The Delta State University Delta Center for Culture and Learning recently welcomed 40 teachers from across the country to its June workshop entitled The Most Southern Place on Earth: History, Music and Culture of the Mississippi Delta. These scholars will be in the Delta for six days, studying aspects of its heritage from the Blues and the Flood of 1927 through the Civil Rights Movement, the Great Migration, and the Delta’s literary and religious heritage. They will sample Delta foods from hot tamales to Kool-Aid pickles, and listened to visiting lecturers. Most of these teachers include Delta stories in their curriculum and some teach classes focused on the Blues, Civil Rights History, or other Delta themes.
This workshop is made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities, through their Landmarks in American History and Culture Program. K-12 teachers from any American school are eligible to participate, and each year, applications come from the entire country. Twenty states are represented in this group including teachers from Mississippi and the Mississippi Delta. The opening reception for this workshop was held at the Martin and Sue King Railroad Museum in Cleveland, and was supported by the Cleveland Nehi Bottling Company, Cecil’s Liquors, Cleveland/Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce, the Parlor Purlers of Calvary Episcopal Church, Rachel Tate and Gregory Cole, Lee Aylward, and Bonnie Brown. The Delta Center for Culture and Learning is the manager of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area. For information about the Center, the National Heritage Area, or NEH workshops, contact the Delta Center at 662-846-4311.
