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Author Tracy Carr recently moderated a lively panel discussion exploring the life, work and unmistakable voice of celebrated Mississippi author Ellen Gilchrist called “Holding Court with the Queen: Conversations with Ellen Gilchrist” during History is Lunch at the Two Mississippi Museums.

The discussion featured Carr, author of Conversations with Ellen Gilchrist, alongside China Grove Journal editors Dr. Scott Anderson and Dr. Lucius “Luke” Lampton, and Holly Lange, founder of the Mississippi Book Festival. During the discussion, Gilchrist was described as “the last Southern writer.”

Born in Vicksburg, Gilchrist drew heavily from her own experiences as she developed the characters and stories that would define her literary career. Her life was anything but conventional, and was an important part of her writing.

Gilchrist attended Vanderbilt University before transferring to the University of Alabama and later Auburn University. She eventually left college after eloping with Marshall Walker. The couple had two children before divorcing. Gilchrist later married a judge, divorced, remarried Walker and had another child before their second divorce.

Following that second divorce, Gilchrist returned to Jackson, where her parents lived, and enrolled at Millsaps College. There, she took a class taught by beloved Mississippi author Eudora Welty.

The timing was remarkable. Welty taught at Millsaps for only one semester, and it happened to be the same semester Gilchrist enrolled.

“That was kismet,” Carr said.

Gilchrist later married again and moved to New Orleans, continuing a life marked by relationships, travel, and experiences that would ultimately find their way into her fiction.

During the program, Carr shared a short clip from the television program “Post Script,” featuring Gilchrist speaking about her early attraction to reading and describing it as a “lonely thing.”

“For those who have never heard her talk before, that was a treat,” Carr said. “Not just the content, but the style. She's thinking about something, she switches to this, and she's telling a story, and it's all over the place. You can imagine how fun this was to transcribe.”

Lange recalled similar experiences during her conversations with Gilchrist through the Mississippi Book Festival’s author sessions.

“You'll see where she literally looks off to the left and kind of drifts off in thought unrelated to anything that we were talking about in the room,” Lange said.

That distinctive conversational style is captured in Carr’s book, which features 18 interviews spanning 40 years and examines Gilchrist’s life and work through the headstrong, honest and often outrageous Southern female characters for which she became known.

Carr said the interviews were drawn from a wide range of sources, including television and radio appearances, print interviews, conference proceedings and book festival recordings.

Anderson and Lampton also shared memories of their longtime relationship with Gilchrist, which began during and continued after the publication of her stories in the China Grove Journal.

“She was just a lovely person,” Anderson said, recalling the affection Gilchrist developed for him and Lampton.

One of the stories shared during the discussion highlighted Gilchrist’s connection to Welty. In one of her autobiographical essays, Gilchrist recalled meeting Welty outside the Carnegie Library while accompanied by her three red-headed children.

Gilchrist introduced the children to Welty, describing herself as tired and exasperated by the demands of motherhood. Welty responded with a question that would stay with Gilchrist: “You have three children. Why do you need to write?”

Lampton, who serves as vice president of the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, said Gilchrist possessed a remarkable combination of brilliance and levity.

“She could do anything with a great force of intellect and also a great sense of humor,” Lampton said.

He also recalled Gilchrist’s response when panelists asked whether she agreed with comparisons made between her and other prominent Southern writers.

“She liked that comparison, but she said, ‘You know, I'm really a poet,’” Lampton said.

That observation, he said, offers an important key to understanding Gilchrist’s body of work.

“I think her entire writing career, if you look at what she's about, she said that what she figured out—to be successful as a poet—was she needed to hide the poems in her fiction,” Lampton said. “And so a lot of what she's doing in her fiction is hiding her poems.”

History Is Lunch is a weekly lecture series of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History that explores different aspects of the state's past. The hour-long programs are held in the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum building in Jackson.

For more information, call 601-576-6850 or email info@mdah.ms.gov.

