Investing in the Work of Delta People to Build Strong Communities WWW.MSDII.ORG Summer 2005 DELTAVISION TV FEATURE The second season of DeltaVision The Delta from a Different Angle: hit the air waves throughout the Delta Region on July 10. NPR Tells of Hard Work, Homecomings and Hope Delta Region -- When National This episode features innovative Public Radio (NPR) Correspondent Listen at Delta leaders like Mayor Carl Redus Debbie Elliott decided to do a story www.msdi.org of Pine Bluff, Arkansas and Bolivar about the Mississippi Delta, she says County Administrator Adrian Brown she pitched a program “about an economy that had fallen of Mississippi. Both are the first apart.” Interviews with local people caused her to rethink the African Americans to hold these posi- angle of her story. tions of leadership in their communi- ties, and they both express clear “The story just got bigger,” Elliott recalls. “What I found most visions of how their experiences can interesting in my interviews was how people had such deep bring about positive change for the hope. People from outside the Delta might think it’s hopeless, region. but the people here love this place. And they’re not waiting for someone from the outside to come in and rescue them, they’re In a new feature on DeltaVision, using their own skills and resources to build their local Fabian Matthews explores the his- economies.” toric myth of Robert Johnson, who sold his soul to the devil at the leg- Debbie Elliott grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and she has endary Cross Roads. Host Dee Griffin always had a passion for the Mississippi Delta. When a new also takes viewers frontstage to the managing editor with an interest in rural stories came to NPR in Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale, 2004, Elliott began researching a story about the Delta’s declining Mississippi and shares fun facts economy. Elliott received a tip during her research that led her to about the Delta Region. contact Calvin Head, director of the West Holmes Community Development Organization (CDO) in Tchula, Mississippi. Look for DeltaVision on WLMT (UPN) in Memphis, TN; KARK “We’ve got to create our own opportunities,” Head told Elliott. (NBC) in Little Rock, AR; KARD “Our work is about empowering people to create opportunities (FOX) in Monroe, LA; WXVT (CBS) for themselves where none existed.” Calvin Head may work in in Greenville, MS; KASN (UPN) in the poorest county in Mississippi, but it is the community’s Little Rock/Pine Bluff, AR; KAIT assets--not deficits--on which he has built his organization. With (ABC) in Jonesboro, AR; and WAPT support from the Mid South Delta Initiative, West Holmes CDO (ABC) in Jackson, MS. Or watch has opened a daycare facility, a community store, an agricultural online at program, and a rehabilitation center. www.msdi.org/delta_vision These success stories tend to be ignored by national media. A recent report by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation stated that over three of every four network television news stories about rural GET DELT@LINKS IN America focus on crime. News reports in print and on television YOUR EMAIL rarely link rural life to agriculture, and Currier and Ives-like por- If you would rather receive the trayals of rural charm are balanced by depictions of an economi- online version of Delt@Links, cally challenged or socially marginalized environment. please send your request to: “I wanted to cover this story because the story of the Delta has [email protected] been under-covered by the media,” said Elliott. Continued on 2... RESOURCES FEATURE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Faith-BBased & Community “In the Delta, the history here was really, really rich -- a little ugly, but very rich -- and I don't think it's harmful for us to not Initiatives (FBCI) only know it, [but to] trumpet it,” said actor Morgan Freeman, Demonstration Projects during his interview with Elliott. Freeman is a native of The Arkansas Transitional Greenwood, Mississippi. “The Delta has always been sort of Employment Board recently mysterious. It's different from just about any other place on the announced the availability of $1.2 mil- planet, and I revel in it.” lion in funding to award professional services contracts for Faith-Based and The Delta has indeed had a complex history, and its people Community-Based Organizations to have experienced both pain and prosperity. The region was conduct Demonstration Projects in the once home to a thriving agricultural economy and was also a delivery of social service programs. battle ground for many civil rights struggles. All Things Proposals are due on Monday, Considered uncovered how business owners and community September 26, 2005. groups are combating the negative stereotypes that have been branded on the Delta. More at www.teaboard.net Phone (501) 682-6051 Viking Corporation was profiled in the program as an exam- ple of the kinds of successful enterprises