News

On Thursday, July 27, from 5 p.m.–6:30 p.m., Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) staff will provide an update for the community of Port Gibson regarding plans for re-opening the Windsor Ruins site, the historic site of the Daniell Plantation.  

MDAH staff will discuss the status of the column stabilization project underway at Windsor Ruins and engage meeting attendees in discussion about how to enhance interpretation and stories about Windsor Ruins. This valued public input will assist MDAH’s ongoing research and development for new signage at the site, marketing materials, and more. No registration is required to attend the meeting. 

“We invite people in the community to give us input on how MDAH should tell the stories that Windsor evokes—the wealth generated through cotton production, enslavement, the Civil War, and Reconstruction,” said Michael Morris, MDAH director of public engagement. “Among the new stories we will share are the results of genealogy research connecting enslaved people with descendants currently living in Claiborne County and across the country.” 

Windsor Plantation, one of the largest private residences in the state, was built for Smith Coffee Daniell II in 1861. It was constructed near the town of Bruinsburg, where Union soldiers crossed the Mississippi River to begin their quest to capture Vicksburg. It was destroyed by fire in 1890. 

More than a century of exposure to the elements has caused erosion to the 45-foot-tall masonry columns and fracturing of the cast iron capitals. In 2016, MDAH commissioned an architectural conservator to study the site.  

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History was founded in 1902 to collect, preserve, and provide access to the archival resources of the state.  

Community meeting information: 

Thursday, July 27, 2023 

Mississippi Cultural Crossroads 

507 Market Street 

Port Gibson, MS 39150 

5 p.m.–6:30 p.m. 

Jackson – The Nissan Foundation has named the Two Mississippi Museums as a 2023 grant recipient. The $50,000 grant will help fund field trips during the 2023-2024 school year, defraying costs for admission, travel, and on-site lunches for students. 

 “We are grateful to the Nissan Foundation for their continued support of our field trip program,” said Katie Blount, director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “School children are our most important audience. The foundation’s generosity has helped thousands of students experience this state-of-the-art museum complex.” 

The Nissan Foundation is awarding a total of $1.2 million in grants to 39 nonprofit organizations for its 2023 grant cycle. The nonprofit recipients are in Atlanta, Central Mississippi, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Middle Tennessee, New York City, Southeast Michigan, Southern California—all locations where Nissan has an operational presence. Learn more about all the 2023 Nissan Foundation grantees at www.NissanFoundation.com. 

“It’s an honor to award the Two Mississippi Museums a grant for the work they are doing to promote, share and sustain cultural awareness and understanding in communities throughout our world,” said Chandra Vasser president of the Nissan Foundation and Nissan’s first chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer. 

The Nissan Foundation was created in 1992 as a thoughtful response to the three weeks of violent civil unrest that occurred near Nissan North America’s then U.S. sales and marketing operations in Southern California following the Rodney King trial verdict. Nissan established a $5 million endowment to promote cultural diversity within southern Los Angeles neighborhoods. 

Museum hours are Tuesday–Saturday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. The Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum—Two Mississippi Museums—are located at 222 North Street in Jackson. For more information visit the MDAH Facebook page or email info@mdah.ms.gov.  To reserve or learn more about field trips at the Two Mississippi Museums, contact Stephanie King at sking@mdah.ms.gov. 

In celebration of Emmett Till’s birthday, the Two Mississippi Museums—the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum—will host a day of free admission featuring guided tours at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 25. This free day is made possible through sponsorship from Higher Purpose Co.

Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was visiting family in the Mississippi Delta from his home in Chicago in 1955 when he was tortured and murdered by white supremacists. The event propelled the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum shares Till’s story in the context of the greater story of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi.

“We are grateful to Higher Purpose Co. for their support of our day of free admission at the Two Mississippi Museums in honor of Emmett Till’s birthday,” said Katie Blount, director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). “The organization’s generosity will help many Mississippians experience the state’s largest classroom.”

Higher Purpose Co.’s mission is to build community wealth with Black residents in Mississippi by supporting the ownership of financial, cultural, and political power. 

“Mississippi continues to play a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement across this country. Higher Purpose Co. is excited to deepen our partnership with the Two Mississippi Museums and expand our support to cultural institutions committed to authentic storytelling,” said Dr. Tim Lampkin, founder and chief executive officer of Higher Purpose Co.  

The Two Mississippi Museums opened December 9, 2017, in honor of the state’s bicentennial. The museums take visitors through the sweep of Mississippi history and the state’s role as ground zero in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

Two Mississippi Museums are located at 222 North Street in Jackson. The hours are Tuesday–Saturday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. For more information call, 610-576-6580, visit the MDAH Facebook page, or email info@mdah.ms.gov.

