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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.

Jackson, Miss.—Faith-affiliated communities in Mississippi—groups who attend churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, house churches, and more—may now visit the Two Mississippi Museums for free with groups of 10 or more persons.

Groups making reservations at least two weeks in advance may receive the added benefit of an in-depth overview of the museums by a museum guide during their visit.

These free group visits are made possible thanks to a $2.5 million grant awarded by Lilly Endowment Inc. to the Foundation for Mississippi History to help the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) support and promote programs, activities, and projects focused on the understanding and interpretation of the role of religion in Mississippi history and culture.

Additionally, support from Lilly Endowment will enable MDAH to broaden its audience and engage them in new ways by providing a 35 percent discount to faith-affiliated entities for facility rentals.

Lilly Endowment made the grant through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative, a nationwide effort to help museums and other cultural institutions improve the public’s understanding of religion.

“We are grateful to Lilly Endowment for this major support,” said Katie Blount, MDAH director. “Lilly Endowment’s generosity will help more Mississippians experience these outstanding museums.” 

The Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum both address the history of religion. From the spiritual beliefs of Native Americans to the conflicting religious convictions of slaveholders and enslaved people, to the leadership of people of faith during the Civil Rights Movement, religion has been integral to the development of Mississippi.

“Museums and cultural institutions are trusted organizations and play an important role in teaching the American public about the world around them,” said Christopher Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion. “These organizations will use the grants to help visitors understand and appreciate the significant impact religion has had and continues to have on society in the United States and around the globe. Our hope is that these efforts will promote greater knowledge about and respect for people of diverse religious traditions.”

Lilly endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J. K. Lilly and his sons, Eli and J.K. Jr., through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. In keeping with its founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion. Although the Endowment funds programs throughout the United States, especially in the field of religion, it maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana.

For more information about faith-affiliated group visits please call 601-576-6850, or visit, https://2mm.mdah.ms.gov/visit/group-visit to make a reservation.

For more information about rentals at the Two Mississippi Museums please call 601-576-6850, or email, trice@mdah.ms.gov.

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) has awarded grants totaling more than $97,000 to eleven preservation projects in Certified Local Government (CLG) communities across the state. The scope of work for awarded projects ranges from surveys and National Register District nominations, such as the survey of New Albany’s Southside neighborhood, to more advanced phases of rehabilitation, as with the Ocean Springs Community Center foundation stabilization project to ensure the long-term preservation of elaborate murals painted by Walter Anderson.

“We are pleased to be partnering with ten communities in 2023,” said MDAH chief of preservation planning, Meredith Massey. “The projects will largely focus on the rehabilitation of historic buildings and structures, professional assessments, and surveys, with the addition of a few marketing and publication projects highlighting historic resources in several communities. We look forward to assisting these communities in their preservation endeavors.”

The 2023 grants are as follows:

• Carrollton, $1,309.00, for a coloring book that includes historic sites in Carroll County.
• Columbus, $10,000.00, for restoration of the Munroe Mausoleum. The scope of work includes basic cleanup, vegetation removal, stabilization of roof structure, masonry repairs, repointing, and plasterwork.
• Kosciusko, $13,000.00, for the development of a map and audio/video tour of Redbud Springs and the Natchez Trace.
• Lexington, $8,650.00, to include a professional assessment of the front porch at the Lundy House, as well as a conditions assessment.
• New Albany, $10,000.00, for survey of 300 resources in the Southside neighborhood (phase II) and completion of a National Register District nomination.
• Ocean Springs, $12,899.10, for foundation repairs to minimize damage to interior murals located at the Ocean Springs Community Center.
• Oxford, $7,500.00, for editing and revising design guidelines for Oxford’s local historic districts with a focus on graphics.
• Quitman, $5,200.00, for development of a structural assessment and scope of work to address water infiltration issues and other repairs for the Quitman Depot.
• Tupelo, $10,000.00, continued restoration of the interior of the Spain House rehabilitation project (Phase VII). This phase includes sheetrock and plaster repair to walls and ceilings.
• Tupelo, $10,000.00, professional assessment to identify necessary repairs, including estimated cost and a scope of work at Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church.
• Woodville, $9,400.00, includes interior work to walls, painting, plumbing and electrical, and security system installation to complete rehabilitation of Polk’s Meat Market.

