Mississippi Humanities Council

SB: From the Fields to the Factories
2020-07-31 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | MS
In this presentation, Dr. Brinda Willis will explore the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the 20th century.

Virtual program: Visit link below to attend

SB: Delta Epiphany: RFK in the Mississippi Delta
2020-07-24 12:00 - 13:00 | MS
In 1967, while visiting Mississippi as part of the Senate subcommittee on poverty, Robert Kennedy cradled hungry children, talked with mothers about how they fed their families and examined empty refrigerators. Although he was only in the Delta for a day, Kennedy, the people he encountered, Mississippi and the nation felt the impact of that journey for much longer. What he found in the Delta both shocked and motivated Kennedy to work for significant changes in the nation’s food aid policy. It was a crucial step toward his decision to run for the presidency a year later.
Drawing upon archival research and interviews, Meacham’s presentation outlines Kennedy’s journey through Mississippi and what he saw and heard, concluding with how Kennedy’s visit affected food aid policy, what has changed there and what has not changed since his visit.

SB: Over and Under the Fence
2020-07-22 12:00 - 13:00 | MS
At noon on Wednesday, July 22, as part of the #HistoryIsLunch series, Felder Rushing will present “Over and Under the Fence: Historic Passalong Plants as Social Glue.”
For centuries, flowers, vegetables, and herbs that survive on little care and are easily propagated have been shared across social lines—both in the open and underground.
“Those plants conjure historic events and places,” Rushing said. “The stories of some are more astounding than anything Welty or Faulkner could have imagined.”
Rushing, a garden journalist with an international reputation, is this summer quarantined in his beloved Mississippi cottage rather than at his usual summer home in England. His presentation will explore plants and garden habits that mark otherwise diverse Mississippians as part of a unique cultural whole.
“Plants don’t care how your mama’n’them are,” Rushing said. “More than anything else—even more than food, music, sports, and religion—plants connect people both in the present and to their past.”
Felder Rushing, a retired horticulture professor whose ancestors have been bringing plants into Mississippi since in the 1770s, has written more than two dozen garden books, thousands of newspaper columns, and numerous articles in national magazines. The prolific garden lecturer is the longtime host of Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s weekly Gestalt Gardener program.

Ideas on Tap: Systemic Racism in America (Part I): Policing and Criminal Justice
2020-07-14 17:30 - 19:00 | MHC Facebook Page
On July 14, join the Mississippi Humanities Council for the first program in a multi-part series on systemic racism in America.
The July program will address how racism exists at the systemic level in policing and criminal justice in the U.S. Panelists include Scott Colom, District Attorney for Mississippi’s 16th Judicial District; Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law; and others. Dr. Temika Simmons, MHC boardmember and director of the Local Government Leadership Institute at Delta State University, will moderate.
Future programs in the series will focus on housing, education, wealth accumulation, food access, and more.
The July 14 program will be livestreamed to the MHC’s Facebook page.

SB: Black Women and the Suffrage Movement in Mississippi, 1863-1965
2020-06-26 12:00 - 13:00 | MS
Black women in Mississippi actively participated in the suffrage movement after the Civil War. They fought actively for women’s suffrage even as they supported Black men and passage of the 15th Amendment. With passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, Black women could not claim victory. It would take another 40 years before they could exercise the right to vote. White supremacy robbed Black women of the right to vote. White women, who should have been allies in the fight for women’s suffrage, turned their backs on Black women. Black women, then, fought both racism and sexism in the struggle for the right to vote. They created a vibrant, active political culture that began during the Civil War. They attended political rallies, campaigned and raised money for candidates, monitored polling places, and counted ballots. They participated actively in political clubs, first in Loyal Leagues and later in Republican Clubs. Black women built a vibrant political culture in the church, secret societies, clubs, and even their independent enterprises. They did so despite being shunned by White women suffragists; subjected to extralegal racial sexual violence and economic repression by Whites; and undermined by the sexism of Black men. This presentation provides an overview of the 100-year-fight by Black women in Mississippi to maintain their place in public political discourse, from the Civil War to passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

