Journeying South: Museums, Educators, and Untold Histories of the Mississippi Delta

• In Event: Unforgetting Stories in Education and Reimagining the Future: Intersections of (Auto)biography, Learning, Teaching, and Empowerment

Abstract

This paper chronicles my journey South to the Mound Bayou Museum of African American Culture and History to explore how local and national histories are taught, curated, and preserved. In an age of increasing educational and public erasure, The Mound Bayou Museum is the first “Exposeum” of its kind dedicated to revealing hidden histories. Founded in 1887 by Isaiah T. Montgomery and Benjamin T. Green, Mound Bayou is one of America’s oldest Black towns and was a leader in innovative technology and agricultural capital. I use a phenomenological lens with autoethnographic inquiry to situate place and space and center critical race museology as a guiding framework. This research engages critical histories and preservation from the Mississippi Delta and beyond.

Author

• Lori M. West, Knox College