The Certified Local Government program is a federal-state-local partnership designed to assist communities in dealing with diverse preservation needs through funding and technical assistance. CLG communities may apply for annual grants to undertake preservation projects of importance to the community. Grants may be used for such diverse projects as the restoration of historic buildings; historical, architectural, or archaeological site inventory work; preparation of nominations to the National Register of Historic Places; educational programs; and staff support for new historic preservation commissions.

Funding for the grants comes from the Historic Preservation Fund, a federal grants program appropriated by the U.S. Congress and administered by the National Park Service, which provides financial support to State Historic Preservation Offices—in Mississippi, the Historic Preservation Division of MDAH.

To become a CLG, a community must adopt a preservation ordinance establishing a preservation commission in accordance with federal and state guidelines. Once the commission has been established, application for CLG status may be made to the National Park Service through the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. MDAH works closely with local government officials and citizens to help them create and manage a workable local historic preservation program. To learn more about the CLG program, visit https://www.mdah.ms.gov/historic-preservation/preservation-planning-development#clg.

The fifty-six CLG communities in Mississippi are Aberdeen, Baldwyn, Bay Saint Louis, Biloxi, Booneville, Brandon, Canton, Carrollton, Carthage, Claiborne County, Clarksdale, Cleveland, Clinton, Columbia, Columbus, Como, Corinth, Durant, Gautier, Greenville, Greenwood, Hattiesburg, Hazlehurst, Hernando, Holly Springs, Indianola, Jackson, Kosciusko, Laurel, Leland, Lexington, Louisville, McComb, Meridian, Mound Bayou, Mount Olive, Natchez, New Albany, Ocean Springs, Oxford, Pascagoula, Philadelphia, Port Gibson, Quitman, Raymond, Senatobia, Sharkey County, Starkville, Tunica, Tupelo, Vicksburg, Water Valley, West, West Point, Woodville, and Yazoo City.

Members of the MDAH board of trustees are Spence Flatgard, president, Ridgeland; Hilda Cope Povall, vice president, Cleveland; Nancy Carpenter, Columbus; Carter Burns, Natchez; Kimberly Campbell, Madison; Betsey Hamilton, New Albany; Mark E. Keenum, Starkville; Lucius Lampton, MD, Magnolia; and TJ Taylor, Madison.

Justice Fred Banks announced that he is stepping down as chair of the board of directors of the Foundation for Mississippi History (FMH), a post he has held since 2020. The board elected P. Ryan Beckett as chair and Jonathan Lee as vice-chair at its March meeting. 

Banks is a senior partner in the general litigation group in the Jackson office of Phelps Dunbar. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1976 until 1985, when he was appointed as a circuit court judge and later as a justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court. He has also served on the National Board of Directors of the NAACP for more than four decades. 

Banks graduated from Lanier High School in Jackson in 1960. He earned a BBA from Howard University followed by a JD in 1968 from the Howard University School of Law, where he graduated second in his class. Banks began his law practice during the Civil Rights Movement when there were few African American attorneys in the state. 

Banks was a leader in securing funding and public support for the Two Mississippi Museums, which opened in 2017. He served as a valued advisor on the exhibits, particularly those related to the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.  

Beckett said, “We are grateful to Justice Banks for his leadership of the board. His wise stewardship and commitment to our state helped create and strengthen the Two Mississippi Museums.” 

Ryan Beckett is a partner in the commercial litigation group in the Ridgeland office of Butler Snow. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Millsaps College and previously served as the legal director of the Homeless Legal Clinic through the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project. Beckett is a past chairman of the Mississippi Tort Claims Board, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s Encore Board, and the Advisory Board of Metropolitan Bank.   