Michael Morris will serve as the new director of the Two Mississippi Museums—the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. He steps into the role after Pamela D.C. Junior, who retired in June. The museums are administered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) and have attracted more than 500,000 visitors since opening in downtown Jackson in December 2017.

“I am thrilled to know Michael will continue the work we have begun,” Junior said. “He is well-known and respected in both the public history community and the civil rights community.”

“Since joining MDAH, Michael has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to preserving and promoting our state's rich cultural heritage,” said Cindy Gardner, division director, MDAH Museum Division. “I have no doubt that the Two Mississippi Museums will continue to thrive under Michael’s capable leadership.”

Morris, a Jackson native, earned his bachelor’s degree in history and master’s degree in political science from Jackson State University, where he worked at the Margaret Walker Center and Fannie Lou Hamer Institute on Citizenship and Democracy. He earned his supervisory management certificate from the Mississippi State Personnel Board and is currently completing its Certified Public Manager Program. Morris also completed the Stennis Institute’s State Executive Development Institute program at Mississippi State University.

He began his career at MDAH in the public relations office in 2016, and most recently served as director of public engagement. He was responsible for co-leading the MDAH strategic planning process, coordinating community meetings, leading department research projects, planning major events, and supporting the department director and deputy director during legislative sessions.

Morris is active in the community. He was a member of the commission tasked with commemorating the city of Jackson’s bicentennial in 2022, has written markers for the Mississippi Freedom Trail, and has moderated panels for the Mississippi Book Festival. Morris was the Mississippi archivist for the Our Story, Our Terms civil rights project at Duke University.

“I feel incredibly honored to take on this role, following in the footsteps of Pam Junior, who did an exceptional job,” said Morris. “These museums are a tremendous asset for the state and the city of Jackson. I am excited to take on this new responsibility and look forward to building on the success there.”

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History is the second-oldest state department of archives and history in the United States. The department’s mission is to inspire the discovery of stories that connect our lives and shape our future by preserving Mississippi’s diverse historic resources and sharing them with people around the world. The department is headquartered in the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in Jackson. For more information call 601-576-6850.

Solidarity Now! 1968 Poor People's Campaign opens Saturday, July 1, in the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Exhibition Hall of the Two Mississippi Museums, a Smithsonian Affiliate. This Smithsonian traveling exhibit explores a pivotal grassroots movement of the civil rights era: the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968.

Based on the original exhibition created by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, this exhibit explores the six-week protest community in Washington D.C. that called the nation’s attention to the effects of poverty on millions of Americans. Visitors will experience photographs, artifacts, documentaries, ambient audio, and graphics in addition to an interactive video with interviews of campaign participants, a 3D-printed model of Resurrection City, and a map of the nationwide caravan routes.

The multiethnic movement drew people from across the nation, including African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, Asian Americans and poor whites from Appalachia and rural communities. With newly found photographs and video content, the exhibit encourages visitors to discover this little-known chapter of the civil rights era.

“We look forward to having this unique Smithsonian exhibit at the Two Mississippi Museums,” said Katie Blount, director of Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). “It will provide an interesting perspective on the history of poverty and economic inequality in America.”

Although the United States emerged as a global model of wealth and democracy in the 1960s, an estimated 25 million Americans still lived in poverty. While President Lyndon B. Johnson had declared a “War on Poverty” in 1964, social inequalities and unequal access to opportunities left many Americans struggling.

In response, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  and Ralph David Abernathy, organized the Poor People’s Campaign to confront poverty as a national human rights issue. A multi-ethnic movement, the six-week, live-in demonstration in Washington, D.C., called Resurrection City, attracted protesters from across the country to this first large-scale, nationally organized protest after the assassination of King. 

The exhibition title is a reference to the Solidarity Day Rally, which was held on June 19, 1968. The rally at the Lincoln Memorial featured speeches by organizers and influencers as a continuation of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Solidarity Now! 1968 Poor People's Campaign is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It is supported by the CVS Health Foundation, a private foundation created by CVS Health to help people live healthier lives. 

In honor of Juneteenth, HII's Ingalls Shipbuilding division is sponsoring free admission to the Two Mississippi Museums from Saturday, June 17, through Monday, June 19. Visitors can explore themes of emancipation and liberation in Mississippi.

“We are grateful to Ingalls Shipbuilding for making it possible for so many Mississippians to visit the Two Mississippi Museums and celebrate emancipation in the United States,” said Katie Blount, director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Saturday, June 17, Juneteenth-themed tours through the Two Mississippi Museums are available at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 18, a Juneteenth-themed tour is available at 2 p.m.

