Miscellaneous Conversations

On January 15, 2021, Travis Armstrong of Schertz, Texas, recorded a Zoom video conversation with Earnestine Armstrong-Bell, his cousin, first removed, from Prentiss, Mississippi. They discussed her life growing up on the family homestead in Jefferson Davis County in the mid-twentieth century. A subject of particular focus was her attendance at the Prentiss Normal and Industrial Institute, which included a Rosenwald School on campus. The MP4 file can be accessed using the links below.

This is an April 2017 interview with Macy B. Hart, founder of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute for Southern Jewish Life in Jackson, Mississippi. It was conducted by Larry Morrissey on behalf of Northern Light Productions for use by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in exhibits for the Museum of Mississippi History. Hart reflects on his personal experiences growing up as a member of the only Jewish family in Winona, Mississippi, during the 1950s and '60s and his family's history and work within the community. He also discusses his involvement with regional and national Jewish youth groups while in high school and college that led to his work as the administrator and then director of the Henry S. Jacobs Camp, the Jewish youth summer camp in Utica, Mississippi. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History converted the CD audio recordings into MP3 files for accessibility online.

On May 22-26, 2011, seventy-five men and women returned to Jackson, Mississippi, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Rides. In conjunction with an exhibit to commemorate the rides, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History offered the Freedom Riders and the public an opportunity to "Speak Now" and record memories of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. Twenty-eight individuals responded, resulting in twenty-six audio recordings and corresponding transcripts and fifty-six digital color photographs. One interview in the collection was restricted by request of participants. The recordings are not traditional oral histories but are instead recordings of individuals recounting their own experiences during an era of cultural, political, and social change. Topics other than the Freedom Rides include African American veterans, Mississippi Freedom Schools, Medgar and Charles Evers, and the Mississippi State Penitentiary.

Speak Now was recorded by MDAH employees Leanna Welch-Dawson and Amanda Lyons, transcribed by Nell Pace and other volunteers, and photographed by MDAH staff, all under the direction of audiovisual curator Celia Tisdale. Partial funding for the project was provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.