Mississippi Moments Podcast

Willie Mac Blaine was born in Ethel, Mississippi, in 1936. In this episode, he shares his family's long history in Attala County and how he came to live in the town of McCool. Established in 1883, McCool, Mississippi was a thriving railroad town. Blaine recalls the town in its heyday and how his grandfather helped build the train depot. Like many small-town banks, the Bank of McCool was unable to...

Dr. Stuart Rockoff grew up in Houston, Texas, as the grandson of Jewish immigrants.  In this episode, he recalls how a class in Texas History led to a job with the Institute of Southern Jewish life, here in Jackson. Rockoff became the Executive Director of the Mississippi Humanities Council in 2013. He explains how the Council's commitment to inclusive storytelling impacted the Two Museums project...

Philip Freelon was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In this episode, he explains how his family background in Education and the Arts inspired him to become an architect. As a young African American architect, Freelon aspired to design libraries and schools. He recalls how a focus on education and community development led him to several museum projects. Philip Freelon is proud to ha...

Kosciusko native W.C. "Billy" Leonard got married and joined the Army in 1940.  In this episode, he recalls how his life changed after hearing news of the Japanese attack on a place called Pearl Harbor. While serving as an artillery officer, Leonard met several people from his hometown. He remembers being pleasantly surprised by one such Kosciusko connection. Leonard's artillery platoon was transf...

Jerry Mitchell was working as a reporter for the Clarion Ledger when he attended a press premier for Mississippi Burning . In this episode, he explains how that event piqued his interest in civil rights-related cold cases.  After the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission was dissolved in 1977, its records were ordered sealed for 50 years.  Mitchell recalls how he was able to get a look at those...

On January 6th, 2020, a statue of slain civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer was unveiled at Hattiesburg City Hall. In this episode, taken from her 1974 COHCH interview, Ellie J. Dahmer remembers her husband as a Christian man who helped everyone regardless of race.  As a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement, Vernon Dahmer received death threats, daily. Ellie Dahmer recalls the extreme measu...

For Gulf Coast residents, January means Mardi Gras season and in the South, no Super Bowl party is complete without a King Cake. Beyond the traditional Carnival celebrations in Mobile, Biloxi, and New Orleans, many other southern cities have established their own annual parades and festivities in recent years. Ocean Springs native, Christa Hode grew up attending the Biloxi Mardi Gras parades with...

During WWII, a key component of the Allied strategy to defeat the Axis powers in Europe was a sustained aerial bombing campaign against key German military and civilian targets. Despite the vaunted reputation the B-17 bomber achieved, they were outnumbered by the lesser known B-24 Liberator. Greenville native, Colonial C.R. Cadenhead trained to be an B-24 bomber pilot. In this episode, he shared s...

Betty McGehee grew up on Scotland Plantation in Vidalia, Louisiana, in the 1930s and 40s. Later, she married a Natchez native and crossed the river for good. In this episode, McGehee shares some memories from her childhood. She recounts raising chickens and selling the eggs to earn extra spending money. She also discusses how they would collect rainwater to drink in an above-ground storage tank an...

Jackie Hancock Schulze grew up in Natchez during the 1930s and 40s, in the house built by her great-grandfather, Natchez Mayor William G. Benbrook. In this episode, taken from her 2004 interview, she shares some precious childhood memories of family and friends and her hometown. Schulze recounts going to the movies downtown, learning to swim in the Elks Club swimming pool and having "Coca-Cola par...

Billie Rossie Tonos's family immigrated from Lebanon and opened a store in Clarksdale. In this episode, she recounts how her parents then moved to Shaw and opened their own business with help from the Lebanese community. During the Great Depression, many small business owners struggled to keep their doors opened. Tonos recalls her parent's resourcefulness during that difficult time. As the daughte...

Charlsie Mae Graham Hammond grew up in Ethel, Mississippi, just outside of Kosciusko in the 1930s and 40s. In this episode, taken from her 2001 interview, she shares some cherished childhood memories. She discusses her father's job at the sawmill there and how he would take her and her brothers on business trips occasionally to provide them a real-world education. Growing up in a large family, Ham...