Nissan Neighbors has awarded a $40,000 grant to the Foundation for Mississippi History to support student field trips to the Two Mississippi Museums—the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

The grant will help offset costs during the 2026-2027 school year for visits to the museums related to admission, transportation, and on-site lunches, expanding access for thousands of students from Title I schools across the state. The Foundation for Mississippi History conducts fundraising efforts to help support and promote the projects and programs of Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which administers the Two Mississippi Museums.

“We are grateful to Nissan for its continued investment in our educational programs and the students we serve,” said MDAH Director Barry White. “Their support makes it possible to create engaging, hands-on learning experiences that bring history to life and give students the opportunity to connect with Mississippi’s past in meaningful ways.”

The grant renews a longstanding partnership between Nissan and the Two Mississippi Museums. Nissan contributed $500,000 to support the museums' opening and, through ongoing support from the Nissan Foundation, has helped expand educational access and learning opportunities for visitors and students throughout the years.

The support from Nissan Neighbors, with facilitation from the Nissan Foundation, ensures more young Mississippians can engage with the state’s rich and complex history at no cost to students, families, or schools.

“Now in its 34th year, Nissan Foundation remains steadfastly committed to enriching communities in collaboration with nonprofit organizations in areas Nissan calls home,” said Ali Tonn, senior manager of Philanthropy at Nissan North America and executive director of the Nissan Foundation.

Since its founding in 1992, the Nissan Foundation has contributed nearly $18 million to nonprofit organizations across the country. Its mission is to foster sustainable communities in areas where Nissan operates.

For more than two decades, Nissan has assembled vehicles in Canton, Mississippi. The plant employs more than 4,000 people and produces the Nissan Altima and Frontier.

The Two Mississippi Museums are located at 222 North Street in Jackson and are open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

To learn more about field trip opportunities or to make a reservation, contact Crystal James, group tours coordinator, at cjames@mdah.ms.gov.

For more information, call 601-576-6850 or email info@mdah.ms.gov.
 

Andrew Young – a veteran civil rights activist who served as a Georgia congressman, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and a former mayor of Atlanta – will deliver the Medgar Wiley Evers Lecture on Thursday, Sept. 3, at 6 p.m. at the Two Mississippi Museums.

Young will reflect on his life in public service and his longstanding ties to Mississippi in a conversation with Ebony Lumumba, a Foundation for Mississippi History board member and the department chair and associate professor of English at Jackson State University. The event, which is free and open to the public, will also feature a special performance by singer and dramatist Ayanna Gregory, daughter of the late comic and civil rights icon Dick Gregory.

“We’re honored to welcome Ambassador Young back to Mississippi,” Two Mississippi Museums Director Michael Morris said. “We’re looking forward to hearing him reminisce on his time here with Evers and other figures of the movement.”

In 1961, Young was named director of the Citizenship School Program housed at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, when Martin Luther King Jr. was president. He first met Medgar Evers through his work with the SCLC. 

His involvement in the Civil Rights Movement included being a key strategist in campaigns that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In Mississippi, Young participated in James Meredith’s March Against Fear in 1966. That same year, he accompanied Black students as they entered previously segregated schools in Grenada, Mississippi, alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

In 1968, Young helped launch the Poor People’s Campaign, a national movement focused on economic justice and the needs of Americans living in poverty.

Young was elected to Congress in 1972, the first African American from the Deep South since Reconstruction. In 1977, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations by President Jimmy Carter. He was elected Atlanta’s mayor in 1981 and re-elected in 1985.

“It is a rare opportunity to hear directly from a civil rights veteran who played such a significant role in ensuring all Americans have access to their constitutional rights,” Morris said.

Young has received honorary degrees from more than 100 universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad and has received various awards, including an Emmy Lifetime Achievement award in 2011 and the Dan Sweat Award in 2017. His portrait also became part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

The Medgar Wiley Evers Lecture Series was established in 2003 to honor the legacy of Evers, a civil rights activist who was the NAACP’s first field secretary in Mississippi. His widow Myrlie Evers presented the Medgar and Myrlie Evers papers to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in 2002. 

