The blog of the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund for Blues, Music, and Justice contains updates about our research, memorialization, and historic preservation projects!
Miracle in Mississippi
In 2022, the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund received a grant from the MDNHA to write a National Register of Historic Places nomination for the jook joint of recording artist Alonzo Chatmon in Glen Allan, Mississippi. This blog post details the initial stage of the project.
W. I. Mitchell: Respectability and Resource Hoarding in Jim Crow Columbus
Shannon Evans examines the struggle for education for African Americans after the Civil War in Lowndes County, and she highlights the politics of respectability embraced by William Isaac Mitchell, an African American educator and community leader who served as principal of Union Academy from 1878 until his death in 1916.
Robert Gleed: Black Power & White Violence in Lowndes County
Shannon Evans examines the white supremacist violence and turmoil that plagued the political career of Robert Gleed, an African American politician from Lowndes County who served as Senator and Columbus Alderman during Reconstruction.
A Walk Amongst the Tombstones – Part II
In the second installment of Emily Hilliard's blog post, she details her efforts to mark the grave of Nathan Beauregard at Shiloh MB Church in Ashland, MS.
One Week at Mississippi Department of Archives & History
In this blog post, archival research specialist Dr. Abdul Ajibola takes a trip to the Mississippi Department of Archives & History in Jackson and makes some amazing discoveries in death certificates from 1912-1926.
Three Days in Mississippi Delta
In this blog post, Abdul Ajibola details the initial field research expedition of the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund for the American Historical Association grant in May 2022.
Sandfield Cemetery – Abandoned in Plain Sight
In this blog post, Shannon Evans examines the interments of Sandfield Cemetery, the oldest African American cemetery in Columbus, Mississippi.
An “Indescribable” Calamity
In this blog post, Shannon Evans examines the African American histories of Sandfield Cemetery in Columbus, MS. While rounding a curve near Berry, Alabama, the engine and four cars of an excursion train on the Southern Railroad jumped off the track, rolled over and over, smashing the coaches into kindling…
A Walk Amongst the Tombstones
Emily Hilliard is spearheading the effort to mark the grave of Nathan Beauregard, and this is the first in a series of blog posts detailing her work with the congregation at Shiloh MB Church in Ashland, Mississippi.
Reconciling the Blues King
Although the Mississippi Blues Trail marker installed in 2009 to purportedly further "racial reconciliation" and rehabilitate the state's image as an intransigent racist backwater claims that he was buried in Pelahatchie, Mississippi (based on the information written on his death certificate), his remains actually never made it back to the…
