Mississippi Moments Podcast

The Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi was established in 1977.   Its mission was to investigate, document, interpret and teach about the American South. In this episode, Ann Abadie recalls the Center’s first public event. Abadie also discusses the Center’s most ambitious project: The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture .   She explains how one section of that p...

Jim Anderson became the director of the First Regional Library, a five-county-library system based in Hernando, back in 1972. In this episode, h e discusses the history of Mississippi’s oldest regional library. According to Anderson, the level of cooperation that exists between the state’s public, academic and special libraries is the result of programs sponsored by the Mississippi Library Commiss...

One of the star attractions of the New Orleans World’s Fair in 1984 was the space shuttle Enterprise.  In this episode, Christine Harvey, a photographer at the Stennis Space Center, recalls documenting the shuttle’s journey from Mobile Bay to the Port of New Orleans. Harvey’s job was to ride a tugboat out to Algiers Point and photograph the arrival of the shuttle.   It was an assignment that left...

Growing up in Dixie Springs, Paul Ott Carruth had two great passions: the Great Outdoors and making music. So it came as a shock when in 1967, Carruth learned that hardwood trees around the Leaf River were being intentionally poisoned. At the time, Carruth was gaining recognition as a singer on a Hattiesburg TV show.   He decided to combine his love of music and his love of nature to save those tr...

In 1970, the Mississippi State Legislature passed the State Antiquities Act to preserve Mississippi historic sites and buildings for future generations. In this episode Elbert Hilliard, Director Emeritus of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History discusses the significance of the Antiquities Act. Hilliard recalls their first preservation project and how in 1983, the Antiquities Act was...

Lou Mallory of Natchez grew up on a small farm in the Red Hills of Georgia.   In the episode, s he recalls how the family barely survived raising cotton, but were happy none the less. She explains that her father used to make syrup from sugar cane as a way to earn extra money.   She remembers eating a lot of syrup when there was not much else. Mallory learned to sew her own dresses out of necessit...

Evelyn Gandy of Hattiesburg came from a politically active family. In this episode, she discusses her decision to consider a career in politics at an early age. From 1947, when she was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, to 1959 when she became the first woman elected to statewide office as treasurer, Gandy always tried to make whatever office she held more responsive to the peopl...

After being nominated and passed over seven times for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, former NFL punter, Ray Guy, was used to waiting by the phone.  In this episode, he explains how the eighth time promised to be different. Ensconced in his New York hotel room on Super Bowl weekend, Guy found himself sitting by the phone once again, wondering if this would finally be the year he got...

William Ray Guy came to Hattiesburg, MS to play football for Southern Miss in 1970.  As punter for the Golden Eagles, Guy’s kicks were known for their distance and pinpoint accuracy. In this episode, Guy discusses his decision to play for USM.  He also explains why for him, strategy was just as important as power. In the 14 seasons Guy punted for the Oakland Raiders, the term hang-time was coined...

Chinese American, Professor John P Quon grew up living in the back of his family’s store in Moorhead, Mississippi. In this episode, he recalls slipping off and exploring the downtown area at a young age. Every member of the Quon family was expected to help out in the store.   Quon remembers learning how to make change at the age of five.  Eventually, the Quon family decided to buy a home in Moorhe...

In 1964, Dr. John P. Quon was a student at Ole’ Miss when he proposed to his college sweetheart, Freida Seu. Both were from Chinese-American families living in the Delta. In this episode, Quon recalls the traditional engagement negotiations that followed. Quon describes the logistics involved in planning a wedding with an expected attendance of 1,200 family and friends. He walks us through the day...

King Evans was a teenager, living with his family on the Vickland Plantation in Nitta Yuma, Mississippi, during the Great Flood of 1927. In this episode, he recalls how the water continued to rise after the levee north of Greenville broke on the morning of April 21 st . Evans also remembers the thousands of people displaced by the floodwaters and the desperate lengths they went to for shelter.  Ra...

