• WINTER 2016 The Twenty-Third Oxford Conference for the Book, March 2–4, 2016 On March 2–4, the Center will welcome poets, novel- ists, journalists, scholars, and readers from far and wide to Oxford and the University of Mississippi campus during The Twenty-Third the Oxford Conference for the Book. The three-day event, Oxford Conference for the Book which is free and open to the public, includes readings, panel discussions, and lectures by Pulitzer Prize–winning writers, first-time novelists, and distinguished academics. Again this year, Friday’s panels and readings will take place in the main courtroom of the historic Lafayette County courthouse on the Oxford Square. Wednesday’s and Thursday’s events will take place in the auditorium of the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics on the UM campus, and the conference will begin with a lecture and free luncheon, sponsored by the Friends of the Library, in the Faulkner Room in Archives and Special Collections in the J. D. Williams Library, also on the UM campus. Conference panels will explore a wide range of topics, in- cluding Mississippi history; childhood in the South; mem- oir writing; youth, activism, and life in the Mountain South; The University of Mississippi • Oxford, Mississippi poetic responses to Langston Hughes; a cultural and culi- March 2–4, 2016 nary history of the pig; Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird www.oxfordconferenceforthebook.com and Go Set a Watchman; the Hurricane Katrina crisis; and America’s continuing debate over science and religion. Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Square Books, Southern Documentary Project, Southern Foodways Alliance, Living Blues, University Museum, Lafayette County Literacy Council, Department of English, J. D. Williams Library, Friends of the J. D. Williams Library, Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors So far, this year’s writers include novelists Rick Bass, College, John and Renée Grisham Visiting Writers Fund, Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, Lafayette County & Oxford Public Library, Bobby Ann Mason, Margaret McMullan, Robert Gipe, Southern Literary Trail, and the Pulitzer Centennial Campfires Initiative. The conference is partially funded by the University of Mississippi, a contribution from the R&B Feder Foundation for the Kiese Laymon, and Taylor Brown; Mississippi historians Beaux Arts, a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, and promotional support from Visit Oxford. Minion K. C. Morrison and Dennis Mitchell; historian and gender studies scholar LaKisha Michelle Simmons; poets Richard Katrovas, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Caki Wilkinson, Jericho Brown, Katie Peterson, Beth Ann Thursday, March 3, and the day’s authors will be there to Fennelly, Chiyuma Elliott, and Derrick Harriell; histori- meet conference attendees and sign books. Each afternoon an Mark Essig; literary scholar Vereen Bell; and Pulitzer following the sessions Square Books will host book signings Prizewinners journalist Sheri Fink and historian Edward J. for that day’s authors. The Wednesday and Friday signings Larson. The lineup of authors and events will be complet- will be at Off Square Books. ed this February. There are four special social events on campus and in Thacker Mountain Radio will host a special Oxford town this year. On Wednesday, March 2, the Friends of Conference for the Book show at Off Square Books on the J. D. Williams Library will host an opening lunch in the Oxford Square that will include conference authors and visiting musicians. The show begins at 6:00 p.m. on Oxford Conference for the Book, continued on page 8 THE SOUTHERN REGISTER A Publication of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture • The University of Mississippi DIRECTOR’S COLUMN NEWSLETTER • PUBLISHEDPublished QUARTERLY QuarterlyOXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, by U.S.A • WINTER 2014 The Center for the Study of Southern Culture The University of Mississippi Telephone: 662-915-5993 Fax: 662-915-5814 Memory and race, memory and the South, memory and slav- E-mail: [email protected] ery, memory and monuments—questions of memory are all around us, and southernstudies.olemiss.edu www.facebook.com/SouthernStudies some of the most pressing issues are on university campuses. In November I Twitter and Instagram: @SouthernStudies was in the audience at a session of the annual meeting of the Southern Historical IN THIS ISSUE Association that discussed how people remember people and events from the Winter 2016 Reconstruction period. I suggested that maybe we should write and produce a historical documentary series along the lines of Treme or maybe Downton Abbey. 