Executive Director's Message | |
Preserving Mississippi's Civil Rights Legacy: We Need Your Support | |
Every county and town in Mississippi has an important civil rights history – people who organized the first local NAACP chapter or petitioned to integrate the public schools; the people who took in SNCC workers and freedom summer volunteers and encouraged their neighbors to register to vote. The Mississippi Humanities Council is dedicated to helping preserve, share, and honor this vital, but often overlooked history.
For many years, the Mississippi Humanities Council has supported community efforts to tell these important stories, including in Grenada. In 2016, the Mississippi Humanities Council gave a grant to the local organization Activists with a Purpose to help them coordinate a series of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of Grenada’s tumultuous school integration. We later funded an oral history project and documentary film about it. The dedication of an official Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker earlier this year was the culmination of the longtime efforts by local leaders to remember and honor this history.
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We’ve been working with Visit Mississippi for the past two years to expand the Mississippi Freedom Trail and will more than double the number of historic events and people honored with these special markers by the end of this year. We will be dedicating new markers and supporting public programs that tell vital civil rights stories in places like Benton County, Laurel, Canton, Hattiesburg, Winona, McComb, Indianola, Neshoba County, and even Atlantic City, New Jersey, where in 1964 the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenged the regular party and the entire country to live up to America’s ideals.
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These stories matter, and the Mississippi Humanities Council is dedicated to helping communities tell them. | |
The special federal funds that have supported this freedom trail expansion will expire later this year, but there is so much more important work to do. We need to engage deeply with community partners around the state to determine the most appropriate way to preserve their civil rights stories, either through oral histories, exhibits, documentaries, or historical markers. Our vision is to enable every community in Mississippi to recognize and highlight the people and events that moved us closer to a more perfect union, where all people enjoy the full rights of their citizenship.
But this vision requires resources, which is especially challenging since our funding from Congress has been level for the past few years. Simply put, we need your help.
As the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times recently described it, “Mississippi was the great American battleground of freedom and democracy in the 20th century.” These stories matter, and the Mississippi Humanities Council is dedicated to helping communities tell them.
If you choose to donate to the MHC this month, your funds will go directly toward supporting our staff’s efforts to work with communities to preserve their local civil rights history and funding projects and public programs that highlight Mississippi’s role in the struggle for freedom and democracy. Together, we can ensure these important events and people are not forgotten, that they will forever be a part of Mississippi history.
Thank you for helping us in this vital work.
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Dr. Stuart Rockoff
MHC Executive Director
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The Mississippi Freedom Trail grew larger this month, adding markers to commemorate the Winona Jail Beatings and Henry Reaves and the Benton County Movement.
The upcoming unveilings in Philadelphia, Hattiesburg, and Laurel are a testament to the community remembrance work the MHC is dedicated in uplifting. These markers would not have been erected without the help of local communities who were empowered to tell their stories. At one time in Mississippi's history, these local communities were told that their pain, their struggle, and their mark on Mississippi was not important. Through the Mississippi Freedom Trail, the state is validating and empowering these communities whose stories were silenced for so long. Please join at our unveilings this month. Hear the stories and share in the celebrations with the local communities.
Press play to get a look at the Freedom Trail Marker in Benton County. Special thanks to Roy Deberry and the Hill Country Project for providing drone aerial footage.
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Additional Freedom Trail Marker unveilings include: | |
Students at Youthful Offender Unit Make History! Written by Christina Thomas
In March 2024, The Mississippi Humanities Council approached me about teaching at the Youthful Offender Unit at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. I had the incredible honor of teaching six emerging scholars about the Mississippi Summer Project. Over the course of the class, students conducted original research, engaged with primary source materials, and led oral histories with civil rights veterans. They used these resources to participate in National History Day!
The Mississippi Summer Project, or Freedom Summer, was a turning point in American history and the Mississippi Movement.
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"Moreover, these students etched their names in history as the first incarcerated learners to participate in a National History Day competition, a significant milestone for a correctional facility." | |
Throughout the course, I met the typical classroom student—some were engaged, some were there to be there, and others had different things on their mind. However, by the end of class, they produced National History Day posters that detailed Freedom Summer from the perspective of little-known volunteers to programs such as the Freedom Southern Theater and Freedom Schools. Some remarked how they never believed they could complete such a project, and their confidence stood as a testament to their natural curiosity and investment in learning about civil rights.
