Articles from North Mississippi Herald, August 22, 2019, describe the benefit of, and plans for, and oral history project to capture the stories of Black families in Yalobusha County.https://egrove.olemiss.edu/blkfam_yaloabout/1001/thumbnail.jp

Reed, Dottie Chapman

Wilkerson, Jessica

English

eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)

University of Mississippi eGrove About the Project Black Families of Yalobusha County 8-22-2019 Preserving our history to help us understand the past and present: Launching Phase II, Outstanding Black Women of Yalobusha County; From the Ole Miss Classroom to the Yalobusha Community Dottie Chapman Reed Jessica Wilkerson University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/blkfam_yaloabout  Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Studies Commons, and the Oral History Commons Recommended Citation Reed, Dottie Chapman and Wilkerson, Jessica, "Preserving our history to help us understand the past and present: Launching Phase II, Outstanding Black Women of Yalobusha County; From the Ole Miss Classroom to the Yalobusha Community" (2019). About the Project. 2. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/blkfam_yaloabout/2 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Black Families of Yalobusha County at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in About the Project by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu. Thursday, August 22, 2019              North Mississippi Herald                                                         13The past is past, right?  We can’t do anything about it, but we can learn from it and use it to understand the present and perhaps make for better days ahead. The Spanish writer Javier Marias put it so well when he said, “The past has a future we never expect.” 2019 has presented challenges and concerns that many of us have never experienced before. The issues are plen-tiful: racism remains rampant and continues to plague our daily lives.  I believe that we can work to relieve some of the current pressures by sharing life stories that show that we have much more in common than most can imagine.  Since I was a student in the 70’s at the University of Mississippi, I have felt that the school could do more for Water Valley, especially its black residents, for no other reason than the town’s proximity to Oxford. Beyond that, over the last 30 years many of them have earned degrees and taken advantage of other university programs, and more students, teachers and retirees – black and white – have migrated to Water Valley or communities in between.  I am biased, I know, and I have said often how special I believe Water Valley and Yalobusha County are primarily, in my opinion, because of the outstanding black women who were the foundation of the communi-ty. The life stories of more than 20 have appeared in this column, and we will continue to feature others.Now I believe we have found a way to connect the community more deeply with the university by using its resources to record and archive oral histories of black families in Yalobusha County.  We will be filling gaps, documenting and showcasing untold stories that can be handed down to inform and motivate the generations to come. And we will all be better for it. It has been said that God has given each of us spiri-tual gifts, talents, skills and experiences to serve whole-heartedly behind the scenes or in the forefront.  Please accept this personal invitation to participate and make a difference. I hope I can count on you. Ole Miss History professor, Dr. Jessie Wilkerson, describes how the process will work below.  She and I attended the Homecoming Services at Everdale Baptist Church in July and were so well received that we are planning to visit more congre-gations on our next trip to Water Valley in September.  To participate or for more information contact me or Dr. Wilkerson.  Her contact information is listed below.Preserving Our History To Help Us Understand The Past And The PresentReed is a native of Water Valley and  graduated from Davidson High School in 1970. This article is part of a project to com-pile and share info about women in the  county who have made an  impact on the African American community. Her column appears bi-monthly, with occasional exceptions. She can be reached at (678) 825-2356 or reed2318@bellsouth.netBy Dottie Chapman ReedAbout a year ago a friend told me about the “Out-standing Black Women of Yalobusha County” column by Dottie Chapman Reed. To say I was rapt is an understate-ment. Ms. Reed’s articles gave me a glimpse into the rich history of black women in North Mississippi, something that I especially appreciate as a scholar who studies the South and U.S. women’s history. I soon had the oppor-tunity to read the backlog of articles with curiosity, deep interest, and appreciation, and Ms. Reed and I began a conversation about the possibility of building a collabo-rative project to document the history of black families in Yalobusha County. I am a historian and professor at the University of Mis-sissippi, where I have worked for the past five years. One morning over breakfast, during the weeks that I was con-sidering a job in Oxford, I read that several students had placed a noose on the James Meredith statue. “Where exactly am I about to move?” I thought to my-self. “What does it mean to take a position and accept a salary at an institution that has consistently held up, defended, and bred white supremacist policies and ac-tions?” But because I am a historian of the South, I know the story is always more complicated. In my five years here, I have learned and taught about the long history of oppression, but I have also yoked myself to the pro-gressive history that has also always been part of the un-dercurrent at the University of Mississippi, and the state as a whole. The history of how people, especially black Mississippians, have fought against oppression and envi-sioned a more just society has become a fundamental part of my research and teaching.Over the last five years, I have heard stories of how black Mississippians have struggled for fair treatment by and access to an institution that is supposed to be a shared resource. I read about how black women laundry workers at the university, when faced with horrendous working conditions on campus, went on strike in the 1940s and won. I learned that