2025 Annual Meeting Agenda

Mississippi Historical Society
March 6-7, 2025
Two Mississippi Museums, Jackson

Thursday, March 6

All sessions are at the Two Mississippi Museums. Early registration is $60 for MHS members and $95 for non-members. Registration after Friday, February 28, 2025, is $85 for MHS members and $120 for nonmembers.

10:30 a.m.  Registration

11:00 a.m.  Annual Business Meeting 

12:00 p.m.  Opening Session and Luncheon 

  • Presiding: Rebecca Tuuri, President, Mississippi Historical Society
  • Welcome: Katie Blount, Director, Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi
  • Keynote Speaker: Carlton W. Reeves, District Judge, Southern District of Mississippi

2:30 p.m.  Session I – Breaking the Silence: The Emmett Till Interpretive Center and the Journey to Truth-telling and Racial Healing

  • Daphne Chamberlain, Chief Program Officer
  • Venita Halbert, Community Engagement Officer
  • Jessie Jaynes-Diming, Founding Member of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission
  • Jay Rushing, Youth Engagement Director
  • Benjamin Saulsberry, Director of Public Engagement & Museum Education

3:45 p.m.  Break

4:00 p.m.  Session II – Historical Perspectives on Millsaps College

  • Andrew Marion, Teaching Fellow in History & Associate Director for Student Engagement, "Quiet Reckonings and Pathways for Further Inquiry at Millsaps College"
  • Matthew Coleman, Millsaps Class of 2024, "Millsaps College and its Role in the Civil Rights Movement"
  • Ricky James, Dean of the Chapel & Director of Church Relations and Campus Ministry, "The Vision for Mississippi Wesleyan College"
  • Connor Sutton, Millsaps College Class of 2025, "Digging up the Past: The Exodus of JSU from State Street"

5:30 p.m.  President's Happy Hour

6:30 p.m.  Banquet and Remarks from Book of the Year Award Winner

  • Presiding: Roscoe Barnes III, Vice President, Mississippi Historical Society
  • Journal of Mississippi History Article of the Year Award 
  • Outstanding Thesis Award
  • Outstanding Dissertation Award
  • Book of the Year Award Presentation: Kristi DiClemente, Associate Professor of History, Mississippi University for Women
  • Award Winner: Wright Thompson, The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

Friday, March 7

9:00 a.m.  Session III – Uncovering  Hidden Stories of Mississippi

  • Cassandra Hawkins, Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi, "Documenting the Voices of African American Women in Mississippi's Rural Communities"
  • Josh Foreman, Mississippi State University, "John Blommart and the American Revolution in Natchez"
  • Christopher T. Slocombe, Brown Talbot College Preparatory School, "Charles McDougall, Henry Halleck, and the Emergence of Modern Medical Infrastructure in the Civil War's Western Theater"

10:15 a.m.  Break

10:30 a.m.  Session IV – The Impact of John Dittmer's Scholarship on Civil Rights in Mississippi

  • Moderator: Robert Luckett, Professor and Director, Margaret Walker Center, Jackson State University
  • Emilye Crosby, Professor of History, State University of New York Geneseo
  • Francoise Hamlin, Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies, Brown University 
  • Christina Thomas Mellon Visiting Scholar, Jackson State University
  • William L. Woods, Professor of History, Tougaloo College

12:00 p.m.  Awards Luncheon 

  • Presiding: Rebecca Tuuri, President, Mississippi Historical Society
  • Presentation of Awards
    • Lifetime Achievement
    • Awards of Merit
    • Excellence in History Award
    • Outstanding Local Historical Society
    • Teacher of the Year
                                     
  • Introduction of President-elect and passing of the gavel

2:30 p.m.  Historic Tours

  • Eudora Welty House & Garden
  • Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
  • Two Mississippi Museums Collections Tour