![\"JoAnne](\"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/09\/Unita-Blackwell-Marker-10-e1473190163787.jpg\")
<\/a>JoAnne Prichard Morris shares thoughts about Unita Blackwell.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cThe notion is that somebody from very, very humble beginnings cannot only rise to be the mayor of her community, but to take delegations all over the world as a goodwill ambassador, to work for childcare, work for better education, is a statement that it doesn\u2019t matter where you\u2019re from, it\u2019s where you\u2019re going,\u201d said Congressman Bennie Thompson, U.S. Representative for Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District.<\/p>\n
Blackwell was born in Lula, Mississippi in 1933. Her parents Virda Mae and Willie Brown were sharecroppers. She married Jeremiah Blackwell in 1958, and in 1960, they moved into a shotgun house in Mayersville inherited from Jeremiah\u2019s grandmother. It was here that Blackwell became involved in politics, civil rights and a life of building a stronger community for all.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just kept on going and learning and experiencing new things,\u201d said JoAnne Prichard Morris, who assisted Blackwell in writing her autobiography “Barefootin\u2019: Life Lessons from the Road to Freedom.” \u201cShe was quite simply the most courageous, most creative, most inspiring, smartest, funniest person I\u2019ve ever known.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mississippi Freedom Trail was created in 2011 to commemorate the people and places in the state that played a pivotal role in the American Civil Rights Movement. The first Freedom Trail markers were unveiled in conjunction with the Mississippi Freedom 50th Foundation\u2019s 2011 reunion activities for the 1961 Freedom Riders. The Blackwell marker is the 22nd placed in the state, and was supported in part by partnership development funds from the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area in conjunction with support from Visit Mississippi, the Town of Mayersville and Mississippi\u2019s Lower Delta Partnership.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area is about telling significant stories here in our region, and the story of Unita Blackwell truly is a significant story,\u201d said Dr. Rolando Herts, Director of The Delta Center for Culture and Learning, the management entity for the MDNHA. \u201cThe fact that the MDNHA could support this marker being installed here for ages to come so that the people of Mayersville – particularly the youth – can learn about her story and her legacy, truly is a great asset to the community and to our region.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a>An attendee looks at a brochure illustrating the locations of more than 30 Freedom Trail markers.<\/p><\/div>\n
The MDNHA includes 18 counties that contain land located in the alluvial floodplain of the Mississippi Delta: Bolivar, Carroll, Coahoma, DeSoto, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Leflore, Panola, Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tunica, Warren, Washington and Yazoo. The MDNHA was designated by U.S. Congress in 2009 and is governed by a board of directors representing agencies and organizations defined in the congressional legislation. More information about the MDNHA, including the complete approved management plan, is available at www.msdeltaheritage.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n The mission of The Delta Center is to promote greater understanding of Mississippi Delta culture and history and its significance to the world through education, partnerships and community engagement. The Delta Center serves as the management entity of the MDNHA and is the home of the International Delta Blues Project and the National Endowment for the Humanities \u201cMost Southern Place On Earth\u201d workshops. For more information, visit http:\/\/deltacenterdsu.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Issaquena County town of Mayersville recently honored one of it’s bravest citizens, former mayor Unita Blackwell,\u00a0with a\u00a0Mississippi Freedom Trail marker dedicated to her. The marker\u00a0was unveiled during a ceremony…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":71889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[412,362,1627],"class_list":["post-71883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-delta-center","tag-delta-center-for-culture-and-learning","tag-mississippi-delta-national-heritage-area","tag-mississippi-freedom-trail"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71883"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71896,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71883\/revisions\/71896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}