Mississippi Museums and Education Organizations Showcase Pride and Resilience through Local Histories and Community Education Programs

The Smithsonian Regional Collaboratives team encountered a network of passionate people telling local stories and prioritizing community needs in a series of visits this summer

The Smithsonian Regional Collaboratives (SRC) team serves as a catalyst for deepened and sustained engagement between the Smithsonian and communities throughout the nation. Situated within the Office of the Under Secretary for Education, the SRC meets communities where they are to co-develop programs and projects that respond to community needs and priorities.    

The team, which consists of Jennifer Brundage, formerly of Smithsonian SITES | Affiliations and Sherrell Williams, formerly of Smithsonian Science Education Center, has been charged with strengthening regional relationships and networks within six regions (Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Midwest, West, and U.S. territories) in a sustainable way.

---

To launch regional collaborative conversations in the Southeast, the SRC identified Mississippi as an ideal place to host an initial stakeholder convening primarily because of the overwhelming cluster of activities that are scheduled to occur throughout the state in 2026. We also noted that the Smithsonian has over ten years of history of engaging with Mississippians across sectors and needs, and we hope to build on that history, leveraging it as a sturdy foundation for deeper engagement and broader collaboration.  

In August, the SRC traveled approximately three hundred miles between Cleveland, Mississippi and Ocean Springs, Mississippi to better understand the culture and community that exists in the Delta, Capital River, and the Gulf Coast regions of the state. After a weeklong trip, it became abundantly clear that Mississippians are dedicated to preserving the stories of their local heroes. 

During our first two days in the Delta, we met with C.T. Salazar, University Archivist, and Mandy Truman, Director of the Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University. We visited various historic sites including the University’s Chinese Heritage Museum, the house of civil rights leader, Amzie Moore, and The New World District in Clarksdale, Mississippi.  

Through the historical accountings shared with us, we learned about the business prowess of the Chinese immigrants who were seeking economic opportunity in the Delta, as well as civil rights leaders like Amzie Moore and Aaron Henry who leveraged the tactical training, resources, and skills acquired during their time serving in World War II to organize and advocate for African American civil rights in the south.   

We also had conversations with Hermon Johnson, Sr. and his sons, Hermon Johnson, Jr. and Darryl Johnson, co-founders of the Mound Bayou African American Museum – a museum meant to share the extraordinary history of the first all-Black U.S. town founded by Isaiah T. Montgomery and Benjamin Greene in 1887.  

Later in the week, we traveled south to Jackson, Mississippi. There we met with nearly 30 community partners representing cultural and educational ecosystems in the state to host a listening session focused on identifying the specific priorities within their respective areas of influence. We also had the pleasure of meeting with Robbie Luckett, Director of the Center of Federated Organizations (COFO) Civil Rights Education Center at Jackson State University. This facility, now operating as a museum and educational center, once served as the headquarters for civil rights organizations in Mississippi including, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). All along its walls were images and information detailing the pivotal moments in African American civil rights history. 

During our final stretch of our Mississippi trip, we spent time in the Gulf Coast region. There we met with Mattie Codling, Executive Director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art and were introduced to the ideologies and artwork of Walter Anderson, whose pieces are in the community museum and art spaces named in his honor. Walter Anderson, a formally trained artist, used art as a vehicle to communicate his admiration for natural landscapes, time and space, mythology, and cultural pluralism. His unorthodox ideas and outlook were not widely accepted by the community in the 1920s, but today, his art serves as a conversational tool to interrogate current issues and helps visitors understand the value of preserving the past to inform our future. 

Following our trip to Walter Anderson Museum, we were introduced to so many other present-day local heroes, who are using science, art, history, culture, and education to solve the challenges of today.  

Julie Cwilka, Director of the University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for STEM Education, and her team of educators, introduced us to a range of education professionals at the Pascagoula River Audubon Center, Moss Point Career Technical Education High School, Boys and Girls Clubs of the Gulf Coast, and Mississippi State University Coastal Research and Extension Center. In each location, educators demonstrated how they are taking an interdisciplinary approach to their work to strengthen community members’ relationships with the natural environment. Ranging from wildlife conservation, documentation of local oral histories to teaching aquaculture and research related to native plant production, these educators are supporting the next generation to develop the skills they need to design solutions for current needs in the Gulf. 

In reflection of our travels, we have come to understand that Mississippi, like so many other communities across the nation, carries a story of resilience, and we are so glad that we were able to gain a better understanding of the history that undergirds that deep Mississippi pride that we encountered during our time there.  

Our hope is that we will be able to co-create statewide programs that address some of the expressed priorities of community members focused on increasing exposure and experiential learning in K-12 learning environments, increasing youth development programming, amplifying community stories, and supporting statewide conservation knowledge and awareness building. This trip confirmed we’re off to a great start! 

Sherrell Williams | Read More

Sherrell Williams is a Lead Project Specialist for Partnerships and Public Engagement within the Office of the Under Secretary for Education (OUSE) where she is responsible for fostering regional collaborations between the Smithsonian and communities throughout the US. Prior to transitioning to OUSE, Sherrell spent four years as a Program Manager at the Smithsonian Science Education Center where she managed programs that supported education systems in ensuring students, and teachers, feel included and recognize themselves in K-12 STEM educational environments. Before arriving at the Smithsonian, she managed family engagement and community programming at Turning the Page, a small Washington, DC nonprofit, where she helped strengthen relationships between public schools and the families they serve. Throughout her entire educational career, Sherrell has been committed to connecting people to resources that inspire curiosity, spark meaningful conversation, and bring joy.