I concluded the course by hosting a significant commemoration for the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer, a momentous occasion being celebrated nationwide. We paid tribute to the event with a traveling exhibition on Freedom Summer from the Two Mississippi Museums and were joined by civil rights veterans Dave Dennis and Larry Rubin. The event was not just a passive exhibition but a living one, where participants and guests could actively learn from veterans and their exhibition projects, a testament to the students' active engagement and the program's impact. The students received a copy of Dave Dennis The Movement Made Us and other publications. It was a joy to see them present to the veterans about their projects, have their books signed, and request photo after photo with guests.
The best moment: a student who was initially not interested in the course or perhaps not confident in his ability to produce a project stepped in to discuss his time in the course. He said, "I learned that if you sit and do nothing, nothing will happen." Dave Dennis personally requested that he restate this time and time again throughout the program. Dennis spoke about how proud he was of the student, Kevin, and you could see the confident beam in his eyes. And I think that is a moment that will remain with me.
This program at the Youthful Offenders unit was supported by a special grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to expand National History Day to new audiences.
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MHC Awards More Than $95,000 in Major Grants |
The Mississippi Humanities Council is pleased to announce $95,163 in regular grants to 12 cultural organizations in support of public humanities programs.
“We received overwhelmingly thoughtful proposals in the May grant cycle,” said Dr. Ebony Lumumba, MHC board member and chair of the grant review committee. “The projects range from screenings and festivals to exhibits and driving tours all focused on the life and culture that exists throughout Mississippi. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to support communities across the state as they tell and preserve our stories.”
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:
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MHC Welcomes new Office Administrator |
We are excited to introduce Sandra Johnson as the new Office Administrator at the Mississippi Humanities Council! Sandra joined our team in June 2024, bringing over 20 years of experience.
Her most recent role was as the Executive Coordinator for the Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits and Philanthropy. A native of Hazlehurst, Sandra studied business marketing and management at Southwest Mississippi Community College. She actively participates in several professional organizations, including the International Association of Administrative Professionals, the Association of Executive Administrative Professionals, and the American Society of Notaries.
Sandra’s extensive expertise and unwavering dedication make her a valuable addition to our organization.
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MHC Co-Hosts Screening Tour of “James ‘Super Chikan’ Johnson – A Life in Blues” | |
The Mississippi Humanities Council will partner with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to host a screening of the film James ‘Super Chikan’ Johnson—A Life in Blues June 16 as part of the ongoing Sunday Screenings at the Two Mississippi Museums, followed by a Q&A session with the film director and its musical star.
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James ‘Super Chikan’ Johnson – A Life in Blues is a feature-length documentary that both celebrates and explores the personal and musical life of one of Mississippi’s most treasured sons and one of the last true Delta bluesmen. Coming from a long line of blues royalty (his uncle was famed musician, Big Jack Johnson, and Chikan’s own lineage goes back to iconic bluesman Robert Johnson), this WC Handy Award winner and recipient of the Mississippi Governor’s Award for Excellence, has entertained crowds at some of the biggest blues festivals in the world, including in Europe, Brazil, Israel and Canada. Most recently, Chikan was featured in a 60 Minutes special in late 2023, which focused on his hometown of Clarksdale and the enduring nature of the blues.
The Mississippi Humanities Council awarded one of its first documentary film grants to co-director Mark Rankin earlier this year to complete the project. Rankin is a Canadian independent filmmaker, screenwriter, musician and actor based in Vancouver. He co-directed the Super Chikan documentary with fellow Canadian and independent filmmaker and screenplay writer Brian Wilson.
“It’s a wonderful film that does something extremely rare in the world of blues documentaries, which is tell the story straight, without romanticizing its subject in any way,” says Adam Gussow of the American blues duo Satan and Adam. “All in all, a superb film.”
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The June 16 Sunday Screening at the Two Mississippi Museums will begin at 2 p.m. followed by a panel discussion. | |
This program is co-sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council, Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the Mississippi Film Office. | |
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Vicksburg Juneteenth Heritage Festival with Jerry Jenkins
Halls Ferry Park
Vicksburg, MS
10:00 am
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Sunday Screening: James "A Life In Blues: James 'Super Chikan' Johnson
Two Mississippi Museums
Jackson, MS
2:00 pm
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Speakers Bureau Lecture: "Savoring African American History through Stories and Poetry" Barbara Jones Clark
Hernando, MS
6:00 pm
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The Historic Journey of African American Quilters, by Diane Williams
Ocean Springs Municipal Library
Ocean Springs, MS
5:30 pm
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'Write Southern, Right Now'
Courtyard by Marriott Hotel
Gulfport, MS
6:30 pm
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3825 Ridgewood Road
Room 317
Jackson, MS 39211
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