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.
“The victims of this censorship are history and the truth,” J. Michael Butler said. “The end game is they’re going to make teaching civil rights into ‘critical race theory,’ and it’s not.”
Two cultural projects that examine the Alabama city’s role in the civil rights movement are drawing throngs of visitors and encouraging a surge of downtown construction.
