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DSU College of Education holds reception for project participants

By September 25, 2008General

Student interviewers include: (front row, from left) Keston Gordon, 6th-grader from Moorhead, Caterica Cannon, 9th-grader from Ruleville; Cri’Shon Thompson, 4th-grader from Inverness;(middle row, from left) Lashonda Ervin, 8th-grader from Inverness; Denzel Weatherspoon, 9th-grader from Ruleville ; and Elliot Winford, 9th-grader from Cleveland. Dr. Cheryl Pinkney (back row, at left), assistant superintendent, Sunflower County School District, and Dr. Jennetta Waddell (back row, at right), chair Division of Teacher Education at Delta State University, are the project coordinators.

Delta State’s College of Education recently held a reception to celebrate a Year of Delta Heritage project. “Connecting the Generations Through Untold Stories: A Visual and Oral History Portraying the People of the Delta” has been a partnership project with the College of Education and the Sunflower County School District to collect and present oral and visual histories of the people of the Mississippi Delta.

Seven Sunflower County students were trained to interview Sunflower County residents about their memories of the Civil Rights Era. The goal of the project is two-fold: first, to capture the life stories and, second, to assist Sunflower County students in better understanding the historical context of the place in which they live.

The reception celebrated the first phase of the project, which was the completion of the interviews. The second phase of the project will center on the production of a documentary film that will discuss the themes identified in the interviews. A final phase will focus on the development of a curriculum unit for use in elementary and secondary schools.

The reception was held at the Charles W. Capps, Jr. Archives and Museum on the Delta State campus.

Funding and support for the project was provided by the Delta State University Center for Culture and Learning-Year of Delta Heritage; Delta State University College of Education; The Mississippi Humanities Council; the Sunflower County School District; and Walmart.