SB: Mississippi in the Great War
2020-05-14 12:00 - 13:00 | Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, 314 7th St N, Columbus, MS, 39701, United States
School textbooks rarely mention much about the Great War — World War I. Although the United States only participated in the final two yeas of the conflict, it changed the world. Drawing on letters published in Mississippi newspapers from across the state, this presentation tells the story of Mississippians who participated in the Great War. The letters were written by soldiers, aviators, sailors and YMCA and Red Cross workers. They reflect the experiences of young men as they endured training camp, voyaged across the Atlantic to France and participated in horrific battles. The letters also reveal the experiences of nurses and humanitarian workers, describing drills, uniforms, parades and parties–a”lighter” view of the war.
Speakers Expertise:
Anne Webster is a retired archivist at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Voice and Vision: Fire and Water
2020-04-21 18:00 - 19:00 | Walter Anderson Museum of Art, 510 Washington Ave, Ocean Springs, MS, 39564
These programs are part of the Museum’s Voice and Vision initiative that stages dialogues between the works of Walter Anderson and artifacts from other collections, along with voices across time and place. Voice and Vision includes four in-gallery installations composed of artworks, objects, scholarship, and documentary fieldwork, representing a diversity of stories and experiences rooted in the Southern land.
Walter Anderson sought harmony between humanity and the environment, in part as a response to what he observed as the destruction that accompanied modern society. In partnership with the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, this interdisciplinary public program connects Anderson’s life and art to current Gulf Coast conservation efforts. Special guests include Jack E. Davis, professor of history and the Rothman Family Chair in the Humanities at the University of Florida, where he specializes in environmental history and sustainability studies. In 2018, his book The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in history. Cost: Free to the public.

50th Recollection of Gibbs-Green: Doris Derby Exhibit
2020-04-03 16:00 - 17:00 | Jackson State University, 1400 J.R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, 39217
In the spring of 1970, college and university students across the country protested against the Vietnam War, racism, gender oppression, and a host of other issues, at times leading to violent and deadly confrontations with police and national guard troops. On May 14th, 1970, students at Jackson State College staged a demonstration condemning racial discrimination in Mississippi and the killing of four students at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard on May 4th. The demonstration continued into the night. Shortly after midnight on May 15th, police, who claimed they had been shot at, opened fire on students gathered outside Alexander Hall, a campus dormitory. When the shooting stopped, 21-year-old Phillip Gibbs and 17-year-old James Green lay dead. twelve other students were injured.
The 50th anniversary commemoration of the shooting on what is now the campus of Jackson State University will include five major programs. The Student Government Association, Gibbs-Green Commission, and Gibbs-Green Oral History Project developed the programs which will coordinate with Kent State University to link the events on both campuses.
April 3rd:
A photography exhibit about the shooting included with the Creative Arts and Scholarly Engagement Festival. The opening reception will be held in Ayer Hall. Dr. Doris Derby, retired Georgia State University professor of Anthropology and Civil Rights documentary photographer, will speak about the history of the Civil Rights movement, contextualizing the Jackson State shooting both within Civil Rights activism and the wave of protests occurring on college campuses around the country.
The exhibit itself, which will be on display through June 2020, had two components. The first is Derby’s photographs. Derby was working for Margaret Walker at the Jackson State College Institute for the Study of History, Life, and Culture of Black People at the time of the shootings in 1970 and photographed the event. The photos include never-before-exhibited imaged from the immediate aftermath of the shootings on campus and images from James Green’s funeral. These photos will be paired with images from the Phillip Gibbs and James Green Memorial collection in the JSU archives.

Voice and Vision: Tunica-Biloxi Living History
2020-03-13 18:00 - 19:00 | Walter Anderson Museum of Art, 510 Washington Ave, Ocean Springs, MS, 39564
These programs are part of the Museum’s Voice and Vision initiative that stages dialogues between the works of Walter Anderson and artifacts from other collections, along with voices across time and place. Voice and Vision includes four in-gallery installations composed of artworks, objects, scholarship, and documentary fieldwork, representing a diversity of stories and experiences rooted in the Southern land.
Walter Anderson’s art and life were the products of wide-ranging and multicultural influences, encompassing transcendentalism, folktale, and indigenous ways of understanding the world. In partnership with the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, this interdisciplinary public program connects Anderson’s art to the history and traditions of First Nations Americans who called the Gulf Coast home prior to European arrival. Special guests include John D. Barbry, Donna M. Pierite and Elisabeth Pierite-Mora, co-authors of The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe: Its Culture and People, and leaders of the Language & Cultural Revitalization Program of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana. Cost: Free to the public.

