi State University will serve as the state scholar for Crossroads. In her capacity as state scholar, Kemp will serve as a resource for each host site as they plan for the exhibition’s tour. Kemp will also lead public discussions on various Crossroads themes in each of the communities.

Through artifacts, images, text, and interactive elements, the 750 square foot exhibit explores rural identity, the importance of land, how rural communities manage change, and much more. After the exhibit departs Wiggins, it will visit Brookhaven, Marks, West Point, Rolling Fork, and Pontotoc. More information about the exhibit and its Mississippi tour can be found on the MHC website. 

Oral History Project Preserves Experiences of Siggers High School in Lee County, Mississippi

In the 1950s and 1960s, Black students in Shannon, MS, and the greater Lee County area attended Siggers High School. The school was originally named Shannon Colored School, but ultimately took on the namesake of its longtime principal, the Rev. E.L. Siggers. When the public schools integrated in 1967, much of the material culture of Siggers High School was either discarded or destroyed—trophies, plaques, class composites, etc. Until recently, the history of Siggers risked succumbing to a similar fate. With an oral history grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, Dr. B. Brian Foster, a native of Shannon, former assistant professor of sociology and southern studies at the University of Mississippi and current associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, is working to preserve the memories of those who attended Siggers High School.

According to Foster, there is little about Siggers High School on the historical record; and while there are still several surviving alumni of the school, there are only four surviving teachers. “The Siggers High School Oral History Project is an effort to record, archive and share the history of Siggers High School,” Foster says.



On sabbatical from the University of Virginia, Foster has spent his summer returning to Mississippi to record oral histories with individuals who attended, taught at or were otherwise affiliated with Siggers High School. And he has expanded his overall project to capture the history of another nearby school that traditionally served African American students, West Amory High School (formerly the Amory Colored Public School and then the Monroe County Training School).



Foster’s goal is to collect at least 15 interviews for each school, including both audio and video recordings, and then transcribe and deposit those oral histories in the eGrove research repository at the University of Mississippi. “Ultimately, (we will) produce a short documentary highlighting the school's history and significance to community life in Shannon and Amory,” Foster said. Other public engagement plans include a community performance and public readings of excerpts from the oral history collection. 

Educators, corrections staff, and nonprofits will focus on higher education in prison and reentry at the third annual convening of the Mississippi Consortium for Higher Education in Prison (MCHEP).

One of the highlights of the conference will be college students in Mississippi prisons discussing the impact that access to higher education is having on their lives. Student presentations will be pre-recorded.

The keynote speaker will be Ved Price, executive director of the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, who will discuss enabling people to succeed as they reenter society.

The two-day convening is September 11-12 at Eagle Ridge Conference Center in Raymond. The event is free and open to anyone interested in supporting or learning more about higher education in prison.

For more information contact Project Coordinator Carla Faulkner.

Email: [email protected].

The Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) will partner with the Mississippi Film Office and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to screen It’s in the Voices, a documentary film that tells the story of a 1970 oral history project in Washington County, MS, that examined topics regarding Black educators in the Mississippi Delta and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. A Q&A session with Field Humphrey, director of the documentary, will follow the screening. It’s in the Voices will be screened Sunday, Aug. 13, at 2 p.m. in the Neilson Auditorium at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson.



The Sunday Screenings partnership goal is to bring documentary films to public audiences each month for the next year. The MHC gives a special thanks to the Mississippi Film Office, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers for making these screenings possible.

Future screenings will be announced as films are confirmed. 

The Mississippi Freedom Trail task force unveiled a new Freedom Trail marker in Pass Christian July 7. The marker honors the life and civil rights activism of Lawrence Guyot Jr., who was instrumental in Mississippi’s Freedom Summer project and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

The unveiling ceremony took place at the corner of Davis Avenue and Handy Lane, which was once home to a park where Lawrence Guyot and his friends often played together as children. Many Pass Christian officials were present at the unveiling, including Mayor Jimmy Rafferty, several city aldermen and members of the county board of supervisors. Alderwoman Regina Charlotte provided much of the local leadership to make the unveiling happen, including organizing the ceremony around the annual Guyot Family Reunion.

Many of Guyot’s family members were present for the unveiling, including his children Julie Guyot-Diangone and Lawrence Guyot III. Before the marker was unveiled by his children, his daughter stated she was overjoyed by the community support in preserving her father’s memory and that his legacy will continue to live on in Mississippi. Among other things Guyot was a proud Mississippian and Pass Christian citizen.

“The MHC was so proud to be a part of the ceremony,” said John Spann, program and outreach officer for the Council and staff liaison to the Mississippi Freedom Trail Committee. "It showcased the best of Mississippi and how we work to help build community around the uplifting of Mississippians and their stories.”

