Mississippi

• 
• 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  In a newly-discovered unpublished memoir, the woman who accused Emmett Till of making sexual advances presents a self-serving account of her role in the events that led to his murder.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. 

• 
• SOURCE: Hyperallergic
  

  Mississippi Museum of Art Exhibition Opens on Legacies of Great Migration

  Opening April 9, this exhibition features newly commissioned works by 12 acclaimed Black contemporary artists, including Carrie Mae Weems, Theaster Gates, and more.

• 
• SOURCE: Mississippi Today
  2/2/2022
  

  A Mississippi Conservative Took the Only CRT Course in the State. Here's What Happened

  Engaging with the now-notorious body of legal scholarship shook up Brittany Murphree's assumptions about the law and society, leading her to oppose her party's state legislation restricting how issues of race can be taught.

• 
• SOURCE: Mississippi Free Press
  1/26/2022
  

  Christian Dominionism, History, and the War on Abortion in Mississippi

  Mississippi's stringent abortion restrictions are the product of a decades-long, cross-denominational project of Christian Dominionism, the view that conservative Christians should control the institutions of society to advance what they consider "Biblical" policies. 

• 
• SOURCE: University of Mississippi
  1/18/2022
  

  University of Mississippi Makes Available Oral Histories of Student Protesters Sent to Parchman Prison Farm

  Historian Garrett Felber and his students began a project to document the experiences of Mississippi students arrested in 1970 and sent to the notorious prison farm. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  1/8/2022
  

  A Racist 1890 Law Still Blocks Black Americans from Voting

  Fewer than 200 Mississippians in the last 25 years have successfully petitioned for the restoration of their voting rights after felony convictions.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/5/2021
  

  Ghosts of Mississippi

  by Charles M. Blow

  The Times columnist argues that the oral arguments in the SCOTUS abortion case recall the bitter history of disenfranchisement in Mississippi, and the subsequent decades when rights were stripped away from Mississippians without democratic process.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/6/2021
  

  Justice Department Closes Emmett Till Investigation Without Charges

  Historian Timothy Tyson wrote in a 2017 book that witness Carolyn Bryant Donham disavowed her testimony that Till had grabbed her and made suggestive remarks before he was lynched. The DOJ has said that materials given them by Tyson did not corroborate the claim of a recantation.