Joseph McGill Jr. coming to Natchez for two-day program on slave dwellings

Joseph McGill Jr.

NATCHEZ, Miss. -- Joseph McGill Jr., a renowned authority on slave dwellings, is coming to Natchez for a two-day program that will feature a lecture and a living history campfire conversation.

The lecture, which is titled, “The Education Value of Sleeping in Slave Dwellings: Mississippi Edition,” will be presented at 6 p.m. Friday, April 14 at Historic Natchez Foundation. The campfire conversation will be held at 6 p.m., April 15 at the Auburn slave quarters.

Both events are free and open to the public. They are part of McGill’s nationally acclaimed Slave Dwelling Project. The two-day program is being hosted by Historic Natchez Foundation, Natchez National Historical Park, and Our Restoration Nation.

McGill is a history consultant for Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, S.C., and the founder and director of the Slave Dwelling Project. Through the Slave Dwelling Project, he has arranged for people to “sleep in extant slave dwellings,” providing experiences that “brought much needed attention to these often-neglected structures that are vitally important to the American built environment,” McGill said in a biographical sketch.

Since 2018, McGill has conducted more than 250 overnights in about 100 different sites in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

As a field officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, McGill worked to revitalize the Sweet Auburn commercial district in Atlanta, Ga., and to develop a management plan for the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area.

McGill is a former executive director of the African American Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and a former director of history and culture at Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina. He has also served as a National Park Service park ranger at Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston.

McGill holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Professional English from South Carolina State University, Orangeburg, S.C. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

McGill’s work is recognized by authors and historians. He is featured in the books “Confederates in the Attic” by Tony Horwitz and “Behind the Big House” by Jodi Skipper.

Historic Natchez Foundation is located at 108 S. Commerce St. and Auburn is at 400 Duncan Avenue, both in Natchez. Parking is in the rear of Auburn, which is accessed from the second road on the right inside the Duncan Park Gate.

For more information, contact Carter Burns at Historic Natchez Foundation: Call 601-442-2500 or send email to carterburns@natchez.org. Information about the Slave Dwelling Project can be found at https://slavedwellingproject.org/

2023 Mississippi Public Humanities Award winners

 From Dr. Stuart Rockoff (@sturockoff), Executive Director of Mississippi Humanities Council: “These are some of the amazing folks working to move Mississippi forward. Congratulations on your public humanities awards!” 

Mississippi Humanities Council: "The work of these amazing people has inspired and enriched our state. We are grateful for their commitment to promoting understanding, creativity, and critical thinking. Congratulations to all the 2023 Public Humanities Award winners! Thank you for your invaluable contributions to the world of public humanities."

From left: Dr. Roscoe Barnes III – Humanities Partner Award; Dr. Ebony Lumumba – Humanities Educator Award; Jeanne Luckett – Cora Norman Award; Utica Institute Museum – Reflecting Mississippi Award; Dr. Rebecca Tuuri – Humanities Scholar Award. 

2023 Mississippi Public Humanities Awards Ceremony

 Event was held Friday, March 24, 2023, at the Two Museums in Jackson, Miss.

I'm pictured here with my friend, Teresa Farley, and
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.

Photos taken at the 2023 Mississippi Public Humanities Awards Ceremony held Friday, March 24, 2023, at the Two Museums in Jackson, Miss. I was honored as the winner of the 2023 Humanities Partner Award.

I was thrilled to be joined by my friend, Teresa Farley, and Devin Heath Sr., executive director of Visit Natchez. In addition to meeting other friends, historians, authors, and scholars, I had the pleasure of meeting Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. I was also happy to see my friend Betty Jo Harris honored as a winner of the 2023 Humanities Teacher Awards.

We all had a great time. The ceremony was exciting, inspiring, and unforgettable! Many thanks to the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Photos by Devin Heath.

 I'm here with Devin Heath Sr., executive director of Visit Natchez.

 

I'm here with Betty Jo Harris, history teacher at Copiah-Lincoln Community College.

Natchez Freedom Trail Marker

Date set for unveiling ceremony

This ceremony is free and open to the public.

I’m happy to announce that we finally have a date for the unveiling of the Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker in Natchez. The ceremony is set for 11 a.m. Monday, April 17, at the Dr. John Banks House at 9 St. Catherine St. (See attached flyer.)

Details about the ceremony will be shared soon.

Photo caption: Pictured in the foreground is Jack Seale, a major in the security guard of the Mississippi chapter of the Ku Klux Klan at Natchez. Hundreds of civil rights activists marched past him in downtown Natchez on Oct. 30, 1965.  Photo courtesy of Historic Natchez Foundation

#CivilRights #VisitNatchez #FreedomTrailMarker #CivilRightsTrail #NatchezHistory #BlackHistory #NatchezFreedomTrailMarker #NAACP

 

Can you spot Anne Moody in this photo?

#AnneMoody

On Thursday, March 2, 2023, I had the pleasure of chatting with Dr. Ed King at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Historical Society. During our conversation, he recommended the book, “Sanctuaries of Segregation: The Story of the Jackson Church Visit Campaign” (2017) by Carter Dalton Lyon. He also said that Anne Moody was on the front cover, beautifully dressed.

