More than one hundred people traveled to Vicksburg’s Southern Cultural Heritage Center from Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Mississippi to celebrate the release of A Mississippi Portrait: Farm Security Administration Photographs, 1935-1940, a CD-Rom created by the staff at the Center’s Southern Media Archive. They came to see photographs of places that have changed dramatically, or vanished entirely, in the course of the past six decades. They also came to these places--farms, plantations, factories, towns-- to learn about them from people who lived there when the photographs were made and people living there now. A number of teachers attended the event and discussed ways of using A Mississippi Portrait in the classroom. Teachers received a complimentary copy of the CD-Rom and sample lesson plans to try out in their classrooms.

   Several former residents of the Delta Cooperative Farm in Bolivar County interpreted a group of 1936 photographs made at the Cooperative made by FSA photographer Dorothea Lange. Most of them were meeting for the first time since the 1930s, so they held a spontaneous reunion on the spot. Roger Helms actually recognized himself as a child in one of the photographs (a claim backed by his brother Bailey, who also in attendance). A number of others addressed the gathering also, discussing photographs from Natchez, Vicksburg, Port Gibson, and Mound Bayou. The Southern Cultural Heritage Center generously hosted the event, providing tables of refreshments for people to mingle at and exchange stories around. The Heritage Center’s lovely old  auditorium was alive that warm Saturday afternoon with vitality, good will, and a sense of renewed opportunity, as people talked about ways of incorporating A Mississippi Portrait into their classrooms and communities.

   A Mississippi Portrait: Farm Security Administration Photographs, 1935-1940 costs $20 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. It can be ordered at www.southfilm.com or by calling the Southern Culture Catalog at 800-390-3527.

Karen Glynn