that thrive in the Delta. Flemming Leadership Viking Corporation, of Greenwood, Mississippi is a homegrown Institute maker of luxury kitchen appliances and employs 1,100 people. The Center for Policy Alternatives' “People think our corporate office is probably in a double-wide Flemming Leadership Institute is now trailer, and our factory’s over in a tin shed,” said Viking founder accepting applications for the 2006 Fred Carl, Jr. as he showed Elliott Viking’s headquarters build- Class. The Institute helps state legisla- ing, a beautiful structure with large skylights that faces the tors sharpen their understanding of Yazoo River. “I’ve always been drawn back to the Delta. I’m their own values and how those values comfortable here, and I don’t think that Viking could have hap- drive their decisions as elected leaders. pened anywhere else but here. I’m sincere about that. I don’t The deadline for the 2006 application is think I could have done it anywhere else.” Recently, the compa- September 30, 2005. ny also set up a luxury hotel downtown to house visiting clients. More at www.stateaction.org/leadership/flemming/a The Delta is known as the birthplace of the blues and many pplication communities are developing strategies to market themselves as heritage tourism destinations. Greenville, Mississippi hosts the Inventing Civic Solutions Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival each year in A new publication from the Pew September. This is the sec- Partnership for Civic Change serves as ond oldest blues festival a “how-to” guide on launching and in the country. Lake sustaining successful community pro- Providence, Louisiana grams. Inventing Civic Solutions fea- hosts its annual Soul tures eight innovative community ini- Food and Heritage tiatives. Festival on the first Saturday in June. More at www.pew-partnership.org Other communities cele- YouthActionNet brate the natural beauty YouthActionNet is offering awards to that has been preserved youth leaders and projects that pro- in rural areas of the Delta. mote social change and connect youth Thanks to the recent with local communities. To be eligible rediscovery of the ivory- The Big Woods Birding Festival in for the $500 award, youth-led projects billed woodpecker in the Clarendon, Arkansas should have clearly defined goals and Arkansas Delta, the Big the potential for growth and/or further Woods Birding Festival replication. Deadline: October 1st. held each year in Clarendon, Arkansas witnessed record-break- ing attendance, and the national news media focused its atten- More at www.youthactionnet.org tion on another positive development in the Delta. 2 BUSINESS AND ASSETS TOURISM Quitman, Mississippi Woman Receives High Honor Soul Food and Heritage in Quitman, MS -- Daisy Q. White was surprised when she Lake Providence, Louisiana received her invitation to the annual meeting of the National Lake Providence, LA -- On June Federation of Community Development Credit Unions. Upon 11th, the East Carroll Parish Cultural opening the program, the 89-year-old retired teacher, discov- Tourism Initiative sponsored its ered that she had been nominated for the organization's high- annual Soul Food and Heritage est honor, the 2005 Annie Vamper "Helping Hands" Award. Festival. This festival is one strategy the organization uses to both stimu- Since 1993, the Federation has celebrated the people whose late the local economy and bring work for the credit union movement carries on the legacy of together a community that has been Annie Vamper, whose career encompassed virtually every role traditionally divided by race. of the credit union movement over more than 30 years. “Our goal is to involve the entire White's involvement with First Delta Federal Credit Union community,” said Bobbie Facen, exec- dates back to the early 1980s when her church sponsored the utive director of the Initiative. “So we first meeting of the Quitman County Federal Credit Union's have community organizations, gov- organizing committee. Thanks in part to the hard work of ernmental bodies, educational enti- White and several other volunteers, the credit union outgrew ties, law enforcement personnel and its original name, making the name change necessary in 2004. businesses that partner with the White has remained a steadfast team member making sure to Initiative to sponsor the festival.” attend board meetings, trainings and regulatory compliance meetings. White served as director of the credit union board This year, 67 local residents volun- and on several committees and until recently, she actively par- teered to work booths and provide ticipated in the credit union's supervisory committee. She entertainment, and over 2,500 visitors stepped down in 2004 to make way for another generation of attended the festival. Visitors came community development credit union leaders. from the surrounding parishes as well as Texas, Arkansas, and “I had been on there more than 20 years, and I said, ‘well that Mississippi.