Ferriday students visit NAPAC museum

#VisitNatchez

Students at Ferriday Junior High School recently toured the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture. From left are Jamyra Smith, student; Jessica Warner, Quest for Success instructor; and Myeshia Moore, Jobs for American Graduates specialist. Bobby Dennis, the museum’s executive director, led the tour which concluded with a brief presentation on “Finding Self-Awareness in History.”

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Twenty-five students from Ferriday Junior High School recently toured the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture. Their venture, which was organized by Jessica Warner, Quest for Success instructor, and Myeshia Moore, Jobs for American Graduates specialist, was led by Bobby Dennis, the museum’s executive director.

 
“This is the first group I’ve had from Ferriday Junior High School,” said Dennis. “Over the years, I’ve had groups of students from Natchez and from as far away as Jackson. We really enjoyed our time together. It was a great opportunity for them to learn about history that is often neglected.”

“The tour was very informative,” said Moore. She noted it was an “eye opener” for the students.

“Some of them had never visited Natchez,” she said. “This was a great opportunity for them to get to know about African American history and their culture. They loved how they were able to see real artifacts in the museum.”

Overall, Moore said, it was a great experience for them.

The students arrived at the museum around 9 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 8. They spent an hour learning about African American history in Natchez. In addition to watching a 15-minute video on African Americans in Mississippi, the students carefully examined historical artifacts and displays throughout the museum. Throughout the tour, they asked questions about various items, according to Dennis.

The tour ended with a presentation by Dennis on “Finding Self-Awareness in History.”

Bobby Dennis, executive director of the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture, speaks to students of Ferriday Junior High School.

Dennis said the tour was delightful.

“I always like to have young people in here,” he said. “They’re my favorite group because I learn something every time they come in here.”

Although several things caught the student’s attention, it was the military exhibits, particularly the display of the Natchez U.S. Colored Troops that generated the most interest.

“They were fascinated by this,” Dennis said. “These are things they’re not exposed to often enough. There were quite a few comments on an aviation training kit, a pilot kit similar to one used by the Red Tails.”

“Red Tails” was the name given to Tuskegee Airmen because of the painted tails of their fighter planes.

Warner, one of the teachers, inquired about the history of Nellie Jackson and the Rhythm Night Club fire of 1940 that left over 200 people dead, including Walter Barnes and members of his band.

The Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture is operated by NAPAC, which stands for Natchez Association for the Preservation of African American Culture. For this reason, it is commonly referred to as NAPAC museum.

Students of Ferriday Junior High School visiting the Natchez Museum of African American History Culture.

Opinion: Researching the Stories of Natchez

Essay by Bobby L. Dennis, executive director of the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture

#VisitNatchez

This essay appeared in the Dec. 2, 2022 issue of The Natchez Democrat (Natchez, Miss.)

Top of the Morning

Researching the stories of Natchez

 

By Bobby L. Dennis

 
Since re-opening the Natchez Museum of African American Culture after the easing of Covid 19, the interest in the contributions of the African American society that helped establish and shape this community have grown tremendously.
 
With the help of Visit Natchez, and through a grant provided by Mississippi Humanities Council, the museum has been able to extend its reach through advertising, educational programing, and exhibits that depict the culture of African Americans through their role in the development of Natchez as freemen, slave and freedmen. Through our work with the Natchez Historical Society, the National Park Service, and most importantly, the local citizens, our community has enabled us to give a more complete story of the important role the African American has played in the development of our city.
 
Being able to see the benefits of our work to preserve the sacrifices and contributions of African Americans in the development of Natchez is becoming more prevalent. The exposure of our website (www.visitnapac.net), along with video interviews in relevant venues, has begun to give measurable data that informs us of our contributions to the Natchez community and tourism through the distribution of stories of the life of people of slavery, reconstruction, civil rights, and today.
 
