Greetings

Welcome to the monthly newsletter for Mississippi educators with stories and resources for teaching about the Civil Rights Movement and labor history.

Teacher Fellowship

Judge Reeves to Speak
at Summer Institute

We are pleased to announce that U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves will be one of the featured speakers at the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Labor History Teacher Fellowship institute in July.

Earlier this year, he read a powerful statement to three young white men before sentencing them for the death of a 48-year-old black man named James Craig Anderson in Jackson, Miss. in 2011. He addressed the history of lynching, his vision for Mississippi, and questions of justice.

Attala and Benton County Teachers
Join the Fellowship


Glendolyn Crowell	Dr. Renee Hooper

Glendolyn Crowell and Dr. Renee Hooper were selected to be Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Labor History fellows. They both bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the fellowship.

Anthony Golding Selected to Present at National Conference

In a highly competitive process, the workshop proposal by Mississippi teacher fellow Anthony Golding on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) was selected for the the 95th National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference in New Orleans (Nov. 13-15, 2015.)

Classroom Resources

"I Never Will Forget"

"I Never Will Forget": Memories from Mississippi Freedom Summer is a collection of interviews conducted by the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program over seven years in Sunflower County, Mississippi. The stories provide a powerful first person introduction to the history of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement. The booklet is free online and ideal for the classroom.

Jewish American History Month

May is Jewish American Heritage Month. Teach about the role Jews have played in the history of the South by borrowing a free film from the Mississippi History on Loan collection. Learn more.

One Person, One Vote:

The Legacy of SNCC and and the fight for voting rights

The One Person, One Vote Project documentary website launched this spring. It offers a well-organized and beautifully presented collection of profiles, stories, a timeline, map, and much more about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

This is an invaluable classroom resource on the voting rights struggle and the overall fight for human rights and democracy in the U.S. The site is result of a collaboration between the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University (Libraries and the Center for Documentary Studies).

National History Day

Mississippi Students Travel to D.C.

Students from Mississippi will compete in the National History Day competition in College Park, Maryland from June 14-18. While in the D.C. metro area, they will share their work with movement veterans and national museum staff at a reception at the African American Civil Rights Museum and Memorial.

Learning Opportunities

	African-American Treasures/MSU A portion of The Kinsey Collection will be on display until June 20, 2015. It contains authentic and rare art, original and facsimile artifacts that tell the often untold story of African American achievement and contribution. Visit the Mitchell Memorial Library at Mississippi State University.
	CMSE K-12 Mathematics Summer Institute The Center for Mathematics and Science Education (CMSE) will host its workshop series as a four-day institute in the Hattiesburg area during the summer 2015. Sessions will be available for every grade with hands-on problem solving tasks designed to deepen knowledge of the Mississippi College and Career Readiness Standards for Mathematics and engage in the Standards for Mathematical Practice. Learn more.
	The Gulf South History & Humanities Conference (GSHHC) GSHHC will hold its thirty-third annual meeting in Natchez, Mississippi, October 1-3, 2015. The host institution is the University of Southern Mississippi. The deadline for all submissions is July 6, 2015. Learn more.
	Association of African American Museums Conference The 2015 AAAM Annual Conference will be held in Memphis, TN from August 4-7, 2015, and hosted by the National Civil Rights Museum. More info here .
	MDAH Summer Camp Mississippi Department of Archives and History museums and historic sites across the state offer summer camps for a variety of ages, with focuses ranging from Native American culture to life in the nineteenth century to the natural world. Learn more.
	Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program will host two events at the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture on June 18 and 19: a presentation by doctoral students and a full day of oral history interviews that are open to the public. Learn more.

Recent Events and Related News

In November, Initiative 42 will be on the ballot in Mississippi to determine how state funds are allocated toward education. Executive Director of the Hill Country Project, Dr. Roy DeBerry, commented on the initiative:

Roy DeBerry

Initiative 42 will allow the people of Mississippi to constitutionally have a full say about the funding of public education. The legislature has promised full funding of education for years, but the reality of that promise has only happened twice.

So, given this history of constant shortfalls and broken promises, the people are poised to change that dynamic and make the initiative a mandate.

Often we hear the phrase, "children are our future". Let's make this a reality by placing the promise in the constitution.

For more information, read here.

In Memory

Guy Carawan

Folk singer and musician Guy Carawan, who introduced the song "We Shall Overcome" to those rallying for civil rights in the 1960s, died Saturday, May 2 after a lengthy illness. He was 87. Carawan was the musical director of the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee which was a center for developing future leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.

Rev. George W. Lee

Reverend George Lee was gunned down in his car on the night of May 7, 1955. Lee was the Pastor of a Baptist Church, an operator of a printing press, and an active member of the NAACP.

He made his mark on the community once referred to as "Bloody Belzoni." He was also the first African-American to register to vote since Reconstruction in Humphreys County, where blacks were a majority of the population. Learn more about Lee.

Contact

For More Information

We welcome Civil Rights Movement teaching stories and photos from Mississippi teachers to feature in this monthly e-newsletter.

To learn more, submit stories, or share comments, write to project director Julian Hipkins III. Hipkins is also available to offer teacher workshops in Mississippi schools and pre- or in-service programs. Learn more here.

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This monthly e-newsletter is produced by Teaching for Change with funding from

the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Open Society Foundations.