Christina J. Thomas, a post doctorate fellow at the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina, is the recipient of the inaugural Robert “Bob” Moses Civil Rights Research Fellowship, offered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Vanderbilt PhD candidate Zachary Clary will research African American intellectualism and protest strategy during the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.
A group of Mississippi students will participate in the National History Day Contest in College Park, Maryland, in June after winning at the state level at an event hosted by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
Arleigh Rodgers, a doctoral student at Stony Brook University in New York, has been selected as the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s 2026 Eudora Welty Research Fellow. This summer, Rodgers will explore the Eudora Welty Collection, the world’s finest collection of materials related to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and stage adaptations of Welty’s novella, “The Ponder Heart.”
Historian Jeff Giambrone has a personal connection to the Mississippi Made temporary exhibit at the Two Mississippi Museums. The exhibit displays some 250 artifacts, including items donated by Giambrone, who is assistant director of reference services at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, where he’s worked for nearly 14 years.
Chelsea McNutt, a Cornell University doctoral student, will research the role of Black women and their care work within the NAACP during the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.
The Mississippi Legislature honored outgoing Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) Director Katie Blount on March 25. The Senate passed a resolution commending her “dedication, expertise and commitment.” Blount will retire June 30, 2026.
Clarence Alton “Al” Hollingsworth, Jr., a founding member of the Mississippi Heritage Trust who died March 21, is remembered as a committed historic preservationist and supporter of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. He and his wife, Libby, spent decades advocating for the preservation of places.
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety has transferred to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History 1960s-era Ku Klux Klan materials, including full Klan regalia, recently discovered as DPS staff prepared to move into new headquarters.