CREATING A COMMEMORATIVE SITE ON THE HERITAGE AND MEMORY OF COTTON PICKERS IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA: A COMMUNITY DRIVEN HISTORICAL PRESERVATION MOVEMENT

Abstract

Interpreting the economic impact of the cotton pickin’ culture in the Mississippi Delta presents challenges few scholars have taken on without trepidation and few public historians have ever addressed. Cotton pickers of pre-and post-Reconstruction eras are rarely depicted in public arts exhibits, history exhibits, or educational institutions. When interpreted the myopic recollections of the planter society dominate, thereby relegating cotton pickers to an insignificant role. Such marginalization ultimately distorts the memory of American history, giving cause for reconsideration of the “American exceptionalism” narrative, and our collective commemoration of “greatness.”

In a general sense, historians do explore memories of a particular narrative in order to provide an interpretive depiction that is truthful, thorough and done with integrity as mandated by this discipline. However, when it comes to the complex mosaic of the Mississippi Delta, only the parameters of this narrative have been documented and or promoted in recent years. The National Park Service substantiates this position in reports that no contemporary historian has written a historical synthesis of the Mississippi Delta, in the context of America’s growth and development, even as “what people love about America has come from the [Mississippi] Delta.”

This dissertation gives voice to this historical void by addressing the growth of the American economy and cultural heritage through the lens of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. This work looks at all of its developmental stages that support the charge and the necessity to build a historic site about cotton pickers in that location based on what is determinably an authentic and truly exceptional American narrative.

John Bodnar defines memory as “a body of beliefs and ideas about the past that help a public or society understand both its past and its present, and, by implication, its future.” The proposed Cotton Pickers National Memorial is a step forward to correcting the national memory of the Mississippi Delta and its agricultural way of life.