During Juneteenth Jubilee on Monday, June 19, visitors can enjoy free Juneteenth-themed tours at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. and register for an on-site, behind-the-scenes historic object collections tour happening at 2:30 p.m.

This free, family-friendly day continues 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. with extended museums hours, craft-making activities for children, card games, live music from Jerry Jenkins, DJ Lil Walt, Jermaine Van Buren Jr., Montage, and Mastadon, and on-site food trucks Smokin 7, Oops All Vegan and Fertile Ground Brewery.

Visitors may also enjoy Juneteenth family gallery activities at the This Is Home: Medgar Evers, Mississippi, and the Movement exhibit, on display now through June 30, in the FedEx Exhibition Hall.

Signed into law on June 17, 2021, Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, or Juneteenth, is a federal holiday to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States at the end of the Civil War.

Celebration of Juneteenth began on June 19, 1865, when Union general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, with some 2,000 troops, and decreed the Emancipation Proclamation freed all enslaved people, officially enforcing emancipation in the Confederate-controlled state.

For more information, call 601-576-6850, or email info@mdah.ms.gov. 

In observance of the sixtieth anniversary of the death of Medgar Wiley Evers, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) will commemorate the life and legacy of the slain civil rights leader during the month of June.

 This is Home: Medgar Evers, Mississippi, and the Movement will be open June 1–30 at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson. This special exhibit examines the life, death, and legacy of Evers, who participated in every major civil rights action in the state as Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP from 1954 to 1963.

“Medgar Evers’s work and message still resonate today,” said Pamela Junior, director of the Two Mississippi Museums. “In honor of his life and enduring legacy, the exhibit is open through the month of June to allow visitors to learn more about this American hero of the Civil Rights Movement.”

Additionally, the Eudora Welty House & Garden (EWHG) will open the new, permanent exhibit Out of Outrage: Processing the Murder of Medgar Evers on Thursday, June 1, in the Eudora Welty Education and Visitor Center at 1109 Pinehurst Street in Jackson. This free exhibit examines how the murder of Evers impelled Eudora Welty to write “Where is the Voice Coming From?”, published in The New Yorker after Evers was shot in the driveway of his home and died on June 12, 1963. The impact of Evers’s murder was immediate and widespread, influencing the work of writers, poets, musicians, and other artists.

“In Jackson, Mississippi, the legacy of Medgar Evers is felt strongly to this day,” said Eudora Welty House & Garden director Jessica Russell. “This exhibit shares his story with our visitors and illustrates how some of the most powerful tools we will ever have—whether for processing personal grief or fighting publicly for justice—are imagination, creativity, and the written word.”

On Wednesday, June 7, at noon, the Two Mississippi Museums will host History Is Lunch, presenting “The Evers Archive: Voices, Justice, Legacies” with guests Reena Evers-Everette and MDAH Evers fellows Bobby J. Smith II (2017), T. Dionne Bailey (2018), and Pamela Walker (2019) discussing the work and continuing legacy of the Evers family. The History Is Lunch series is sponsored by the John and Lucy Shackelford Charitable Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi.

MDAH also holds in its collections the Medgar Wiley and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers, donated by Myrlie Evers-Williams. The collection is divided into four subgroups: papers of Evers as Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP, the Medgar Evers and family papers, Myrlie Beasley Evers papers, and the records of the State of Mississippi v. Byron De La Beckwith trials of 1964 and 1994. Evers’s papers as field secretary illustrate how closely he worked with national, state, and local NAACP leaders to facilitate organizational goals in Mississippi during the early years of the Civil Rights Movement.   

For more information call 601-576-6850 or email info@mdah.ms.gov.

Kymara Sneed, a doctoral candidate in history at Mississippi State University, has been named the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Research Fellow for 2023.

Sneed will research archival holdings in the Medgar Wiley and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers and The Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation Collections (MFBF) housed at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) in Jackson.

By examining the MFBF collection and the records and correspondence of Medgar Evers during his time as Mississippi field secretary for the NAACP, Sneed hopes to gain insight into the various hierarchies and perspectives—Mississippi’s Cooperative Extension Service agents, the MFBF, civil rights activists, and Black farmers—operating during the Jim Crow era.

“Because my topic covers this intersection of race and civil rights as it pertains to Mississippi State University’s Cooperative Extension Service and its relationship with Black farmers, the Evers Papers are integral to this project,” said Sneed. “This specific collection will be helpful in illustrating what civil rights activism looked like from a local perspective, how it might have clashed with the regimented duties of cooperative extension agents, and its reception within Mississippi’s Black farming community.” 

The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Research Scholars Program is a collaboration between MDAH and the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute that seeks to nurture upper-level graduate students and faculty scholars at the beginning of their academic careers, to increase their life-long interest in history, and to promote continued academic and public appreciation of Medgar Evers’s life and work, the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, and the struggle for human rights.