Jonathan Lee is a senior vice president and senior principal of member performance at Vizient, Incorporated. His current civic engagements include the Fondren Renaissance Foundation, the Mississippi Center for Justice, the Mississippi Symphony Foundation, and the One Percent Commission that oversees the expenditure of funds generated by a local option sales tax for infrastructure improvements for the city of Jackson.   

The FMH supports and promotes the activities, programs, and projects of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). The FMH board meets at least twice a year to review financial reports and to consult with staff on strategic plans for the department. It advises MDAH on the direction of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.  

Other FMH board members are Reuben Anderson, Donna Barksdale, Phil Bryant, Kane Ditto, Mike Espy, Haley Fisackerly, Jack Garner, Beverly Hogan, Ebony Lumumba, Leslie Burl McLemore, Nora Frances McRae, and Chip Pickering. 

Pamela D. C. Junior, director of the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, has announced her retirement. In 2017, Junior was named the inaugural director of the first state-sponsored civil rights museum in the nation, the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. She came to the role after serving as director of the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center for seventeen years. In 2019, she was promoted to director of the Two Mississippi Museums, where she continued the work of sharing the stories of Mississippi told in the Museum of the Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museums. 

MDAH director Katie Blount said, “Pam Junior came to MDAH with deep roots and credibility in the community, many years of experience in the museum field, and a commitment to excellence that she modeled for younger staff. She personally led many thousands of visitors through the museums, enriching their experience through her passion for history and her boundless charisma. In our first years, Pam Junior lifted-up the Two Mississippi Museums and shared them with the world. We are grateful.” 

Highlights during Junior’s service include participating in the retirement of the 1894 Mississippi state flag at the official retirement ceremony in 2020 and guiding the late Congressman John Lewis through the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum—events she counts as major personal milestones. In 2018, she spearheaded MLK Jr. Day programming with fellow museum staff and added the MLK Night of Culture in 2019, just two of the highly attended annual events at the museums. 

“Pamela is a woman who knows that she did not travel her road alone, but on the shoulders of those who came before her,” said civil rights leader Myrlie Evers. “Pamela is imbued with the fortitude, wisdom, and faith of her grandmother, mother, mentors, and civil rights veterans. Her leadership reflects her commitment to Mississippi and the honest telling of our history.” 

After graduating from Jackson State University, where Junior received a BS in education, with a minor in special education, she joined the National Park Service in 1990 as a ranger in Washington, DC. Nearly a decade later, she returned to Jackson to work for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.  

In 1999, Junior was hired as the manager of the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, where she became co-coordinator of the National Arts Program and acquired on permanent loan the Smithsonian traveling exhibition Field to Factory: The Afro-American Migration, 1915–1940.   

Junior has been honored over the years for both her professional and community work and received numerous awards, such as the Freedom Rider Award from the Mississippi Freedom 50th Foundation, the For My People Award from the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, the Hometown Hero Award from the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Museum Leadership Award by the Association of African American Museums. She was inducted into the Mississippi Tourism Hall of Fame.  

Junior will continue to serve the community as a board member for Visit Jackson and an advisory board member for the Mississippi Book Festival. She is also a member of the International Women’s Forum.   

Jackson, Miss. — Haley Crigger, a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati, has been named the Eudora Welty Research Fellow for 2023. Haley will use archival holdings in the Eudora Welty Collection housed at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) to research the life and works of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty.

“My hope for my time at MDAH is to obtain a more robust understanding of Eudora Welty’s aesthetic and metaphysical relationship with the Southern literary imagination, the landscape Flannery O’Connor referred to as ‘hardly Christ-centered,’ but ‘most certainly Christ-haunted,’ ” said Crigger.

Established in 2010 by MDAH and the Eudora Welty Foundation, the fellowship seeks to encourage and support research of the Eudora Welty Collection by graduate students.