The MHC is calling for new applications for the Mississippi Freedom Trail. Our committee has now approved over 20 new marker additions to the trail. These new markers honor the people, events, and grassroots action that shaped Mississippi’s freedom struggle. If your town 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 Freedom Trail marker. All approved Freedom Trail markers will be free of charge through the end of 2024.The deadline for applications is July 31, 2023. To apply click like HERE. For more information, contact John Spann [email protected].

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.

Prospect Hill Excavation Engages the Public in Uncovering the Global Connection of One Mississippi Plantation

Over the course of nine days in the hottest part of the year, deep in the sweltering woods of southwest Mississippi, 120 volunteers recently helped gently unearth remnants of the daily lives of formerly enslaved men, women and children on a plantation known as Prospect Hill.

Among the treasures excavated were handmade tools, bits of kitchenware and other artifacts directly linked to a fascinating aspect of the site’s history.

Prospect Hill is located 12 miles southeast of Port Gibson, MS, down a series of narrow, overgrown gravel paths. Isaac Ross, a Revolutionary War veteran who came to the Mississippi Territory in 1808 with a large contingent of enslaved men and free Black people who had served alongside him in the war, established Prospect Hill. The existing mansion is the second on the site; the original was burned during a rebellion of Ross’s enslaved laborers, and the current house was built by his grandson in 1854. Fearing they would be mistreated by a subsequent owner, Ross dictated in his will that upon his daughter’s death the enslaved would be emancipated, Prospect Hill would be sold and the money used to pay for the freed men and women to travel to the West African colony of Liberia, which had been set up for the purpose of “repatriation” by a group known as the American Colonization Society. Ross believed this was the only way for the freed men and women to gain control of their destiny, and so in 1845 a group of nearly 300 people made the journey from Prospect Hill to New Orleans, and then across the ocean to Africa.

The story of Prospect Hill and the Liberian repatriation settlement has garnered international attention as sociologists, anthropologists and archaeologists from multiple universities collaborate to gather, preserve and interpret material evidence shedding light on the lives of the people who lived and labored there. Simultaneously, similar work is under way in Liberia.

The plantation’s history is unique among historical sites in the United States, according to researchers leading efforts to excavate and preserve the material history of the site, due to its linked history with Liberia. “It is as much about African American history as it is a tale of a divided slave-owning family, and it spans more than 200 years and two continents,” according to the Mississippi Archaeological Conservancy, which acquired the site in 2011.

The Mississippi Humanities Council awarded a grant to Mississippi State University (MSU) to engage the public in an effort to more fully understand the story of Prospect Hill. Between June 9 and June 18, researcher Dr. Shawn Lambert of the MSU School of Archaeology led volunteers in opening 18 1-meter by 1-meter sites, each 5 centimeters deep, around an area behind the main house believed to have served as a kitchen, a dependency and possibly a laundry room at different times in the site’s history. The volunteers hailed mostly from Natchez and surrounding southwest Mississippi communities, but also Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.

“They heard about the excavation through word-of-mouth and through the Conservancy’s very active Facebook page,” says Lambert. “Some of them were just traveling the Natchez Trace and heard about the project.”

The June dig was the first to use ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to locate remnants of long-deteriorated extant structures on the grounds of Prospect Hill. Artifacts uncovered included hand-forged nails, pieces of ceramic plates and bowls, gunflints, lead shot used in muskets and early rifles and pieces of knives and utensils, as well as various animal bones offering clues to the food and food preparation techniques of Prospect Hill’s earliest inhabitants. Particularly interesting to Lambert were chunks of green glass that appear to be scrapers chipped from the base of wine bottles and probably used to cut and scrape reeds for baskets or to polish wood. “They would have chipped these from glass rather than knapping stone,” Lambert surmises. “People in the archeology community told us these types of scrapers are often found in Africa, but rarely in the U.S.”

Lambert’s research partner, Dr. James Andrew Whitaker of Troy University in Alabama, has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Sinoe County, Liberia, where the Mississippi contingency resettled in 1845. “They have so much interest in what is happening here,” says Lambert, noting both he and Whitaker have received email inquiries from descendants both in the U.S. and Liberia about the Prospect Hill project.

The artifacts collected this summer at Prospect Hill will be transported to Cobb Institute of Archaeology at MSU where they will be cleaned, catalogued and eventually, Lambert hopes, incorporated into an exhibit that tells a more complete story of the history of the plantation and its relation to Liberia. “This is such a meaningful story for Mississippi to tell,” Lambert says. “Material culture can tell a wonderful narrative of a place and people without being political. And it helps tell an accurate story of a place and time.”

To learn more about the remarkable, related history of Mississippi and Liberia, read Alan Huffman’s book “Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today”, and watch this video by Blue Magnolia Films, funded in part with a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council.