Previous Evers lecturers include Joy Reid, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Lonnie Bunch, Henry Louis Gates, Robert P. Moses, and Manning Marable.

The event is sponsored by MDAH, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute.

In 2014, the Kellogg Foundation awarded $2.3 million to MDAH to support programming at the Two Mississippi Museums and fund a partnership between MDAH and the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute.

The Two Mississippi Museums—the interconnected Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum—opened December 9, 2017, in honor of the state’s bicentennial. The museums take visitors through the sweep of Mississippi history and the state’s role as ground zero in the nation’s Civil Rights Movement.

The aroma of simmering squash, corn, and beans drifted through the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians as visitors gathered around to watch a centuries-old tradition come to life.

At the 128-acre National Historic Landmark administered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH), history is more than something preserved in exhibits—it's experienced through demonstrations of Indigenous cooking, crafts, and culture that connect modern audiences with the people who first called this land home.

Leading one such demonstration was Rebekah Scott, a descendant of Natchez, Cherokee, and Creek ancestry. Traveling from her home in Oklahoma, Scott regularly returns to Natchez to share the traditions, stories, and recipes passed down through generations.

During the recent two-hour program, Scott prepared Three Sisters Stew, a traditional dish built around three crops that Indigenous communities cultivated together for centuries: corn, beans, and squash. Known collectively as the "Three Sisters," the plants supported one another in the field, with corn providing a natural trellis for climbing beans, beans enriching the soil with nitrogen, and sprawling squash vines helping retain moisture and suppress weeds.

The same ingredients that worked together in the garden came together in the cooking pot.

"The stew is a comfort food that anyone can make, and it doesn't have to be specific to one culture or race," Scott said.

As the stew simmered, Scott shared stories of Natchez history, explaining that the area was once known as Nachi (pronounced "Nah-chee") Town, reflecting its Indigenous roots long before the modern city of Natchez was established. She emphasized that cooking has always been about more than nourishment—it has been a way to preserve family traditions, strengthen communities, and pass knowledge from one generation to the next.

Those lessons were on full display as Scott's daughters worked alongside her, helping prepare both the stew and traditional fry bread, demonstrating how these customs continue to be shared within families today.

Made from simple ingredients—flour, water, and lard—fry bread proved to be an instant favorite among visitors. Fresh from the skillet, it paired perfectly with the hearty stew and quickly became one of the day's most talked-about dishes.

"The Three Sisters Stew was hearty and flavorful," said Robbie Peters, a Brandon native visiting Natchez while home from Qatar. "It's hard to put the spoon down. But that fry bread was really good, too. Great event here in Natchez."

For Angelika Alford of Natchez, the program offered a deeper appreciation of the region's earliest history.

"It was a very, very nice representation and very informative," she said.

The Blauer family of Pullman, Washington, discovered the Grand Village while traveling through Mississippi between a Taekwondo tournament in Arkansas and an academic conference in New Orleans. Their unexpected stop became a memorable highlight of the trip.

"We drove around a little bit trying to explore the area, and it's like a little hidden piece of history that we didn't know about until just a few days ago," Melanie Blauer said. "We are happy we stopped in."

After sampling the fry bread, she was already imagining making it at home.

"This fry bread would taste really good with some potato soup or clam chowder," she said. "We'll have to give this a try soon."

Scott hopes that's exactly what visitors take away—not only recipes, but traditions worth sharing.

"It's something to bring in grandmothers and families and aunts and kids to do," Scott said. "All of my daughters make fry bread."

For Scott, every demonstration is an opportunity to reconnect people with the Indigenous history that began in Natchez long before written records.

"I think that with this town being so keen on history and culture, this is where it started," she said. "The history and the culture from Native Americans—and just sharing and giving back something that I was taught—is the most important."

Visitors to the Grand Village can continue exploring that history year-round through the site's Visitor Center, museum exhibits, gift shop featuring Native American crafts, and walking trails that wind through one of Mississippi's most significant archaeological and cultural sites. Admission and parking are free, making the Grand Village an inviting destination for anyone interested in experiencing the rich heritage of the Natchez people.