Over the past six months I have fielded calls from researchers, descendants, and inquisitive readers, seeking information on African American families from colonization through civil rights. Over half of these callers have scheduled or are planning to visit our city to experience and learn more of what they have read or heard. One of the callers was Rukhsane Khan, a children’s book writer and storyteller from Toronto Canada. She and her son, Ismall Alli, have just completed a week’s stay here researching and putting the final touches to her new book on Abdul Rahman Ibrahima. Ibrahima was the African prince who was captured and sold to slave traders and later taken to the United States in 1788. He spent nearly 40 years as a slave in the Natchez area.
 
To have an internationally acclaimed author visit Natchez and the museum seeking the people side of the Ibrahima story speaks volumes of what we have to offer visitors from all countries.
 
Natchez, being the oldest settlement on the Mississippi, developed primarily through the French, English, and Spanish cultures. When people talk about this history, they sometimes forget to mention the African culture that was brought along with them. Those that came of free will, as well as those that were taken and enslaved, with each having skills and talents which have contributed to the building of this city. We, here at the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture, are proud to be preservers of their stories, letting our visitors see us through the eyes of those people who lived it. Horrors, sacrifices, accomplishments, are all a part of the stories but through it all we show relationships being built to continue to carry this community forward.
 
Today is tomorrow’s history, and we write it as we want it told.
 
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Bobby L. Dennis is the executive director of the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture.
 

MS Humanities Council: MHC Grant Will Help Highlight Cultural History of Natchez’s ‘Black Wall Street’

Pictured above is Rasberry Grocery Store: Doris Rasberry, right, with customers inside Quality Grocery and Market on St. Catherine Street. This business is one of many that will be featured in the St. Catherine Street history project, “St. Catherine Street, Natchez, MS: Yesteryear through Today.” Doris and her husband, Robert, opened the store at 158-160 St. Catherine St. at the end of World War II. For almost 40 years, it served the residents of the St. Catherine area. Photo courtesy of Rasberry Collection, Historic Natchez Foundation.

Editor's Note: I was happy to see this news reported in the Mississippi Humanities Council Newsletter - November 2022.

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The Mississippi Humanities Council recently awarded a project grant to the staff of the Dr. John Bowman Banks Museum for a project that highlights the cultural history of St. Catherine Street.

The project is titled “St. Catherine Street, Natchez, MS: Yesteryear through Today” and will use tours, photographs, oral history, and a brochure to share the rare and untold history of the people, buildings, culture, and businesses on the street from as far back as the 1930s, according to Project Director Thelma Newsome.

“Some people view St. Catherine as a mini version of ‘Black Wall Street’ of Tulsa, Oklahoma, because of its thriving black businesses and cultural development in the past,” said Newsome. “The small business is what helped to carry the people along all these many years. They were especially vital in a time of heightened racism and discrimination.”

Newsome, a lifelong resident of St. Catherine, said the street once boasted of thriving businesses that included barbershops, restaurants, grocery stores, laundromats, drycleaners, service stations, shoe repair shop, and beauty shops.

Although many of those businesses are gone, they had stories that need to be told about their existence and the impact they had on the community, Newsome said.

“This is a project whose time has come,” said Dora P. Hawkins, one of the organizers. “The Dr. John Bowman Banks Museum staff is elated to introduce St. Catherine Street, Natchez, to the world and to reintroduce the street to Natchez. In our research, we are finding so many interesting facts about this street and, it appears, we are only at the tip of what’s available.”

The tour experience will begin at Forks of the Road and end at the Rhythm Night Club Memorial Museum.

USM’s Max Grivno to discuss Hernando De Soto at November 22 meeting of Natchez Historical Society

Dr. Max Grivno
University of Southern Mississippi

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Max Grivno, faculty member of University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, will talk about Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto at the November meeting of the Natchez Historical Society.

Grivno’s presentation is titled, "Hernando De Soto and the First European Contact with the Mississippi Civilization of the Lower Mississippi Valley." It will be given at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022, at Historic Natchez Foundation at 108 S. Commerce St. The program will follow a social time set for 6:30 p.m.

Grivno said he is happy to be speaking again before the NHS.