Bridging Cultures: Working for Equity Across Race, Class, Religion, and Ethnicity
2020-03-12 08:00 - 17:00 | International Museum of Muslim Cultures, 201 East Pascagoula Street, Jackson, MS, 39201
Through its “Bridging Cultures” Program, the International Museum of Muslin Cultures utilizes its two signature exhibitions: “Muslims with Christians and Jews: An Exhibition of Covenants and Coexistence,” and “The Legacy of Timbuktu: Wonders of the Written Word” to develop a series of programs and educational opportunities. IMMC’s Islamic Thought Institute engages local and national partners to host a series of conversations and/or panel discussions around the various themes of the two exhibitions.
The topic for March’s event is “Religion and the Freedom Movement: The Historical and Current Role of Women,” A conversation exploring religion’s connection with the Freedom Movement through the role of women.

Margaret's Grocery: The Oral History of a Southern Vernacular Place
2020-03-07 18:00 - 19:00 | Strand Theatre, 717 Clay Street, Vicksburg, MS, 39183
Located north of downtown Vicksburg on old Highway 61, Margaret’s Grocery is a unique vernacular art environment created by Reverend H.D. Dennis. Margaret Rogers Dennis ran the former country store for years. When she met and married Reverend Dennis in the early 1980s, he promised her that he would transform her simple store into a place that the world would come to see. Although the site is no longer open as a store, the Grocery has attracted visitors from around the world to experience Reverend Dennis’ creation.

The Global South and the Black Diaspora–From Mississippi to the Caribbean
2020-03-05 12:00 - 14:00 | Delta State University, 1003 W Sunflower Rd, Cleveland, MS, 38733, United States
A two-day event with keynote presentations by Dr. Jarvis McInnis, the Cordelia and William Laverack Assistant Professor of English at Duke University. A graduate of Tougaloo College, Dr. McInnis’s upcoming book, The Afterlives of the Plantation: Aesthetics, Labor, and Diaspora in the Global Black South, examines black transnational identity through African American and Caribbean culture and literature during the early twentieth century. McInnis’s recognition that black identities overlapped as much as they diverged, offers a unique insight into this period of history where the consolidation of white power–through imperialist growth and systematic black disempowerment–tend to dominate the historical narrative.

McInnis offers two lectures, both free and open to the public:
Wednesday, March 4th @ 6pm, at Millsaps College (focused on the book project with an eye toward the meaning of the “Global South” and racial identity
Thursday, March 5th @ 12PM, at the 2020 Mississippi Historical Society’s annual meeting in Cleveland, MS (focused on his archival journey and the process of developing his recently published article, “A Corporate Plantation Reading Public: Labor, Literacy, and Diaspora in the Global South,”–Which focuses on Cotton Farmer, an African American newspaper published by black tenant farmers in the Mississippi Delta.)

The Global South and the Black Diaspora--From Mississippi to the Caribbean
2020-03-04 18:00 - 19:00 | Millsaps College, 1701 N. State Street, Jackson, Mississippi, 39202

Corinth Contraband Experience
2020-02-29 13:00 - 14:00 | Corinth Coliseum, 404 Taylor St., Corinth, MS, 38834
Northeast Mississippi Community College has partnered with the National Park Service to create augmented reality to provide interpretation for existing statues and reliefs at the Corinth Contraband Camp.

SB: Parallels of Southern Storytelling & Folktales from Around the World
2020-02-28 09:00 - 13:00 | William Carey University, 710 William Carey Parkway, Hattiesburg, MS, 39401
Diane uses the art of storytelling to uncover folktales from the south, oral history from Mississippi, often paralleling these story motifs with folktales from around the world.
Speakers Expertise:
Diane Williams is a neo-griot, along the lines of the storytellers from times gone by when oral historians were crucial to maintaining black folks’ history because book publishers didn’t believe the history worth chronicling. Williams is also a quilter, an artistry befitting for a woman known for paying homage to the past. Williams uses silk yarns, beads, stones and vibrant colors to make traditional quilts with Motherland inspiration to tell stories of strength, resilience and hope.

"Back in the Day" Black History Celebration
2020-02-27 18:00 - 19:00 | New Hope Baptist Church, 5202 Watkins Dr., Jackson, MS, 39206
A month-long series of programs honoring African American history in Mississippi, culminating in the keynote address from Hon. Constance Slaughter-Harvey on February 27.
After serving as student body president and graduating from Tougaloo College with a degree in political science, Slaughter attended law school at the University of Mississippi. In 1970, amid death threats and constant prejudice, she became the first African American woman to receive a law degree from the school. She subsequently worked for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law as a staff attorney and represented the families of two students who were killed by highway patrolmen during the Jackson State University massacre. Slaughter-Harvey filed the desegregation lawsuit against the Mississippi State Highway Patrol that resulted in the hiring of African American highway patrolmen.

