1/ I think today is a good day to follow the advice of @KevinMKruse and talk about some of the work that I’ve been doing here in Oxford, MS. First of all, I’m a part of the University of Mississippi Slavery Research Group.
2/ As a part of that group, we have developed an outreach program to the local African American community to help foster dialogue and engagement between the university and the community. We’re just getting started, but we took a big step Saturday.
3/ We planned a trip to Montgomery to visit the @eji_org memorial and museum. This fell right in line with a major event in the community as just a week prior Oxford held an unveiling for a marker honoring the last lynching victim in Lafayette County.
4/ His name was Elwood Higginbottom. Here’s the story on that event: m.oxfordeagle.com/2018/10/30/rem…
5/ So, we set out early Saturday morning with a charter bus full of people. It was a wonderful mixture of local community members, a few grad students and faculty, and about 15 high school students (their history teacher is a member of our dialogue group).
6/ Ages ranged from 80s-14. On the way there, I had suggested we show a documentary from 1965 which I had come across in my research. It is set in Oxford and I figured it would be a great way to get some conversation going on the bus and show the young...
7/ ...students what Oxford looked like in the 1960s. Further, I knew the older generation would know many of the people interviewed and they could speak about who those people were.
8/ It turned out to be a home run. Many of the elders got up and walked to the front of the bus to take the microphone and tell stories about Della Davidson and Rev. Redmond. They also talked about their personal experiences during the James Meredith...
9/ ...integration and riot which tore across Oxford in 1962. This discussion then led to us talking about sources and how historians examine them. As you’ll notice, if you watch the film, there is no mention of Meredith or what happened just 3yrs prior.
10/ We arrived in Montgomery and went to both the memorial and the museum which were both incredibly powerful. Seriously, everyone should go if you get anywhere near Montgomery. Here is a photo of the Lafayette County memorial. 
11/ On the way back, something incredible happened. We offered up some movie choices and the bus voted on Selma which seemed fitting. After the movie, some of the high school students asked Effie Burt, who sang “Strange Fruit,” at the...
12/ Higginbottom memorial service if she could teach us some of the songs from the Civil Rights Movement. What followed can only be described as glorious as she led the bus in singing “We Shall Overcome,” “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” and others.
13/ Then the high school students, who had been quiet all the way there, started coming forward and leading the bus in songs. One even had googled Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” and recited that for us all. Here’s what I was able to capture:
14/ As we were coming back into Oxford, we encouraged everyone to go vote today. HS students who were old enough to get their friends and go vote, if they weren’t old enough yet then make sure their parents did and their friends who could.
15/ I think it was a powerful experience for all involved and demonstrated the power of history, particularly public history, and how it can be a transformative force. I voted absentee (SC) last week, but I’m going out this afternoon to do whatever I can...
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