Mississippi

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/5/2021
  

  The Enduring Influence of Fannie Lou Hamer, Civil Rights Advocate

  by Jill Watts

  New books by Kate Clifford Larson and Keisha N. Blain aim to restore Fannie Lou Hamer to a position of prominence in the history of Black freedom struggles. 

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• SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
  9/1/2021
  

  Journalist William Huie Concealed Lynchers In Emmett Till Case And Got Away With It

  The commonly-know story of Emmett Till's lynching has long been distorted because a journalist who reported the accounts of two acquitted killers had written out other conspirators from the story for legal reasons. 

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• SOURCE: Biloxi Sun-Herald
  9/2/2011
  

  Ida Floods Another Historically Black Gulf Community

  The Forest Heights neighborhood of Gulfport, Mississippi was redeveloped in the 1960s as one of the first racially integrated developments promoting home ownership. Like the rest of historically Black north Gulfport, it is threatened by more frequent flooding.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/16/2021
  

  The Complicated History of One Mississippi Restaurant

  Booker Wright, a Black waiter, shocked the community of Greenwood by shedding his genial tableside manner to tell a documentary crew about the burdens of racial subordination. After the film aired, he was assaulted by a police officer and his bar was vandalized.

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
  8/10/2021
  

  Greenwood, Mississippi Asks What Comes After Confederate Monuments

  As political pressure brings down Confederate statues, the question of what replaces them becomes more urgent but remains unanswered. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/24/2021
  

  ‘He Had a Life Before Death’: Remembering Emmett Till for the Child He Was

  Emmett Till's cousin Ollie Gordon describes Till's personality at what would be his 80th birthday, reminding us that he was a person, and not just a martyr.

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  6/2/2021
  

  Shot 55 Years Ago while Marching Against Racism, James Meredith Reminds Us that Powerful Movements can Include those with Very Different Ideas

  by Aram Goudsouzian

  Meredith’s historical meaning is slippery, but that very inability to pin him down can teach important lessons – not only for how to remember the 1960s, but for how to think about social change.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/17/2021
  

  Officials Apologize for Deadly Police Shooting at a Black College in 1970

  More than 400 students from the Jackson State class of 1970 were awarded diplomas on Saturday, as city and state officials apologized for the deadly police violence that took two lives and resulted in the shutdown of the campus and cancellation of that year's graduation ceremonies. 

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• SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
  4/30/2021
  

  Systemic Racism Built Mississippi. Gov. Reeves Says It Doesn’t Exist

  Governor Tate Reeves recently declared systemic racism is a myth. A reporter wonders if he's spent time in his own state. 

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• SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
  4/12/2021
  

  ‘Darn’ Tootin’ It Is!’: Gov. Tate Reeves Again Declares Confederate Heritage Month, SCV Says

  While official state web pages have not posted such a proclamation, Governor Tate Reeves has apparently signed a proclamation again declaring April Confederate Heritage Month, as posted on the Facebook page of the Sons of Confederate Veterans of Rankin County, MS. Writer Donna Ladd says Reeves' proclamation equates the Union and Confederate causes in the Civil War.

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• SOURCE: YouTube
  2/17/2021
  

  He Risked His Life Filming A Mississippi Senator's Plantation In 1964

  Senator James Eastland of Mississippi justified his segregationist politics with paternalism. Conditions on his family's plantation showed otherwise. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/11/2021
  

  American Democracy Is Only 55 Years Old—And Hanging by a Thread

  Atlantic Editor Vann Newkirk examines the recent and imperiled history of American democracy since the Voting Rights Act, including by interviewing Charles Hamilton, co-author of the keystone book "Black Power." 

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• SOURCE: Reckon South
  1/11/2021
  

  Capitol Riot: The 48 Hours that Echoed Generations of Southern Conflict

  Hours after Mississippi legislators took the final step of removing a Confederate emblem from their state banner, a violent white mob waved the Stars and Bars as it ransacked the U.S. Capitol. 

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• SOURCE: Mississippi Today
  12/29/2020
  

  University of Mississippi Professors Research Legacy of Slavery at State’s Flagship University

  A multidisciplinary task force of scholars at the University of Mississippi is working to tell the stories of people enslaved at the university and examine the role of slavery in building the institution. 

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• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  1/4/2021
  

  The Bravery of William Winter

  by Stuart Stevens

  Former Mississippi Governor William Winter should be remembered for facing down extremists and advancing a moderate vision of change in Mississippi that centered on education. He died at 97 on December 18. 

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• SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
  12/21/2020
  

  Trump Taps Ex-Gov. Bryant for ‘1776’ Effort to Keep History Friendly to White ‘Heroes’

  The appointment of Confederate sympathizer Phil Bryant to Trump's "patriotic" history commission shows that it is an exercise in ideology and culture war politics, not a defense of historical rigor. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/22/2020
  

  The Latest Chapter in Mississippi’s Long History of Squelching Anti-Racist Activism

  by William Sturkey

  The silencing of journalists and academics has always been integral to the regime of white supremacy in Mississippi. Now that new challenges are emerging to that regime, attacks on academic freedom, including the firing of historian Garrett Felber, have resurfaced.

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• SOURCE: Jackson Clarion-Ledger
  12/2/2020
  

  The Story of a 1970s Mississippi Textbook that Changed how Students Learned about their Past

  Contemporary historians look back on the long struggle to unseat the "Lost Cause" myth and other white supremacist ideas from the state's history curriculum that began with the introduction of "Mississippi: Conflict and Change" to state high schools in 1980.

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• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  11/19/2020
  

  The Devil Had Nothing to Do With It

  by Greil Marcus

  The music writer looks at three recent books on the Mississippi blues singer and guitarist Robert Johnson, looking to pull his story out of the realm of myth. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/11/2020
  

  Mississippi Republican Calls for His State to ‘Succeed from the Union’ after Biden Victory

  "Even before the race was called, Mississippi’s five Republicans in Congress released a joint statement that warned, without evidence, about the existence of “voting irregularities” across the country."