“The lecture covers an important, but often overlooked, period in the region's history,” he said. “It shows not only the devastation caused by De Soto's raid in the southeast, but also considers how Native people built new societies in its aftermath."

Grivno is an associate professor at USM. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from University of Maryland-College Park, where he also earned his master’s degree. Grivno completed his bachelor’s degree at St. Olaf College.

Grivno is the author of Gleanings of Freedom: Free and Slave Labor along the Mason-Dixon Line, 1790-1860 (University of Illinois Press, 2011); and Historic Resource Study, Ferry Hill Plantation (Forgotten Books, 2017). In addition to Mississippi History, his expertise is in Antebellum South, Slavery, Economic and Labor History.

For more information, visit http://natchezhistoricalsociety.org/67001.html.

 

Mississippi Humanities Council awards $5,000 grant for St. Catherine Street history project

/ ListenUpYall.com

Staff Report

Oct 27, 2022 | 9:27 AM

Brumfield School, built in 1925, is one of many sites that will be featured in the St. Catherine Street history project. This historic photo shows band director Woodrick McGuire and his band at the school at 100 St. Catherine St. He later died in the Rhythm Night Club fire in 1940, according to Historic Natchez Foundation. Photo courtesy of Historic Natchez Foundation

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Mississippi Humanities Council recently awarded a $5,000 grant to the staff of the Dr. John Bowman Banks Museum for a project that highlights the cultural history of St. Catherine Street.

The project is titled “St. Catherine Street, Natchez, MS: Yesteryear through Today.” It will use tours, photographs, oral history, and a brochure to share the rare and untold history of the people, buildings, culture, and businesses on the street from as far back as the 1930s, according to Project Director Thelma Newsome.
 
“Some people view St. Catherine as a mini version of ‘Black Wall Street’ of Tulsa, Okla., because of its thriving black businesses and cultural development in the past,” said Newsome. “The small business is what helped to carry the people along all these many years. They were especially vital in a time of heightened racism and discrimination.”
 
Newsome, a lifelong resident of St. Catherine, said the street once boasted of thriving businesses that included barbershops, restaurants, grocery stores, laundromats, drycleaners, service stations, shoe repair shop, and beauty shops.
 
Although many of those businesses are gone, they had stories that need to be told about their existence and the impact they had on the community, Newsome said.
 
“This is a project whose time has come,” said Dora P. Hawkins, one of the organizers. “The Dr. John Bowman Banks Museum staff is elated to introduce St. Catherine Street, Natchez, Miss., to the world and to reintroduce the street to Natchez. In our research, we are finding so many interesting facts about this street and, it appears, we are only at the tip of what’s available.”
 
Organizers hope to launch the project in November or December. The tour experience will begin at Forks of the Road and end at the Rhythm Night Club Memorial Museum.
 
The project is a joint effort by the museum staff and other volunteers, all of whom are members of the St. Catherine Street Committee. In addition to Newsome and Hawkins, committee members include Jacqulyn Williams, Teresa Farley, Teresa Busby, Roscoe Barnes III, Robert Pernell, Mark LaFrancis, and Leon Hollins III.
 
“This is rewarding work for us,” said Hawkins. “We appreciate the tremendous assistance that Dr. Roscoe Barnes III, Mrs. Mimi Miller and the Natchez Historic Foundation have provided in our efforts. In addition, we could not accomplish our mission without the Mississippi Humanities Council’s approval of our grant request.”
 
Barnes, who serves as the cultural heritage tourism manager for Visit Natchez, said it has been an honor to work with Newsome, Hawkins, and the other committee members, and to see firsthand the fruit of their hard work.
 
“This is another important milestone for this community and the city of Natchez,” he said. “We’re all making history in more ways than one, and it’s all possible because of the significant contributions of a great committee and Mississippi Humanities Council.”
 
Barnes noted that he and Visit Natchez were also happy to assist the committee with the grant application.
 

#VisitNatchez 

Frances Alexander Earns Doctorate from University of Southern Mississippi

Graduation is set for December 8

#SouthernUniversity

Frances Alexander, Ed.D.