50th Recollection of Gibbs-Green: Survivors Exhibition
2020-02-27 17:30 | Jackson State University, 1400 J.R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, 39217
In the spring of 1970, college and university students across the country protested against the Vietnam War, racism, gender oppression, and a host of other issues, at times leading to violent and deadly confrontations with police and national guard troops. On May 14th, 1970, students at Jackson State College staged a demonstration condemning racial discrimination in Mississippi and the killing of four students at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard on May 4th. The demonstration continued into the night. Shortly after midnight on May 15th, police, who claimed they had been shot at, opened fire on students gathered outside Alexander Hall, a campus dormitory. When the shooting stopped, 21-year-old Phillip Gibbs and 17-year-old James Green lay dead. twelve other students were injured.
The 50th anniversary commemoration of the shooting on what is now the campus of Jackson State University will include five major programs. The Student Government Association, Gibbs-Green Commission, and Gibbs-Green Oral History Project developed the programs which will coordinate with Kent State University to link the events on both campuses.
February 27th:
The second event is a reception to open an exhibit that features displays about the lives of the survivors, with pictures, personal papers, and other items that help tell the story about how the experience shaped them in the years following. Vernon Weakley, one of the wounded, and James Lap Baker, Eddie Jan Car, Lee Bernard, Hillman Frazier, Charles Holmes, Gailya Porter, and Quilly Turner, students who were shot at, will speak with the audience about the shooting and how it impacted their lives. The exhibit will remain on display through June 2020.

Modernism, Poetry and Cinema Celebrity Culture: At the Crossroads of High and Low Art
2020-02-27 10:00 - 11:00 | Jackson State University, 1400 J.R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, 39217
Dr. Leticia Alonso, Humanities Teacher Award winner for Jackson State University, will present her public lecture:
At the heart of Modernism was the attraction to cinema celebrity culture. The popularization of film stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford and Brigitte Helm shaped the cultural imaginary of modernity to such an extent that they influenced the creative activity of writers in the years 1900-1950. This presentation will explore how Modernist poetry challenges traditional categorizations of high and low art forms by drawing on cinema as a genre initially associated with mass culture. Questions centering on stardom and ways of seeing will thus reflect on the intersections of poetry with popular culture, publicity and performance.

NLCC 2020: Visits, Vittles & Vines: The Culture of Southern Hospitality
2020-02-27 - 2020-02-29 | Natchez Convention Center, 211 Main Street, Natchez, MS, 39120
The 2020 conference will focus on the heritage of Southern hospitality. It will highlight the many cultures and rich traditions that make up the food, gardens, and entertainment that we are so known for in the South, and how it transcends race and class lines. Topics and themes that will be addressed in the various presentation include Southern Hospitality Culture, foodways, African Disapora within southern foodways, identity, rhetoric, community culture, oral histories, culinary history, cross-culture gardening, entertainment, art, film, and more.

The Quest for Religious Tolerance, Pluralism and Moderation in the Later Roman Empire
2020-02-26 15:30 - 16:30 | Shackoul’s Honors College, 500 Bailey Howell Drive, Mississippi State, MS, 39762
Dr. Mark Clark, Humanities Teacher Award winner for Mississippi State University, presents his public lecture, “The Quest for Religious Tolerance, Pluralism and Moderation in the Later Roman Empire”

One Woman's Fight Against the Butcher of Lyon
2020-02-26 15:00 - 16:30 | Northwest Mississippi Community College, 4975 Hwy 51 N, Senatobia, 38668
Ms. Carla Townsend, Humanities Teacher Awardee for Northwest Mississippi Community College, presents her public lecture:
Townsend will be discussing the resistance movement in France during World War II. The focus will be on the actions of one incredibly heroic woman named Virginia Hall, who defied conventional norms in the fight against fascism.

Connections
2020-02-26 15:00 - 16:30 | East Mississippi Community College – Scooba Campus, 1512 Kemper Street, Scooba, MS, 39358
Mr. Terry Cherry, Humanities Teacher of the Year for East Mississippi Community College, presents his public lecture:
In his presentation, Cherry focuses on three concepts: The art he creates stands on the shoulders of artists who have inspired him. Secondly, how his art is connected to other art through art history in general. Lastly, how all of his art, though very different at times is still connected to the total output.

