When it was first published in hardback in 1994 (with paperback published in 1995), John Dittmer’s _Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi_ made a tremendous impact in the scholarship of the Mississippi civil rights movement. While working at Tougaloo and later at Brown and DePauw, Dittmer collected oral histories and consulted countless archival repositories and newspaper articles related to the Mississippi movement. His detailed and careful review of the Mississippi movement from the post-World War II era through the late 1960s, reflected the passion and care that he brought to this story as both a scholar and longtime resident of the state. His book was praised by scholars and activists alike, winning the Bancroft Prize in American History, the historical profession’s highest prize for any book written on American History, in 1995.
Sadly Dr. Dittmer passed in July 2024. Instead of holding a retrospective symposium, the Mississippi Historical Society will now be hosting a panel at its annual meeting that will feature prominent scholars of the Mississippi civil rights movement whose research and scholarly trajectories were impacted by Dittmer and Local People. These panelists represent different eras of scholarship that were impacted.
This panel will be held at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson during the Mississippi Historical Society’s annual meeting; however, this panel will be free and open to the public (unlike the rest of the conference).
