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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

A Mississippi Department of Archives and History archivist recently catalogued an amazing artifact within the agency’s collections – a scrap of a white surrender flag from the Civil War.

Shaun Stalzer, MDAH’s senior archivist of government records, made the discovery while sorting through the collection.

A curious item grabbed his attention, and he was floored by what he found – a yellowing scrap of linen, about 5x10 inches, with these words printed in fading ink, "Piece of white flag that surrendered Ft. Lee, Vicksburg, July 4, 1863.”

MDAH Civil War experts were able to figure out the artifact’s backstory. It was determined that Private Willam C. Phipps of Company A, 11th Indiana Infantry, received this section of flag during the surrender of the Confederate Fort Garrott (then known as Fort Lee). The fort flew white flags of surrender when Confederate Lt. General John C. Pemberton surrendered to Maj. General Ulysses S. Grant. Phipps’ company captain ripped the Confederate surrender flag and distributed pieces to his soldiers.

This background information was determined by historian Jeff Giambrone and Shane Keil, deputy director of the MDAH Museum Division. Keil and Giambrone are currently identifying artifacts for the Vicksburg Civil War Visitor Center that will eventually open in the historic River City. Keil and Megan Bankston, Vicksburg Project manager, are leading the development of the museum that will be adjacent to the Vicksburg National Military Park.

The rare flag artifact will one day be on display at the Vicksburg Civil War Center. Until then, it can be viewed among many other artifacts online. Visit MDAH’s Historic Objects Collection page to see more. To learn more about MDAH’s work on the Vicksburg project, visit here.

Historian Jeff Giambrone has a personal connection to the Mississippi Made temporary exhibit at the Two Mississippi Museums.

With an emphasis on innovation, industry, art, and entertainment, the exhibit tells the story of Mississippi in celebration of America250 – the national observance of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. 

The exhibit displays some 250 artifacts, including items donated by Giambrone, who is a cultural resource specialist at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, where he’s worked for nearly 14 years. 

Giambrone’s family has lived in central Mississippi since the 1920s, and he has donated many items to MDAH over the years. Three of these artifacts are now on display in Mississippi Made.

One is his dad’s 1967 credit card for The Emporium. Giambrone found it in a book, where it had been used as a bookmark. The Emporium was a department store in downtown Jackson until 1970. Giambrone’s father, J.T. Giambrone, was a banker, and he purchased suits at The Emporium.

Giambrone describes the downtown Jackson of his childhood as “vibrant.” He remembers the shift from department stores such as The Emporium to retail shopping centers like the Jackson Mall and the Metrocenter Mall – a shift that mirrored the national landscape. 

His two other items on display in Mississippi Made are both Jackson Mets artifacts. This farm team was a Class AA of the New York Mets and lasted from 1975 to 1990. Giambrone donated a baseball and a 1979 season program, both signed by members of the team. He remembers hanging out by the locker room to acquire the signatures of the popular baseball players. 

Giambrone was 12 when he caught the ball that is now on display. He and his family would attend many of these games at Smith-Wills Stadium. He describes the big crowds and atmosphere as “traditional Americana at its finest.” 

Farm teams like the Jackson Mets were often seen as a pipeline to the major leagues, which inspired even more excitement around local teams, he said.

 “These are the stories we need to preserve, particularly because they get lost the easiest,” Giambrone said. 

Anyone can donate to MDAH’s collections. To learn more, visit https://www.mdah.ms.gov/collections/donate-to-mdah-collections.

Mississippi Made is a free temporary exhibit on display until November 6, 2026. 

Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) is pleased to announce that The Eudora Welty Digital Archives is now available to the public on the MDAH website. This digitization project was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities with a matching contribution from the Eudora Welty Foundation. 

The Eudora Welty Digital Archives represents only a sample of Welty-related material housed at MDAH and features selections of correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, and other media related to Eudora Welty (1909-2001), master of the short story and one of America's greatest authors. 

"MDAH is grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for their generous grant which allowed for the construction of the world's most extensive digital archive of Eudora Welty materials," said Katie Blount, director of MDAH. "We are excited to share this incredible resource with researchers and fans of Eudora Welty."

Eudora Welty had a long relationship with the MDAH, making her first donation of manuscripts, papers, and photographs in 1957, and continuing to donate throughout her life. In addition to documents, the collection includes the house where Welty lived most of her life and wrote her greatest works, her furniture, art, and books, and the garden in which she worked alongside her mother. The complete collection is accessible at the MDAH.

Eudora Welty was born on April 13, 1909, the daughter of Christian Webb Welty and Chestina Andrews Welty. In 1925 the family moved to 1119 Pinehurst Street in Jackson, where Welty would reside until her death. Welty graduated from Jackson's Central High School in 1925, attended Mississippi State College for Women, University of Wisconsin, and Columbia University in New York City.

She received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for her book, The Optimist's Daughter—originally published in The New Yorker in 1969. Welty was also an accomplished photographer.

From 1955 to 1970, Eudora Welty published two short stories dealing with the Civil Rights Movement, "Where Is the Voice Coming From?" and "The Demonstrators," and worked on scenes for a novel while caring for her family.  

Eudora Welty died in Jackson on July 23, 2001. 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this database do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.                              

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

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) is accepting applications for the 2023 Eudora Welty Research Fellowship and the 2023 Medgar and Myrlie Evers Research Fellowship. The competitive scholarships may be used for research at MDAH for a minimum of two weeks during the summer.   

Offered in partnership with the Eudora Welty Foundation, the annual Eudora Welty Research Fellowship awards a $5,000 stipend to one graduate student to conduct research using the Eudora Welty Collection at MDAH for at least two weeks during the summer. The deadline is March 3, 2023. 

The Eudora Welty Collection is the world’s finest collection of materials related to Welty and one of the most varied literary collections in the United States. The collection is divided over forty-five series and includes manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, drawings, essays, family papers, and audio and visual material that spans Welty’s entire life. 

The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Research Fellowship is in partnership with the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute and awards a $5,000 stipend to one graduate student or faculty member within the first five years of their academic career to conduct research using the Medgar Wiley and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers at MDAH for at least two weeks during the summer. The deadline is March 24, 2023. 

The Medgar Wiley and Myrlie Beasley Evers Papers at MDAH include Evers and Beasley family papers dating from the early 1900s to around July 1964, when Myrlie Evers and her children moved to Claremont, California. The papers are divided into four subgroups: the papers of Medgar Evers as Mississippi field secretary of the NAACP; family papers of Medgar Evers; family papers of Myrlie Evers; and records relating to the case of the State of Mississippi v. Byron De La Beckwith. 

For more information about the fellowships visit https://www.mdah.ms.gov/careers-volunteering/fellowship-opportunities.  

For additional information and questions about the Eudora Welty Fellowship, email ecambonga@mdah.ms.gov. 

For additional information and questions about the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Fellowship, email lheller@mdah.ms.gov. 

MDAH offices and archives library will be closed Friday, November 11, in observance of Veterans Day.

Visit www.mdah.ms.gov/explore-mississippi for more information about our one-of-a-kind museums, historical sites and cultural attractions throughout the state. Explore our wide ranging Digital Archives herehttps://da.mdah.ms.gov/.