MHC Empowers Incarcerated Youth Through National History Day Initiative

Last year, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced a special initiative for state councils to become more involved in National History Day (NHD), a nationwide competition that encourages middle and high school students to develop creative, original historical research based around an annual theme. Students are encouraged to research primary and secondary sources through archives, digital archives, libraries, museums, and historic sites.

The MHC quickly partnered with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the state affiliate for the program, to bring workshops to teachers in Mississippi who are interested in having their students participate.

Through the additional funding, the MHC also launched its own version of NHD at the Youthful Offenders Unit (YOU) at Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, the first of its kind.

“We already had a relationship with the students and faculty at the YOU, so I inquired about providing resources so the students could create projects using the principles of primary research and NHD,” said MHC program officer Molly McMillan. “Thankfully, everybody we asked to be part of the program was enthusiastic to support it!”

For the last several weeks, Dr. Christina Thomas, Mellon Visiting Scholar at Jackson State University, has been meeting weekly with the students to teach them about Freedom Summer in Mississippi.

“The course has been a highlight for me over the past month,” said Dr. Thomas. “With the 60th anniversary approaching, teaching Freedom Summer through primary sources, documentaries, and oral histories has captured their attention. None of the students had heard of Freedom Summer before, but they became deeply interested in this civil rights initiative. Each week, they read different primary source documents, including Freedom Summer applications, watched documentary clips, and now have had the opportunity to interview two volunteers, with more oral histories scheduled in the coming weeks.”

The students participating are covering topics such as Freedom Schools, the Free Southern Theater, as well as individuals who impacted the movement such as Gail Falk, Judy Richardson, and Larry Rubin, all of whom will be interviewed by the students for their oral history portions of the project. Through scholarly articles and books, documentaries, and selected documents from the private archive from a civil rights veteran, the students are getting a unique, hands-on learning experience as historical researchers.