1 The Twenty-Third Oxford Such a series might encourage a greater sense of the issues, possibilities, and Conference for the Book fears through the lives of individual people. That’s not a bad idea. I don’t think 2 Director’s Column Americans have a sense of what Reconstruction looked like, or how the big 3 Living Blues News 4 Brown Bag Lunch and Lecture Series questions debated in national and state legislatures were part of everyday life for 6 Southern Studies Grad Student Wins people as they worked, moved around, formed or re-formed families, and dealt Three Minute Thesis Competition with churches and schools, and maybe a long series would help. 7 Celebrate Charles Reagan Wilson’s The more I think about what might challenge people to recognize the poten- Teaching Legacy and Support Students tial Reconstruction might have held, the more I think it would be useful to imag- 7 Spring Music of the South Symposium ine, in very specific ways, what might have happened if Reconstruction had tak- to Explore Traditional Music en a different direction. For example, in the early 1870s, Mississippi leaders con- 10 Mississippi Arts Commission Launches New Digital Publication sidered the possibility of reopening the University of Mississippi with no rules Mississippi Folklife about race. So, for a few hundred words, let’s imagine that had happened. 10 New Display at Rowan Oak features Imagine if the Mississippi Plan had been a term for how to make the state’s Nobel Prize Speech public university serve, listen to, and teach all people in the state, including 11 Center to Host Symposium on its African American majority. Imagine if Lieutenant Governor Alexander Clothing and Fashion in Southern History Davis, instead of being chased out of the state (destination unknown), took the 12 Study the South Publishes New Essays train from Jackson to Oxford because the university had invited him to teach a on the Elvis’s Vanishing Legacy and course in American politics. Imagine if the first two African American senators the Long Southern Past in the United States, Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, became lifelong visi- 14 Presenting Southern Culture tors to and supporters of the university, and imagine that the university hon- 17 In the Classroom: Reading List for ored them with centers in their names. SST 555: Foodways and Southern Culture Imagine if the university successfully recruited a superior student from 18 Rediscovering the Past Holly Springs in the 1870s, and a young Ida B. Wells developed her talent for 19 Southern Foodways Alliance challenging people in authority and publicizing abuses not in Memphis and Explores the Corn-Fed South in 2016 Chicago but at the university in her home state. 20 “Faulkner and the Native South” Imagine if in the early 1900s the university decided to become the nation’s Conference to Add Native Content leading center for studying the American South. And imagine if it found a to Guided Tours 20 Eudora Welty Awards way to hire W. E. B. Du Bois, the region’s best sociologist, away from Atlanta 21 Mississippi Arts Commission University, where he had helped to pioneer methods teaching students to Honors Scott Barretta with address problems through coursework and public events. Imagine if at the Excellence in the Arts Award University of Mississippi he became the first director of the Center for the 22 SFA Hosts Second Food Media Study of Southern Culture in, say, 1906, shortly after the publication of The South in Birmingham Souls of Black Folk. 22 In Memoriam Imagine if the university recruited young African American writers like 23 Reading the South Richard Wright and Margaret Walker as graduate students, or faculty, or writ- 27 Books of Note ers in residence. Imagine if the university had a conference on race in the REGISTER STAFF works of William Faulkner in the 1930s, when Faulkner was down the street writing about race. If you’re a football fan, imagine Marian Motley, a Georgia- Editor: James G. Thomas, Jr. born halfback bigger than the linemen, coming to the university and running Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee over defenders in the 1940s. If you’re a music fan, imagine university students, Lithographer: faculty, librarians, and magazine publishers collecting information on the RR Donnelley Magazine Group blues as the genre was developing in the early 1900s. The University complies with all applicable laws regarding affirmative action and equal opportunity Imagine that every new school was open to African American students in all its activities and programs and does not dis- criminate against anyone protected by law because of age, color, disability, national origin, race, reli- gion, sex, or status as a veteran or disabled veteran. continued on page 27 Page 2 Winter 2016 The Southern Register Living Blues News I have always been fascinated with microcosms of the blues—local cul- tures where the musicians inter- THE UNDERGROUND BLUES SCENE OF SOUTH LOS ANGELES act over and over, swapping licks and songs until the influence is evi- dent in everything they do. These can be found in rural locations like Bentonia, Mississippi, with its dis- Jam Session at Bell’s Blues Workshop. tinctive sound and songs passed from Henry Stuckey to Skip James to Jack Owens and now to Duck Holmes, or by Allen Larman Photographs by Julia LaRiva (unless noted otherwise) the Como/Senatobia, 45rpms courtesy of Allen Glass JULIA LA RIVA Living Blues co-founder Jim O’Neal has always acknowledged Los Angeles’ rich blues history.