Sneed will use the $5,000 fellowship to cover travel, housing, and other expenses incurred while doing primary research at the archives.

Medgar Wiley and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers may be accessed at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building, 200 North Street, in Jackson. For more information on the fellowship or about the collection contact Laura Heller at 601-576-6850, or by email at lheller@mdah.ms.gov.

On June 1, 2023, the Eudora Welty House & Garden (EWHG) will unveil a new permanent exhibit honoring slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers in response to the sixtieth anniversary of his assassination on June 12, 1963, outside his Jackson, Mississippi, home.  

 Immediately after the news broke in Jackson, renowned Mississippi author Eudora Welty wrote “Where Is the Voice Coming From?”, a short story about the attack, which The New Yorker published on July 6, 1963—just 25 days after the crime. The new EWHG exhibit, titled Out of Outrage: Processing the Murder of Medgar Evers, follows the making of Welty’s piece. 

Through this work of fiction, written before the crime was solved, Welty painted a startlingly accurate picture of Evers’s assassin, his motives, and his movements. In fact, before The New Yorker would publish the story, Welty said, “The fiction’s outward details had to be changed where, by chance, they had resembled those of actuality, for the story must not be found prejudicial to the case of a person who might be on trial for his life.”  

This exhibit compares Welty’s original draft with the final version, highlighting changes. Story quotes pair with actual crime scene photographs, seemingly as captions, though Welty’s words predate the images. A photograph of Evers at work as Mississippi’s first field secretary for the NAACP opens the exhibit, along with an overview of his accomplishments.  

“In Jackson, Mississippi, the legacy of Medgar Evers is felt strongly to this day,” said Eudora Welty House & Garden director Jessica Russell. “This small but impactful exhibit shares his story with our visitors and illustrates how some of the most powerful tools we will ever have—whether processing personal grief or fighting publicly for justice—are imagination, creativity, and the written word.”  

The Eudora Welty Collection, housed in the William F. Winter building of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH), consists principally of drafts (including “Where is the Voice Coming From?”), revised copies, and printer's versions of Welty's works, including stories, books, essays, reviews, lectures, speeches, and drama. The collection also contains incoming and outgoing correspondence of Welty, negatives and photographs taken by Welty and her father, and memorabilia.   

In addition to the exhibit at EWHG, MDAH holds in its collections the Medgar Wiley Evers and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers, including papers of Medgar Evers as Mississippi field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and records relating to the case, State of Mississippi v. Byron de la Beckwith.  

About the Eudora Welty House & Garden 

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty donated her manuscripts, letters, and home of 76 years at 1119 Pinehurst Street in Jackson to MDAH. The National Historic Landmark is open to the public for tours. For more information, visit eudoraweltyhouse.com.  

Support programming for this exhibit begins in July, the month of Evers’ birthday, with a free #WeltyatHome Virtual Book Club discussion of the short story, led by Welty’s friend and biographer, Dr. Suzanne Marrs. To register for the Zoom link, email info@eudoraweltyhouse.com. 

Out of Outrage: Processing the Murder of Medgar Evers will be on permanent view at the Eudora Welty House & Garden Visitor Center, 1109 Pinehurst Street, Jackson, Mississippi. The Visitor Center is free and open to the public Tuesday–Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday, from 12:30 to 4 p.m.   

A new subseries of the Welty Family Papers is now available for study at the William F. Winter building of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). This new addition features the gardening papers of Eudora Welty's mother, Chestina Andrews Welty.

Included in Subseries 45.8 is Chestina's garden journal containing notes on flower arrangements and formulas, sketches of her garden, weather logs, a Valentine’s poem, and more. Additional materials in the series include garden notes, the Jackson Garden Club meeting minutes, drafts of the “History of the Jackson Garden Club,” photographic negatives of the Welty garden [circa 1930s], and glass slides of Jackson garden scenes. Chestina was a founding member of the Jackson Garden Club who served as both vice-president and president in the 1930s.

Beginning in 1957, and over the course of more than forty years, Eudora Welty donated materials to the department, primarily literary manuscripts and photographs. At her death, her remaining papers were bequeathed to MDAH and included unpublished manuscripts and 14,000 items of correspondence with family, friends, scholars, young writers, and noted writers.  

The Eudora Welty Collection is the world’s finest collection of materials related to Welty and one of the most varied literary collections in the United States. The collection includes manuscripts, letters, photographs, drawings, essays, and film and video footage that spans Welty’s entire life.

For more information on the archival collection, contact Elisabeth Cambonga at 601-576-6868, or by email at ecambonga@mdah.ms.gov.