Memorialization Gathering (June 2024)

The Lafayette Community Remembrance Project (LCRP) held a gathering on June 7-9, 2024, as a space to connect different Mississippi communities doing memorialization work around historical racial injustice and to serve as a learning space for those interested in such a process.

This gathering helped to grow a robust community of practice around memorialization and historical memory work in Mississippi. The program was structured around three questions:

• Why memorialization and historical memory work is important;

• What memorialization and historical memory work is currently happening in communities across Mississippi; and

• How can communities across Mississippi start, grow, and sustain memorialization and historical memory work in their home counties?

WHEN: June 7-9, 2024 

WHERE:  Oxford, Lafayette County, Mississippi

VENUE: All events took place at the Jackson Avenue Center, 1111 Jackson Avenue, Oxford, MS unless otherwise noted.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

Friday, June 7

• 3:00 pm  - Registration / Check-in

• 4:00-5:30  - Film screening & discussion 

  • Film: "Sites of Memory"

  • Director: Antonio Tarrell

  • Q&A featuring Dianne Jones and Murrell Godfrey, moderated by April Grayson

• 6:00-7:30 - Welcome plenary and dinner

  • Keynote “What did the people do?” - B. Brian Foster, PhD

• 7:30-9:00 - Film screening & discussion

  • FIlm: "5: A Mother's Journey"

  • Director: Talamieka Brice

  • Q&A moderated by Castel Sweet

Saturday, June 8

• 8:30-9:30 - Morning plenary

  • Darrin “DJ” Sims, Director of the Truth and Transformation Initiative, National Center for Civil & Human Rights

• 9:45-11:30 - Community building / Networking / World Café

• 11:30-1:00 - Lunch plenary - "Working with Elected Officials" panel

• 1:15-2:30 - Breakout sessions  - Block 1 (3 choices)

  • Engaging Apathetic White Audiences - Nichole Argo

  • Unmasked: Designing an Anti-Lynching Art Exhibit - Alex Lichtenstein

  • Case Study: Laurel, Mississippi “Defeating Exceptionalism: How Memorialization Placed Laurel, Mississippi in its Proper Context” - Marian Allen & Derrion Arrington

• 2:45-4:00 - Breakout session - Block 2 (3 choices)

  • Communities & Descendants Working Together - Dianne Jones, Tyrone Higginbottom, Delois Hilson-Wright, Terri Lipford, Tina Washington, April Grayson

  • Oral History - Speaking for the Ancestors: The Role of Narrative Storytelling in Memorialization and Public History Work - Rhondalyn Peairs

  • From Local to National: The Emmett Till Interpretive Center - Benjamin Saulsberry & Patrick Weems

• 4:15-5:30 - Panel: State Agency Assistance for Communities

  • Chris Goodwin, Director for the Special Projects, Mississippi Department of Archives and History

  • Archie Skiffer, Senior Archivist, Mississippi Department of Archives and History

  • John Spann, Program & Outreach Officer, Mississippi Humanities Council

  • Moderated by April Grayson

• 6:00-9:00 - Oxford Linen on the Lawn

  • VENUE: Old Armory Pavilion, 1801 University Ave, Oxford, MS 38655

  • A community concert hosted by Oxford Juneteenth featuring live music by The Soul Tones.

Sunday, June 9

• VENUE: Old Armory Pavilion, 1801 University Ave, Oxford, MS 38655

• 9:00-10:30 - Closing plenary gathering and breakfast

  • Address by Rev. Marcia Cole

  • Music by Delois Hilson-Wright and Tina Washington (granddaughters of Elwood Higginbottom)

  • Music by Effie Burt

• 10:45-12:15 - Tours of Oxford sites of memory