The Grand Village is located at 400 Jefferson Davis Boulevard and is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sundays 1:30 to 5 p.m.

Have you ever wanted to know more about the people who volunteered to participate in Freedom Summer 1964?

Christina J. Thomas, a post doctorate fellow at the Center for Civil Rights History and Research at the University of South Carolina, is in the final stages of a project that will make that information more accessible.

Thomas is the first recipient of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Robert “Bob” Moses Research Fellowship. The fellowship afforded Thomas the opportunity to use the MDAH archives this summer to conduct research for her project, “Digitizing Freedom Summer.” 

Her database will be a resource for researchers, students, and even surviving Freedom Summer volunteers who would like to connect with others they worked alongside in the summer of 1964.

“The goal of my digital project is twofold. First, I seek to geolocate each volunteer on a map providing viewers with a profile of each volunteer who came that summer, which comes from a database I'm compiling,” Thomas said. “Perhaps a short bio, but at the very least, links to other primary sources, where it has individuals share their stories, experience, memories, or old histories that already exist.” 

The Robert Moses Civil Rights Research Fellowship Program was created by MDAH to support young academic scholars and promote the study of the Civil Rights Movement. The program is named in honor of Moses because of his deep interest in developing Indigenous leadership and research, encouraging the study of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement.

Thomas received a doctoral degree in history from Johns Hopkins University and Master of Art in History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She received her Bachelor of Art in History from Messiah University. 

In addition to her work at the Center for Civil Rights History, Thomas previously was an Andrew W. Mellon Visiting scholar at the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University. Thomas also was a historian for the History Department of the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. 

This summer, Thomas mined MDAH collections, like the Freedom Song Collection, to uncover different kinds of stories and learn more about the volunteers of Freedom Summer. 

At the end of her presentation on July 23, Thomas showed a prototype of the future database.  The visual showed an interactive map that will showcase several different profiles and stories of Freedom Summer volunteers. She said she hopes to share the database with the public soon.

Learn more about MDAH fellowship opportunities here. 

As the daughter of civil rights leaders Medgar and Myrlie Evers listened, MDAH fellow Chelsea D. McNutt, Ph.D., recently presented her preliminary findings on the networks of care led by Black women during the Civil Rights Movement.

McNutt is the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s 2026 Medgar and Myrlie Evers Research Fellow.

For two weeks this summer, McNutt pored over the Medgar Wiley and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers housed at MDAH to pursue her research. She spent most of her time analyzing how Myrlie Evers was a part of the collective care of Black women in the South during the Civil Rights Movement.

“Following his assassination in June 1963, the Movement confronted not only the loss of one of its most influential leaders, but also the immediate question of how families, communities, and organizations would respond in the aftermath. At the center of that moment stood Myrlie Evers,” McNutt said.

The recent presentation at the Two Mississippi Museums was the culmination of the fellowship for McNutt, who earned her Ph.D. in History from Cornell University and was recently appointed an Assistant Professor of History at Grambling State University.

McNutt researched how Myrlie Evers navigated widowhood, motherhood, national public attention, and the responsibility of preserving the work Medgar Evers had done. Through this, she found a broader historical question: "How did Black women organize care in moments like this and how did forms of care emerge around Myrlie Evers?”

Reena Evers-Everette also attended the fellow's presentation and gave her thanks to McNutt, praising her work for the focus of the role of care in her research.
“Thank you very much for your presentation and for your research and for hearing that you’re going to continue with it,” Evers-Everette said.

McNutt described her research as both challenging and rewarding.

“One of the most rewarding aspects of historical research is that every answer often leads to new questions,” McNutt said. “This fellowship has challenged me to think differently about Black women's political work, collective care, and the intellectual labor that sustains the modern civil rights movement.”

To learn more about MDAH Fellowships visit, https://www.mdah.ms.gov/careers-volunteering/fellowship-opportunities

The special session recently called by Governor Tate Reeves was historic: It ended with passage of the first legislation in the Old Capitol in more than 120 years.