Forms and Narratives in Art
2020-02-26 14:30 - 15:30 | East Central Community College, 275 W Broad Street, Decatur, MS, 39327
Mr. Jeffrey Hodges, Humanities Teacher Awardee for East Central Community College, will present his public lecture, “Forms and Narratives in Art.”

Coming to America: How Immigrant Composers Have Enriched Our Musical Culture
2020-02-25 19:00 - 20:00 | Northeast Mississippi Community College, 101 Cunningham Blvd., Booneville, MS, 38829
Dr. Amanda Mattox, Humanities Teacher Award winner for Northeast Mississippi Community College, will present her public lecture:
Major European composers immigrated to the United States during the 1930s to escape oppressive political situations. This lecture surveys how these and other immigrant musicians have had a profound effect on concert music in America through composition and university teaching positions. Included in the presentation will be live performances of representative works.

Changing the World One Communicator at a Time
2020-02-25 18:00 - 19:00 | Itawamba Community College, 602 W Hill Street, Fulton, MS, 38843
Ms. Jessi Stevenson, Humanities Teacher Award winner for Itawamba Community College, will present her public lecture, “Changing the World One Communicator at a Time: A Discussion of Oxytocin, the Power of Storytelling, and the Importance of Dialogue in the Communication Process.”
“We take part in the communication process daily, but we often let our fear stifle true connection in this reciprocal process. This talk will empower you to harness the physiological reactions of communication by talking through strategies to help you better connect with your audiences on an emotional and engaging level.”

How History and the Humanities Can Fight White Supremacy
2020-02-24 18:00 - 19:00 | Mississippi University for Women – Fant Memorial Library, 1200 5th Ave S, Columbus, MS, 39701, United States
Dr. Kristi DiClemente, Humanities Teacher Awardee at Mississippi University for Women, will present her public lecture:
In the past few years, white supremacist groups have adopted historical imagery, and an imagined “pure” European past to argue against diversity and inclusion in all aspects of modern life. DiClemente will take on this ahistorical interpretation of the past and discuss how we as historians, and other humanities faculty, can fight against this imagery by actively decolonizing syllabuses and supporting the voices of underrepresented scholars.

SB: Parallels of Southern Storytelling & Folktales from Around the World
2020-02-21 19:00 - 20:00 | Blue Mountain College, 201 W Main Street, Blue Mountain, MS, 38610

Give me STEAM: Art Education as an Extraordinary Experience
2020-02-21 10:30 - 11:30 | Meridian Community College, 910 Hwy 19 N, Meridian, MS, 39307
Ms. Terrell Nicholson-Taylor will present her Humanities Teacher Award lecture for Meridian Community College:
The “A” for Art may be more important than the S T E M paradigm of education, because without the ability of artistic expression, these other fields may never have come into being. The very foundation of communicative thought and endeavor are bound to artistic, symbolic notation and hands-on learning and processes: the basis of all endeavors.

Ben Percy Public Readings
2020-02-20 19:30 - 20:30 | Mississippi State University, Bost Theater, Starkville, MS
Popular storyteller and fiction author Benjamin “Ben” Percy visits Mississippi State this month as a writer-in-residence, sharing from his publications, answering questions, visiting classes and meeting students and community members.
Percy presents a public address on Thursday [Feb. 20] at 7:30 p.m. in the Turner A. Wingo Auditorium of Old Main Academic Center, Room 1030.
On Feb. 21 at 4 p.m. at The Last Page, Starkville’s comic bookstore located at 101 S. Washington St., Percy will read from a selection of his works, answer questions and sign his publications.
Both events are free and open to the public.
As MSU’s writer-in-residence, he will interact with students, offering advice and tips to promote writing and storytelling.
“Mr. Percy specializes in literature, horror literature, and he also works on comic books and produces a Wolverine podcast,” said Julia Osman, director of MSU’s Institute for the Humanities and associate professor of history. “These genres and forms of literature, writing and storytelling are as included in the humanities as the deepest and most sensitive poetry.”

Calvin Coolidge on the Religious Foundations of Civilization
2020-02-20 19:00 - 20:00 | Blue Mountain College, 201 W Main Street, Blue Mountain, MS, 38610
Graduate Student Tom Tacoma

Dr. Thomas Tacoma, Humanities Teacher Awardee for Blue Mountain College, will present his public lecture: Dr. Tacoma’s will present on Calvin Coolidge’s principle of responsibility in public office. Coolidge faced numerous challenges as Governor of Massachusetts, President of the United States, and while out of office. In each step, he promoted his vision of responsible leadership.”
