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At its June 23 meeting, Fred Banks was elected chairman of the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Mississippi History, which supports and promotes the activities, programs, and projects of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH). P. Ryan Beckett was named vice-chairman.

Fred Banks is a senior partner in the general litigation group in the Jackson office of Phelps Dunbar. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1976 until 1985, when he was appointed as a circuit court judge. Banks served as a justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court for eleven years. Banks has served on the National Board of Directors of the NAACP for the past thirty-nine years.

P. Ryan Beckett is a partner in the commercial litigation group in the Ridgeland office of Butler Snow.  He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Millsaps College.  He previously served as the Legal Director of the Homeless Legal Clinic through the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project.  Beckett is a past chairman of the Mississippi Tort Claims Board, the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s Encore Board, and the Advisory Board of Metropolitan Bank.

Phil Bryant, the sixty-fourth governor of Mississippi, has been elected to the Foundation board. Bryant was a strong supporter of the Two Mississippi Museums project and was governor when the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum opened in 2017.

The Foundation board meets at least twice a year to review financial reports and to consult with staff on strategic plans for the department’s museums, sites, and programs. A particular function of the Foundation is advising MDAH on the direction of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. The Foundation raised $20 million for the construction of the Two Mississippi Museums.

In an effort to expand the number of voices advising MDAH on all aspects of its programming, the Foundation for the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum has merged with the Foundation for Mississippi History.

Other Foundation board members include Reuben Anderson, Donna Barksdale, Kane Ditto, Haley Fisackerly, Mike Espy, Jack Garner, Beverly Hogan, H.T. Holmes, John Horhn, Jonathan Lee, Ebony Lumumba, Leslie-Burl McLemore, Nora Frances McRae, John Palmer, John Peoples, Chip Pickering, Leroy Walker, and William Winter.

Katie Blount serves as president of the Foundation and Robert Benson is secretary-treasurer. For more information email info@mdah.ms.gov.

At noon on Wednesday, July 22, as part of the History Is Lunch series, Felder Rushing will present “Over and Under the Fence: Historic Passalong Plants as Social Glue.”

For centuries, flowers, vegetables, and herbs that survive on little care and are easily propagated have been shared across social lines—both in the open and underground.

“Those plants conjure historic events and places,” Rushing said. “The stories of some are more astounding than anything Welty or Faulkner could have imagined.”

Rushing, a garden journalist with an international reputation, is this summer quarantined in his beloved Mississippi cottage rather than at his usual summer home in England. His presentation will explore plants and garden habits that mark otherwise diverse Mississippians as part of a unique cultural whole.

“Plants don't care how your mama’n’them are,” Rushing said. “More than anything else—even more than food, music, sports, and religion—plants connect people both in the present and to their past.”

Felder Rushing, a retired horticulture professor whose ancestors have been bringing plants into Mississippi since in the 1770s, has written more than two dozen garden books, thousands of newspaper columns, and numerous articles in national magazines. The prolific garden lecturer is the longtime host of Mississippi Public Broadcasting's weekly Gestalt Gardener program.

This program is made possible by the Mississippi Humanities Council through their Speakers Bureau. Learn more about the group at mshumanities.org.

House Bill 1796 established a commission to redesign the Mississippi State Flag. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH), which is providing clerical support for the commission, is now accepting flag design submissions. The sole purpose of the commission, according to the bill, is to develop, design, and report to the governor and the legislature its recommendation for the design of the new state flag no later than September 14, 2020.

Governor Tate Reeves, Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann, and House Speaker Philip Gunn will each appoint three members to the Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag no later than Wednesday, July 15. The chair of the commission will be chosen by the majority vote of the members of the commission during their first meeting.

Criteria

1. Only unique flag design submissions that include the words “In God We Trust” will be considered by the nine-member commission. Flag descriptions will not be considered.
2. The new flag design cannot include the Confederate battle flag.
3. Flag design submissions must adhere to principles of the North American Vexillological Association:
   • Keep It Simple. The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory.
   • Use Meaningful Symbolism. The flag’s images, color, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes.
   • Use Two or Three Basic Colors.
   • Be Distinctive or Be Related.

The deadline for submissions is August 1, 2020. Flag designs may be emailed to info@mdah.ms.gov. Submissions may also be mailed to Commission to Redesign the Mississippi State Flag, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, P.O. Box 571, Jackson, MS, 39205-0571.

For more information email info@mdah.ms.gov.