Dr. Kent Wyatt became the President of Delta State University in 1975. In this episode, Wyatt shares some of the accomplishments and challenges of his tenure. He also explains the importance of having an emphasis on academic excellence and an "open door" policy for faculty and students. When Wyatt took over as President of Delta State in 1975, inflation made it difficult to control operating costs...

As a young man, Fred Clark of Jackson traveled to Midway, Georgia, to attend a series of meetings with Dr. Martin Luther King. In this episode, he recalls fearing for his safety as the group planned protests across the Jim Crow South. The Freedom Riders were protesters who rode interstate buses to challenge southern segregation laws. Clark describes being arrested in Jackson in June of 1961 for tr...

Fred Clark, Sr. grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, during the 1950s and 60s. In this episode, the first of two parts, he recalls the death of Emmett Till and how fear dominated the black community at that time. As events unfolded around him, Clark was determined to overcome his fear and work to make things better. During the Civil Rights Movement, local organizers would hold events called Mass Meeti...

In the late 1920s, Donald Hemphill's father took a job with the Homochitto Lumber Company and the family moved to Bude, Mississippi. In this episode, he shares his memories of growing up in the thriving sawmill town.   At that time, many sawmills provide free company housing for their employees. Hemphill recalls the move to Bude and the primitive conditions in which they lived. For Hemphill, growi...

Jewish immigrant, Jacob Kern, migrated from Germany to America in the late 1800s. His daughter, Lourachael Kern Ginsberg recounts how her father paid for twelve of his family members to join them in Bastrop, Louisiana, in 1938. Growing up Jewish in Bastrop, Ginsberg remembers their family was accepted as part of the community. She remembers raising chickens and ducks for food and driving to Monroe...

Funding for two Mississippi museums was approved by the state legislature in 2011. In this episode, Lucy Allen recalls the planning process for the Civil Rights Museum and the message contained in its design. When Mississippi announced plans to build a civil rights museum, some doubted it would tell the whole story.  Allen explains how the state's willingness to 'go there,' resulted in a powerful...

Lucy Allen moved from North Carolina to Mississippi and spent the next seven years teaching school. In this episode, she explains how her interest in photography led to a career with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.  In 1961, the first State Historical Museum for Mississippi opened in the Old Capitol building. Allen discusses conditions that highlighted the need for a new museum...

Jimmie Person grew up in Port Gibson, Mississippi during the 1930s.  In this episode, he recalls summers on his father's plantation and the warm, nurturing environment small-town life provided the children.  Back when Person was a child, the closest hospital to Port Gibson was in Vicksburg. He remembers how doctors would make houses calls, and the childhood diseases of that time. When Person reach...

As Hurricane Katrina churned across the Gulf in August of 2005, Ruth Christian left her Pascagoula home to wait out the storm with her son's mother-in-law, a few miles inland. In this episode, taken from an interview conducted in 2007, she shares her memories of the days following the storm as people struggled to feed themselves. She recalls trying to feed 16 people with anything they could find....

For many young people, participation in the Civil Rights Movement began with a membership in the NAACP. In this episode, Franzetta Sanders of Moss Point recalls joining the group and the work they did to promote Equality for all. During the 1960s, members of the NAACP would test local businesses for compliance with new Civil Rights laws.  Franzetta Sanders describes their work in Moss Point and ho...

Fifty years ago this week, Hurricane Camille left a wide path of destruction across the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Dr. Henry Maggio was working at a Bay Saint Louis hospital on August 17, 1969 when Camille slammed into the Gulf Coast.  In this episode, he remembers feelings of dread as the storm came ashore. As Hurricane Camille made landfall, it brought devastating winds and flooding to coastal com...

During WWII, young men from cities and towns across the nation, answered the call to serve.  So too, did young men from isolated areas of the country—boys who had never been away from the farms where they were raised—but were still compelled to go to the battlefields of countries they had only read about in textbooks. For many, that rural lifestyle held advantages in wartime.  For example, those w...

Bill Booth's grandfather, Tom Booth, came to Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1912. There, he opened a hardware store on Main Street. "Pappy" Booth soon sold the business to his son, George H. Booth who changed the name to Tupelo Hardware. Owned and operated by the Booth family since 1926, it remains for many, the go-to place for hard-to-find tools. Famously, Gladys Presley bought her son Elvis, his first...