Mississippi 
-
-
SOURCE: Black Perspectives
10/4/2022
Keisha Blain Relates the Freedom Dreams of Fannie Lou Hamer
by Danielle L. McGuire
Keisha Blain's book offers a broader portrait of Hamer as a visionary activist who understood the interconnected issues of sex, class and power that affected the Black freedom movement.
-
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
9/25/2022
When Italian Immigrants were Tricked into Debt Peonage in the Jim Crow South
A labor agency in Mississippi experimented with a creative, if evil, solution to the problem of Black demands for labor rights at the turn of the 20th century: trick Italian farmers to sign contracts that shackled them with debt to their employers.
-
-
SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
9/9/2022
Filmmaker Hopes Emmett Till Movie Will Spur New Evidence and Will to Pursue Justice
Filmmaker Keith Beauchamp hopes to "shake the trees so that a justice-seeking atmosphere could be formed that will allow people to feel comfortable coming forward with new evidence on the case.”
-
-
SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
9/13/2022
Black Mississippians Have Been Fighting a Water Crisis for Decades
by Thomas J. Ward Jr.
Black residents of the Mississippi Delta began organizing in 1970 for access to water and sewage services; their struggle continues today.
-
-
SOURCE: Harper's Bazaar
9/1/2022
The Jackson Water Crisis Latest Chapter in Black Mutual Aid
by Kaitlyn Greenidge
The two sides of Mississippi's history are its exploitative oligarchy and the efforts of Black Mississippians and their allies to imagine egalitarian alternatives against the odds. Activists' responses to the collapse of the Jackson water infrastructure will test that spirit.
-
-
SOURCE: Associated Press
8/28/2022
Grant for Public History of Natchez, MS Civil Rights Sites
“This is great news for Natchez,” Mayor Dan Gibson said in a news release. “These grant funds will help greatly in our efforts to better tell the entire history of Natchez to include commemorating our African American historic sites.”
-
-
SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
8/24/2022
Court Upholds Mississippi's 1890 Jim Crow Voting Law
The framers of the state's voting laws were explicit in their intention to use the law to strip as many Black men of their right to vote as possible. A federal court recently ruled that the law, amended with nominally color-blind language, is acceptable.
-
-
SOURCE: CNN
7/22/2022
Till's Accuser's Memoir Shows the Pandora's Box She Opened has Never Closed
by Peniel E. Joseph
"What does it say about America that we are still in search of justice for the victim of an almost 70-year-old crime that helped spark the modern civil rights movement?"
-
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
7/20/2022
Is a 23 Year-Old Named Kingfish Bridging the Past and Future of the Blues?
by Carlo Rotella
Although he came on the scene as a guitar hotshot, Christone "Kingfish" Ingram's artistic ambitions go beyond the bombastic soloing of the blues-rock genre and incorporate more of the traditional breadth of the blues as African American music.
-
-
SOURCE: New York Times
7/17/2022
Charles Blow: Don't Shed Tears for Carolyn Bryant Donham
In a newly-discovered unpublished memoir, the woman who accused Emmett Till of making sexual advances presents a self-serving account of her role in the events that led to his murder.
-
-
SOURCE: Associated Press
7/15/2022
Mississippi AG Will Not Reopen Till Lynching Case Despite Discovered Warrant for Carolyn Donham
The state's top prosecutor said that despite the discovery of the warrant and the publication of Ms. Donham's memoir, the woman at the center of the Till lynching will not be prosecuted.
-
-
SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
6/29/2022
Unserved Warrant for Carolyn Bryant Donham's Arrest in Till Lynching Discovered in Box in Courthouse Basement
The 1955 document demonstrates that the authorities in Leflore County believed that Donham, for whose honor the lynching was allegedly carried out, was present for the teenager's abduction, torture, or murder.
-
-
SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
6/23/2022
Preserving Local History in Water Valley, Mississippi
"We always hear about important figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but I wanted to know about the heroes here in Yalobusha County.”
-
-
SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
6/9/2022
A Marker Recognizing Fannie Lou Hamer in Mississippi is a Step Toward Justice
by Keisha N. Blain
As conservatives restrict the teaching of the history of racism in America, the town of Winona, Mississippi has taken a necessary step to memorialize the state-sanctioned jailhouse beating of Fannie Lou Hamer and other activists in 1963.
-
-
SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
4/29/2022
Natchez's Deacons For Defense HQ on National Register of Historic Places
A Natchez barbershop will be recognized as the meeting place of the group organized for Black community self-defense against racist terrorism.
-
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
4/28/2022
Why Isn't Joetha Collier Known as a Victim of Racism in Mississippi?
by Keisha N. Blain
A young woman's murder by white men in 1971, on the day she graduated from a newly integrated high school, doesn't fit easily into a narrative framework established by Emmett Till's killing – of martyrdom leading to change for the better.
-
-
SOURCE: WLBT
4/14/2022
Former Mississippi Governor Slams Tate Reeves over Confederate Heritage Remarks
Ray Mabus did not sign a Confederate Heritage Month declaration, a tradition which began with former Governor Kirk Fordice, whom Mabus also called "an overt white supremacist."
-
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
4/7/2022
Citizen Tour Guides Protect the Memory of Civil Rights Killings in Mississippi
"Obbie is of the opinion that if something needs to get done, especially something as important as ensuring that the legacy of your community and family doesn’t get erased, you’d better first employ yourself to do something about it."
-
-
SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
4/7/2022
Historic Echoes as Mississippi Senators Vote No on Jackson Nomination
Did some statements made by Republicans echo Senator James Eastland's questioning whether Thurgood Marshall was "prejudiced against the white people of the South"?
-
-
SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
3/14/2022
Itta Bena, Miss. Works to Preserve Civil Rights History
Shannon Bowden of Mississippi Valley State University is leading a public history project for the nearby Delta town of Itta Bena, preserving the sites and stories of voting rights activism.