The Mississippi Chancery Youth Court Act of 2026 was passed in the Old Capitol House Chamber on July 17. This bill appears to be the first legislation passed at the Old Capitol since 1903. Archival records make no mention of legislation passed in the Old Capitol once the new state Capitol opened.

Governor Reeves called for a special session regarding the status of youth courts in the state. Construction at the current state Capitol prevented the session from being held in its House chamber.

Administered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Old Capitol now serves as a free museum. The site is open to visitors Wednesday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Old Capitol Museum is Mississippi’s most historic building. It was the site of some of the state’s most significant political actions, such as the passage of the 1839 Married Women’s Property Act, Mississippi’s secession from the Union in 1861, and the crafting of the 1868 and 1890 state constitutions.

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History hosts several genealogy workshops a year, teaching individuals how to trace their family history. During a recent workshop, Joyce Dixon-Lawson shared how the Dawes Rolls are a research tool for Native American genealogy. 

Lawson explored the ways in which participants can utilize census records, land deeds, and other files to build their family tree. She also encouraged the participants to use the archives at MDAH to research their families. 

Lawson has been researching and helping others find their genealogy for years. She formerly served as a manager of research and genealogy at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Lawson told workshop participants that genealogy results can sometimes yield surprising results.

“Genealogy is personal. If you're not ready to embrace whatever record you find, genealogy is may not be something you want to do,” Lawson said.

Lawson encourages anyone who is researching to start with themselves and their families. “You start with what you know, and you systematically work your way down.” Lawson said.

She also reminded people to utilize MDAH resources, including census records, and to be persistent.

“Genealogy is a lifelong journey,” she said.

Ready to begin your genealogy search? Start here.

During a recent History Is Lunch presentation, author April Holm put forth that theological conflicts between the North and the South that preceded the Civil War, existed long after the war's end and reunion, shaping major evangelical denominations and influencing the relationship between the federal government and churches.

Holm, author of In Kingdom Divided: Evangelicals, Loyalty, and Sectionalism in the Civil War Era, is an assistant professor of history and associate director of the Center for Civil War Research at the University of Mississippi. Her book explores religion, morality, and politics during Reconstruction. Her recent presentation at the Two Mississippi Museums was part of the MDAH Religion Initiative, made possible through a grant by Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative. 

Holm said the religious rifts were a major contributing factor to the division between the North and South during Reconstruction. The divisions also led to Black churches forming across the nation.

Watch the presentation on the MDAH YouTube Channel.

Learn more about the MDAH Religion Initiative.

Ralph Boston, a native of Laurel, competed in three Olympic games – and won medals in each, including gold in 1960. His record-breaking track and field achievements are highlighted in the Mississippi Made exhibit at the Two Mississippi Museums – all thanks to his family who have loaned the artifacts for display.

Janna Newell, Boston’s niece, said loaning the Olympian’s shoes he wore during the games and three of his medals was a way of sharing his story with a new generation.

The Mississippi Made exhibit highlights several home-grown innovators, artists, entertainers, and athletes. The exhibit features 250 artifacts to reflect Mississippi’s contributions to American history. 

Boston was a record-breaking long jumper. He won his first Olympic medal – gold – in 1960. He won his silver medal at the 1964 Olympics and bronze at the 1968 Olympics.

The exhibit displays his spikes worn at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. One year later, he became the first man to jump over 27 feet, breaking his own world record.

Newell said Boston’s family always supported him.

“We were always very proud of his accomplishments. We didn’t think of him as a hero or somebody extremely special. We just knew him as our uncle,” Newell said. “To make it to one Olympics in itself is a beat but to go to three Olympics and medal in all three of them, that's something special.”

The medals and shoes have been loaned to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, which administers the Two Mississippi Museums. The artifacts will be on display until the exhibit closes Nov. 6. 

Newell said there’s a reason her family was willing to loan the artifacts to MDAH.

“These are the types of things that were instilled upon us – you should give back.”

See who else is highlighted in the Mississippi Made exhibit. Visit the Two Mississippi Museums.