In 1966 the faculty at the Mercy Hospital College of Nursing in Vicksburg recognized the need for a second nursing baccalaureate program in Mississippi. This group of Catholic nuns, led by Dr. Elizabeth Harkins, was determined to establish a College of Nursing at USM. In this episode, retired instructor Jean Haspeslagh remembers Harkins as a force to be reckoned with. Haspeslagh explains how Harki...

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was organized in 1964 as an alternative to the then-all-white Mississippi Democratic Party. The MFDP, after holding a statewide election open to people of all colors, sent its delegates to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in an attempt to be recognized as the legitimate representatives of the State. In this episode, Dr. Aaron Henry of Clarksdale reme...

In 1964, as SNCC coordinators trained volunteers for the Mississippi Freedom Summer project, three others, Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman traveled to Philadelphia, MS to investigate a church burning. In this episode, Cleveland Sellers recounts how he and seven other coordinators went in search of those three when they went missing. Sellers describes the extraordinary lengths their group went to, to...

After attending a Freedom School as a high school student in the summer of ’64, Charleana Cobb of Blue Mountain was inspired to become active in the civil rights movement. In this episode, she recalls promoting a speech being given at her church  by civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Cobb remembers the thrill of hearing Hamer speak that night and the shock of being told that the church had bu...

After attempting to register to vote, Fannie Lou Hamer was forced to leave the plantation where she had lived and worked for 18 years.  In the episode, she explains how she became active in voter registration and the challenges they faced. Prior to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Mississippi required voters to pass a literacy test and pay a poll tax in order to vote.  Hamer recalls how s...

In 1962, Fannie Lou Hamer was a sharecropper’s wife, living on a plantation in Ruleville, Mississippi. In this episode, she recalls the first time she tried to register to vote. After leaving Indianola, the bus carrying Hamer’s group was pulled over by state and local law enforcement. She describes how they were forced to return to Indianola to face an assortment of trumped up charges. Later that...

In 1964, Larry Rubin of Tacoma Park, Maryland came to Holly Springs to help black Mississippians register to vote. In this episode he explains how the state used literacy tests and intimidation to keep blacks from voting. A key goal of Freedom Summer was to register enough Freedom Democratic Party voters to have their delegates seated at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Rubin recalls the d...

In July of 1964, Sandra Adickes came to Hattiesburg to teach in a “Freedom School” as part of a civil rights campaign known as Freedom Summer. The Freedom Schools were intended to help black children overcome the disparity of education in Mississippi’s segregated school system. In this episode, Adickes remembers her arrival and a 4 th of July party sponsored by civil rights activist, Vernon Dahmer...

In June of 1964, a campaign was launched to educate black Mississippians and register them to vote. In the episode, Gloria Clark, a school teacher from Massachusetts, recalls riding a bus to Memphis to prepare for her role in the campaign called Freedom Summer. Clark remembers being assigned to Holly Springs and her initial reaction to that assignment. On June 21 st , three civil rights activists...

Like many Jewish children in the South, John Levingston of Cleveland, Mississippi attended kindergarten at a Christian church.   In the episode, Levingston remembers how that led to some confusion for him.  Growing up in a Reform Congregation, Levingston did not participate in some traditional Jewish practices.   He recalls his decision to learn Hebrew and have a bar mitzvah in his late thirties....

This summer marks the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer—a time when black Mississippians worked with northern students to confront Jim Crow and claim their rights as citizens. To commemorate this Freedom struggle, we are combing the collection to bring you a series of Mississippi Moments that explore Freedom Summer from a variety of perspectives: from organizers to volunteers to yes, even law enf...

Ray Pittman of Hattiesburg joined the Marines in 1942 as a demolition man. In this episode, h e describes a typical demolition team and the dangerous jobs they performed. Pittman’s team suffered heavy casualties during some of the worst battles in the Pacific theater. He recalls how a spare pistol saved his life on the island of Iwo Jima. Pittman also remembers the day his friend Maxwell was kille...

George W. Owens of Pontotoc was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1936 when he met Icey Day, the state’s first blind legislator. Six years later, Owens helped Day pass legislation to establish the Mississippi Industries for the Blind. In 1946, Owens began working as a vocational counselor for the M.I.B. In this episode, he recalls their humble beginnings and looks back with p...