WOODVILLE, Miss. – Frances Alexander, former principal of Wilkinson County Elementary School, recently earned her Doctor of Education degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg.
 

“I am excited that I was able to persevere and complete the doctoral program in Educational Administration,” said Alexander. It was her family, she noted, that encouraged her to pursue her terminal degree.
 
USM conferred her degree in July. Her graduation is set for December 8 in Hattiesburg.
 
For Alexander, a resident of Woodville, this achievement was a dream come true – something she’s wanted for many years. Now it’s a reality, she said, and she’s ready to move forward into the next chapter of her career.
 
Alexander’s doctoral studies culminated in a capstone project titled, “The Impact of Family Engagement in Elementary Schools Turnaround Initiatives.” Her research shows that “positive family engagement influences students' attendance, behavior, and academic outcomes,” Alexander said. “I recommend further research using a mixed method design where data can be analyzed for a minimum of three years to determine if family engagement influences the school's turnaround initiative.”
 
The academic work was both rigorous and enjoyable for Alexander. “At times I was challenged because I had not taken college courses in nearly 20 years,” she said. “However, I feel that the rigor was appropriate for doctoral level courses.”
 
Alexander viewed the process as a catalyst for personal and professional growth, as well as an opportunity to make a contribution in her field of study.
 
"Learning new things, reading the findings from other researchers, and conducting my own research study was like watching a flower bloom in slow motion,” she said. “I also enjoyed meeting and networking with scholars from across the United States.”
 
Alexander's career in education included 15 years as an administrator and 11 years as a teacher.
 
She served five years as the principal of Cohn Elementary School in West Baton Rouge Parish. Prior to that position, she worked as the school’s assistant principal. From 2013 to 2016, she worked as the education supervisor for Management and Training Corporation, serving at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility.
 
Alexander holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Literature from Southern University, Baton Rouge, La. She earned her Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Administration at Southern University and Agricultural and Mechanical College at Baton Rouge.
 
In addition to her work in education, Alexander remains active as a volunteer in her community. She is past president of the Woodville/Wilkinson County Main Street Association. She is also an exhibit interpreter at the African American Museum and secretary for the Wilkinson County Library System.

#SouthernUniversity #WeAreSouthern #FinishStronger #HBCU #SouthernMiss

Dr. Stuart Rockoff to speak at Oct. 25 meeting of Natchez Historical Society

He will talk about Jewish history in Natchez and other parts of Mississippi

Dr. Stuart Rockoff, Executive Director
Mississippi Humanities Council

NATCHEZ, Miss. -- Dr. Stuart Rockoff, the executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council, will talk about the Jewish history of Mississippi at the Oct. 25 meeting of the Natchez Historical Society.
 
“I look forward to exploring the fascinating story of how Jews found a home in Mississippi, putting down roots and building institutions that made their communities more diverse,” Rockoff said.
 
In his presentation, “Shalom Y’all: The Jewish History of Mississippi,” Rockoff will outline Jewish contributions to the historical, economical, and social legacy of Natchez, the region -- and the state, according to NHS member Mike Gemmell.
 
“In the early 19th century, Jewish immigrants began arriving in the Lower Mississippi River Valley and many settled in towns along the river, such as Natchez, Port Gibson and Woodville,” Gemmell noted in a press statement.
 
Rockoff’s research on the Jewish community is not only substantial, but well known. The Texas native holds a B.A. in History from Wesleyan University. He completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in American History at the University of Texas at Austin, where he specialized in immigration, race, and American Jewish history.
 
Rockoff served for more than a decade as the Director of the History Department at the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, Miss., where he was responsible for creating the Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities.
 
In addition to giving lectures on the history of Jews in the American South, Rockoff has written widely on the topic.
 
Rockoff’s lecture in Natchez will take place at 7 p.m. at the Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St. Social time will start at 6:30 p.m.
 
The meeting is free and open to the public.
 
For more information visit: www.natchezhistoricalsociety.org and on Facebook.