CLEVELAND, Miss. — Seventy-two educators from more than 25 states traveled to the Mississippi Delta this summer to participate in a weeklong institute exploring the region’s music, history and culture at Delta State University.
The National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute, titled “The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Music, History, and Culture of the Mississippi Delta,” was held in two sessions, June 21-27 and July 12-18. The program, now in its 20th year, was led by Dr. Mandy Truman, director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning, and Program Director Lee Aylward.
Named after historian James C. Cobb’s book about the Mississippi Delta, the institute combined lectures, historical site visits and discussions with local historians, musicians and community leaders. Participants studied topics including the Civil Rights Movement, the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, education in the Delta, religion’s influence on community life and the origins of the blues.
“You can read a thousand books and watch every documentary, but you won’t fully understand a place until you immerse yourself in the landscape,” Truman said in a statement. “This workshop provides a place-based learning experience to 72 educators from across the country. They will return home and teach this history through a new lens and a profound understanding of the Mississippi Delta.”
The program took participants to historic sites throughout the Delta and Memphis, Tennessee. Stops included the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, Dockery Farms, the gravesite of civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, Black Power Park, Mound Bayou and the Delta Center’s Mississippi Freedom Trail marker commemorating the 1969 Delta State sit-in.
The Memphis portion of the institute included visits to the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and the National Civil Rights Museum.
Participants also attended daily blues performances and presentations from scholars, musicians and others with firsthand ties to the region’s history. Speakers included Keith Johnson, Reggie Barnes, Kwan Kash and Dr. Wheeler Parker Jr., the last surviving witness to Till’s abduction.
“It introduces teachers to a region that’s been almost forgotten and misunderstood,” Aylward said.
At the conclusion of the institute, educators received curriculum materials designed to help them incorporate the history and culture of the Mississippi Delta into classrooms across the country.
The program was funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institutes and Seminars for K-12 Educators program.