civil rights leader Medgar Evers, before becoming the NAACP director for Missis-sippi, attempted to enroll at the University of Mississip-pi Law School in 1950. He was denied, but that did not take away the power of his action: He fought to claim the resources that were his birthright. I heard stories from black Oxonians about how the struggle around James Meredith’s integration did not end when he enrolled but continued for a year. Federal marshals went to school and church with Meredith to provide security, a reminder of how loathe many white people were to black people ac-cessing public resources. The university celebrates Mer-edith’s integration as the single-greatest turning point, a break from the segregationist and white supremacist past. But the story of black students who protested a rac-ist climate during the 1969-1970 school year suggests a different story: the struggle was and is a hard-fought slog and continues into the present.With the help of Ms. Reed’s column, I have expanded my knowledge and now know many more stories of resil-ience across North Mississippi: of black people finding a way to make a living, raise their families, take care of one another, fight for equality, and build community. Such stories are integral to our shared past, and as a historian at the University of Mississippi, I see it as my responsibil-ity to do what I can to document and preserve Mississippi From The Ole Miss ClassroomTo The Yalobusha Communityby Dr. Jessie Wilkersonstories, especially those of black people and other margin-alized groups.In this spirit, last fall I proposed to Ms. Reed that we collaborate on an oral history project to document the his-tory of black families in Yalobusha County. Oral history is a recording of a first-person account made by an inter-viewer and interviewee. Recording oral history interviews with regular people about their daily lives and family sto-ries will help us weave a broader story of black families in Yalobusha County, stories that we will supplement with other types of research. My hope is to work with Ms. Reed to bring public, university resources to the valuable work she has already begun. Our project will rely on relationships between stu-dents and faculty at the university and community mem-bers in Yalobusha County. I know that we have work to do to gain your trust. Here is what the project will look like in its first phase: I am teaching a class on oral history in the fall 2019 semes-ter, and I will work with a team of graduate students to document black community history in North Mississip-pi. Many of the graduate students in the class are work-ing toward their master’s degree in the Southern Studies program, an interdisciplinary program that investigates the complexity of the American South. After undergoing training on how to conduct and record oral history inter-views, we will work with Ms. Reed to see who might be interested in participating in the project. As part of that process, Ms. Reed, the team of graduate students, and I will be in Water Valley on Sunday, Sep-tember 29. In the weeks and months after that, students will record interviews with individuals, asking them about their lives in Yalobusha County and the history of their families in the region (interviews usually last be-tween one and two hours). Students will then transcribe the interview and provide the person with the transcript of the interview and an audio recording. If the person so chooses, we will archive the interview at the University of Mississippi, helping to preserve black history of North Mississippi and making the interviews accessible to his-torians, students, and community members interested in Mississippi, southern, and African-American history. We also hope to organize an exhibit—online or at a communi-ty space—where we can share what we learned and hear your questions.I and my students take seriously the mission of the uni-versity to “devote its knowledge and abilities to serve the state and the world.” I train my students to listen for the lesser known stories, those that have been muted in dom-inant histories of the South, but that are vital to under-standing the past and present. The interviews that we col-lect will help us tell a richer, more diverse, more nuanced story about North Mississippi. We hope that you will con-sider joining us. If you have any questions for me about the project, or if you know you would like to participate, please don’t hesitate to reach out. My email is jcwilker@olemiss.edu and my office number is 662.915.3371.Launching Phase II – Outstanding Black Women Of Yalobusha CountyDottie Reed is collaborating with Dr. Jessie Wilk-erson of the University of Mississippi on an oral history project to help preserve the stories of Yalo-busha County’s black citizens.  Don’t Sleep With Your ContactsA recent report by the CDC cautions against sleeping while wearing contact lenses, as it in-creases the risk of dangerous in-fections of the cornea.In some reported cases, patients developed corneal ulcers, perfo-rations or scarring. Many people had damage that permanently im-paired their vision. Certain ulcers such as Pseu-domonas ulcers can even lead to blindness. Experts say sleeping with lenses (even extended-wear lenses) may raise risk of contact lens-related eye infections six to eight times. Doctors warn that even if someone has slept wearing con-tacts many times without prob-lems, they should stop this prac-tice immediately.OLD TIME VALUES - MODERN SOLUTIONSValue based pest control solutions for:Roaches • Ants • RatsMice • Silver Fish • FleasBed Bugs • SpidersTermites (Baiting & Liquid)Termite Inspections (WDIR)Moisture & Fungus ControlTermite Pretreat • Borate TreatmentFire Ant Yearly TreatmentsResidential • Commercial • Industrial •Food Plants, SQF and AIB CompliantTom Byars(662) 515-8657Jonathan Ragon(662) 714-1577Gary Mixon(662) 380-361491 CR 177 • WATER VALLEY • (662) 473-1059

Preserving our history to help us understand the past and present: Launching Phase II, Outstanding Black Women of Yalobusha County; From the Ole Miss Classroom to the Yalobusha Community

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Preserving our history to help us understand the past and present: Launching Phase II, Outstanding Black Women of Yalobusha County; From the Ole Miss Classroom to the Yalobusha Community

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