Mississippi

Emmett Till Family Responds to Death of Carolyn Bryant Donham

The Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., a cousin of the slain youth, expressed regret that no one would be held accountable for the killing, but reminded that there remains a collective accountability for overcoming racial injustice. 

When Mississippi Banned Sesame Street

As Mississippi prepared to launch a state-run educational television network in 1970, its members voted 3-2 that images of a multiracial group of children at play on "Sesame Street" would antagonize conservative politicians and jeopardize the network's funding.

Two Deep South States Still Insist on Honoring MLK Jointly with Robert E. Lee

Historians weigh in on the politics of tying the MLK holiday to the ongoing veneration of the Lost Cause mythology. 

Mississippi AG: We Purged "Taint" of Racism from Felon Disenfranchisement Law in 1968

Attorney General Janet Fitch insisted that the Supreme Court had no cause to review the state's law disenfranchising certain felons. She acknowledged the explicit racist intent embedded in the statute but insisted that "taint" had been removed. 

Why Won't Her College Honor "Queen of Basketball" by Renaming its Arena?

Luisa Harris didn't just lead the Delta State Lady Statesmen to three consecutive championships in the early 1970s. She helped integrate the basketball program and the college. Is that the reason why her name and image are so conspicuously absent today? 

Why I Vandalized Ole Miss's Confederate Statue

Zach Borenstein explains why he painted "Spiritual Genocide" on the base of a campus Confederate memorial, and why he wishes he had talked with local activists first. 

Fannie Lou Hamer and the Meaning of Freedom in Contemporary America

by Keisha N. Blain

Keisha Blain responds to a round table forum on her new biography of the Mississippi freedom activist, whose thinking and leadership in the movement can inform struggles for justice today. 

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. 

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.  

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.”

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. 

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. 

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.”

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. 

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?"

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.”