The Emmett Till Memorial Commission
A Conversation with the Philadelphia Coalition
The following is an article that will appear in "The Wellspring", a newsletter for the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.
Respect Mississippi
Respect Mississippi is a new student organization created to address a problem we face at the University of Mississippi: lack of diversity.
The group started out of a discussion in my living room with some other Ole Miss students about the irrational amount of segregation that exists on our campus. We called the group “Respect Mississippi” because people outside of the state do not “Respect Mississippi” due to terrible stigmas associated with the place we love and call home. In addition, people inside the state, through ignorance and racism, do not respect their fellow Mississippians. After a couple of more discussions, we decided to invite Susan Glisson and Annette Hollowell from The William Winter Institute to join us. Since then, the Winter Institute has helped us in every way possible to reconcile a much divided campus.
The William Winter Institute and Susan have helped the group make strides in setting goals and addressing issues on campus. Respect Mississippi currently has the goal of promoting diversity through dialogue, educational projects, and service in the community.
The first way the group has addressed diversity on campus is by inviting members of the Black Student Union, the International Student Organization, and multiple Greek groups to discuss issues that face Ole Miss about racial diversity. The group does not want to stop with dialogue, but instead, we feel the best way to bring people together is by working together to accomplish goals.
Some of the goals Respect Mississippi has created for itself are projects which further education. The first education project is a Civil Rights play written by Ron McDaniel, a former intern at the William Winter Institute. Once under way, the play will travel to schools around the state to teach students about the Civil Rights era. Along with the play, students from Respect have been helping the Winter Institute research for the current Civil Rights County Project. The goal of the project is to research the counties of Mississippi in order to make an attempt to preserve historical information about the Civil Rights Movement. Along with educational projects, we want to make sure the organization reaches out to the community.
Our first service project will be in conjunction with Manna, a food ministry through the Episcopal Church of Ole Miss. Currently, Manna provides meals to around 100 people every Thursday. Respect Mississippi wants to add to Manna by delivering food, but then taking the next step of sitting down and eating a meal with the people to whom Manna delivers its food. We feel that, through this experience, Respect Mississippi members will gain invaluable knowledge, and the recipients of the food will have some company while eating. Eventually, we hope friendships can be formed.
Currently, Respect Mississippi is a University of Mississippi organization, but we have been talking with students at other Mississippi schools who are interested in starting chapters of Respect Mississippi to explore racial reconciliation. It is past time for our generation of Mississippians to learn that our differences are worth understanding, and the knowledge that comes from our differences will build a stronger, better future for our great state.