“We’re grateful to the Eudora Welty Foundation for their continued support of our fellows,” said David Pilcher, director of the MDAH Archives and Record Services Division. “I am certain Haley will gain great insight this summer, making excellent use of newly digitized materials and extensive paper archives within the Eudora Welty Collection.”

After receiving a BA in English from Centre College in 2013, Crigger pursed a MFA in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University, graduating in 2018. She is currently working towards her PhD in creative writing and literature at the University of Cincinnati and will use the $5,000 fellowship award to cover her travel, housing, and other expenses incurred while doing her primary Welty research at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in Jackson.

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.

Beginning in 1957, and over the course of more than forty years, 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 may be accessed at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building at 200 North Street in Jackson. For more information on the archival collection or the Eudora Welty Research Fellowship, contact Elisabeth Cambonga at 601-576-6868, or by email at ecambonga@mdah.ms.gov.

Jackson, Miss. — Registration is open for the summer 2023 History Exploration and Freedom School camps at the Two Mississippi Museums. 

Thanks to a $30,000 grant from the Geneviève McMillan-Reba Stewart Foundation, the Two Mississippi Museums added an additional camp session and kept registration fees affordable for families at $75 per student. 

"Having campers in summer 2022 brought incredible energy to the Two Mississippi Museums, and we look forward to expanding the upcoming 2023 sessions thanks to the Geneviève McMillan-Reba Stewart Foundation,” said Mississippi Department of Archives and History director Katie Blount. "Last year students enjoyed fun and engaging activities while encountering important stories from Mississippi’s history."  

History Exploration Camp is for students heading into fourth and fifth grades. Campers will explore themes such as archaeology, architecture, transportation, civil rights, and music. In addition to exhibits at the Two Mississippi Museums, students will enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour of the collections, special guest speakers, and visits to other historic sites in Jackson. History Exploration Camp sessions are June 12-16 and June 26-30. 

Freedom School Camp is for students heading into sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, where campers will deepen their understanding of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi and its impact on the world through stories of local heroes in their communities. The grant from the McMillan-Stewart Foundation will cover costs for additional technology to support camper research projects. Students will visit historic sites throughout Jackson. Freedom School Camp is held for two consecutive weeks, July 10-21. 

These summer camps are sponsored by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. 

Learn more or register by visiting https://2mm.mdah.ms.gov/learn/families-communities.                                                                                                                           

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) is pleased to announce the opening of the Eudora Welty House & Garden (EWHG) Potting Shed. The Garden Club of Jackson awarded a grant to the Eudora Welty Foundation to renovate the interior of the Welty family garage, which was originally built along with the family home in 1925 and has been converted into a much-needed potting shed and workshop.

“For the first time, this potting shed allows our garden volunteers, Cereus Weeders, a proper, dedicated space with the right equipment they need to do the weekly, hands-on work of preserving the Welty garden,” said Jessica Russell, EWHG director. “It also provides the EWHG a special opportunity to serve our local community.

Both Eudora Welty’s prose and personal correspondence are rich with imagery from the natural world. Eudora Welty once said, “I wish I had a sign to tell me what I had better do that day, write or work in the garden.”

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author mentioned in her published works more than 150 types of plants and flowers, many of which grow around her home to this day.

For Eudora Welty, gardening was not a distraction from her writing; it was an inspiration for it. Her biographer, Dr. Suzanne Marrs, observed that for Welty, “the garden and writing were linked at some profound level.”

The design team, Arkansas-based company Natural State Design, LLC (NSD), hand-selected aged materials, board by board, to blend with the building’s historic period. NSD worked closely with Welty staff and retired garden consultant Susan Haltom to meet a wide variety of needs and purposes.

Today, the Welty garden is largely maintained by the dedicated “Cereus Weeders,” a volunteer organization named after Eudora Welty’s Night-Blooming Cereus Club, a group of friends who frequently entertained themselves by attending Night-Blooming Cereus flower-watching parties in Jackson in the 1930s.

For more information call 601-576-6934 or email info@mdah.ms.gov.