This dynamic session will showcase how three universities in Mississippi promoted and participated in the “Created Equal: America’s Civil Rights Struggle” grant. This film and discussion series is part of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History’s effort to continue the conversation about civil rights and equality in the United States. Participants will learn about the grant process, challenges and highlights from the events, and lessons learned through collaboration. In addition to the films and their follow-up discussions, the libraries offered supplemental programming and used social media to garner more publicity and generate more discussion for these events. We will discuss the in-person methods and media outlets used to keep the conversation about civil rights going on our respective campuses, and will discuss how outreach and social media factored in the evaluation of our efforts and the planning for future programming.

2. Created with Haiku Deck
Sheeji Kathuria and Hillary Richardson
Mississippi State University Libraries

3. MSU Libraries
and
African American
Studies

4. Promotion

5. Assessment

6. Photo by rishibando - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/27590002@N04 Created with Haiku Deck

7. Since Created Equal
• Enhance our digital collections
• AAS 3043, Modern Civil Rights
Law class
• Starkville Civil Rights project

9. •Freedom Summer Conference
•Civil Rights Research @ MSU
•MSU Libraries and African American Studies
Relationship

10. Shugana Williams
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
Photo by Village Square - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License https://www.flickr.com/photos/38971527@N04 Created with Haiku Deck

11. coastal connections
www.blog.al.com
www.usa.gov on flickr
William Newell Collection
Mississippi Digital Library
National Geographic
www.usa.gov on flickr
www.usagov on flickr
www.usa.gov on flickr

12. Created Equal Film Selections
USM Gulf Coast

13. Slavery by Another Name spans eight decades,
from 1865 to 1945, revealing the interlocking forces in
both the South and the North that enabled this
“neoslavery” to begin and persist.

14. Our presenters
Dr. Emily Clark
Tulane
University
Dr. Kern Jackson
University of
South Alabama
Dr. James Pat Smith
Southern Miss

15. Changing America exhibition
National
Endowment for the
Humanities
American Library
Association
Public Programs Office
Smithsonian’s National
Museum of
African American History &
Culture
National Museum of
American History

16. Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

17. Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

18. Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

19. Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

20. Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

21. Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

22. Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

23. Changing America public programs
• History of the Seafood Industry by Dr. Deanne Nuwer,
Southern Miss
• Integrating the Military: African-Americans, Women,
and Gays by Douglas Bristol, Southern Miss
• African-American Genealogy Workshop by Anne
Anderson and Joyce Griffith of the Ocean Springs
Genealogical Society
• Poetry Reading

24. publicity
Changing America exhibition & Created Equal film series
• University Communications
• Mississippi Gulf Coast Tourism website
• Mississippi Public Broadcast weekend announcements
• Media Outlets:
• Sun Herald Newspaper
• Sea Coast Echo
• Mississippi Public Broadcasting
• WLOX
• WXXV Fox

25. local partners
Changing America exhibition & Created Equal film series
• Southern Miss Gulf Coast Libraries
• Evelyn Gandy Cultural Center
• Long Beach Biloxi Library
• Biloxi Public Library
• College of Arts & Letters at Southern Miss
• Student Government Association at Southern Miss Gulf
Coast
• Think Center at Southern Miss Gulf Coast

26. overview
Changing America exhibition & Created Equal film series
• Mistakes
• Time
• Other programs in the community
• Lectures were held during the day
• Relationship with faculty (E-mail doesn’t work)
• Good stuff
• Publicity
• Conversations
• Revealed local history

27. Melissa Dennis, University of Mississippi Libraries
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29. Photo by jenny downing - Creative Commons Attribution License https://www.flickr.com/photos/7941044@N06 Created with Haiku Deck

30. Local Partners
Lafayette County and Oxford
Public Library
William Winter Institute for
Racial Reconciliation
Center for the Study of
Southern Culture

33. Photo by Stuck in Customs - Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License https://www.flickr.com/photos/95572727@N00 Created with Haiku Deck

34. Freedom Summer

37. Learn more about Created Equal

38. Questions?
Melissa Dennis mdennis@olemiss.edu
Sheeji Kathuria skathuria@library.msstate.edu
Hillary A. H. Richardson hrichardson@library.msstate.edu
Shugana Williams shugana.williams@mgccc.edu