For more information on the book, please follow the link below.

https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/S/Sanctuaries-of-Segregation2

#ComingOfAgeinMississippi #CivilRights #BlackHistory #MississippiHistory
 

Dr. Megan Hines to speak at March 28 meeting of Natchez Historical Society

She will give preview of fall exhibit by Natchez native Noah Saterstrom at Mississippi Museum of Art
 

Dr. Megan Hines

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Dr. Megan Hines, a postdoctoral fellow of art history at the Mississippi Museum of Art and Millsaps College, will be the guest speaker at the March 28 meeting of the Natchez Historical Society. Her presentation is titled, “What Became of Dr. Smith: Painting A Hidden Mississippi History.”
 
The meeting will be held at the Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St., with a social starting at 5:30 p.m. and the presentation at 6:00. It is free and open to the public.
 
Hines will provide a preview of the solo exhibition of the same name by Natchez native Noah Saterstrom in October 2023 at the Mississippi Museum of Art. Hines is the curator of the show. Dr. Smith is Saterstrom’s great-grandfather.

In her NHS lecture, Hines will speak about who Dr. Smith was and the mystery surrounding his disappearance from family history. Saterstrom’s painting, which is mural-sized, is 120 by 6 feet, and consists of 160 panels, some of which are set in Natchez, according to Alan Wolf, a director of NHS and its program chair.
 
“Having found Dr. Smith in the historical record, Noah in this work traces Dr. Smith through his life, times, and places in the State,” Wolf said. “This is a painting that, intriguingly and revealingly, depicts aspects of Mississippi history through a pictorial biography of a single and singular person.”
 
According to Hines, the painting “envisions the life of Saterstrom’s great-grandfather, an itinerant optometrist whose mental illness and subsequent disappearance resulted in his erasure from the family history.”
 
During several years of research, Saterstrom found that Dr. Smith was institutionalized for the final 40 years of his life in the Mississippi State Insane Hospital (the Old Asylum) in Jackson, Miss., and later at nearby Whitfield, from 1925-65.
 
Hines said that Saterstrom work on Dr. Smith has grown in popularity. In fact, over the past three years, Saterstrom sold more than 1,300 paintings related to his history and family. This has resulted in a large following on social media, including an international audience.
 
Hines holds a doctorate in art history, which she earned at Stony Brook University. According to her biography, her dissertation, “Art and Biotech: Bay Area Networks, 1965-85,” focused on changing visualizations of life and identity in the age of biotechnology.
 
Hines’ work as a curatorial assistant has included such exhibitions as “Mark Bradford: Tomorrow Is Another Day” at the American Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale, and “Postwar—Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945-65,” shown at the Haus der Kunst in Munich in 2016.
 
Hines is published in Media-N: Journal of the New Media Caucus. She has another article that is forthcoming in American Art.
 
According to Wolf, Hine’s visit to Natchez will be her second. “She is enthused to come here and offer us an advance look at the show,” he said. “How fitting for Natchez that it should be so!”
 
For more information, visit natchezhistoricalsociety.org or send email to info@natchezhistoricalsociety.org
 

Wharlest Jackson Jr. to appear on panel to discuss his family’s story on ‘American Reckoning’

Event hosted by Syracuse University College of Law

Wharlest Jackson Jr.

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Wharlest Jackson Jr. will be traveling to Syracuse University to join a panel discussion on the PBS Frontline documentary, “American Reckoning,” his sister, Denise Jackson Ford, announced Monday. He will discuss, among other things, the experiences of his family during the civil rights movement in Natchez in the 1960s.

Wharlest Jr. and Ford are the children of slain civil rights leader Wharlest Jackson Sr. Their father died when his truck was reportedly bombed by members of the Ku Klux Klan in Natchez, on Feb. 27, 1967. No one was ever charged with his racially-motivated murder, and the case remains unsolved.

“American Reckoning” is a documentary that chronicles the life and death of Wharlest Sr. It first aired in February 2022. The film features both Wharlest Jr. and Ford. It follows their family’s efforts to find out what happened to Wharlest Sr. and who was responsible for his murder. The film also examines the history of white supremacy in Natchez.

The upcoming program, which is hosted by  Syracuse University College of Law, is set for Tuesday, March 28, at Melanie Gray Ceremonial Courtroom, Dineen Hall on the school campus, according to a school flyer.

Screening of the film will begin at 5:30 p.m. and be followed by a panel discussion and reception. The entire program is free and open to the public. It will be livestreamed at https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/j/92970999388

Ford said she is grateful to SU for this opportunity. “Syracuse University Cold Case Studies has always been there to support our family along with the students who are involved in their research and education,” she said. “We want to support Syracuse University.”

In addition to Wharlest Jr., other panelists will include Paula Johnson, professor of Law and director of the Cold Case Justice Initiative, and Brad Lichtenstein, film producer. Chanelle Benz, assistant professor of Creative Writing in the SU department of English, will serve as moderator.

For Ford, her brother’s participation in the program is another opportunity for her family to stand and be proud of their father’s contributions, especially his sacrifice to the civil rights movement.

“To walk like a giant in the footsteps of those who have gone on before us, I walk with my father today,” she said. “I am always elated when an event happens to memorialize my father. He stood for our city and state. I am proud of Wharlest Sr..”

For more information, contact Professor Paula Johnson by email at pcjohnso@syr.edu

The film can be viewed at pbs.org/video/american-reckoning-assg68/