mississippi folklifeFolklife and the civil rights movement is the theme of the new special issue of Mississippi Folklife. This may seem a curious theme, because folk studies so often concentrate on traditions, and the civil rights movement was all about change and challenges to traditions. The special issue investigates four general questions. How did civil rights activists use cultural traditions in music, religion, and manners in their demands for change? How did they use cultural traditions in the forms their protests took, and are there activities one could call "protestways"? How did memories of past activism play a role in civil rights protests? And how did opponents of protest call on their own understandings of cultural tradition?

Two articles examine specific places to analyze the importance of folklife in the movements in Holmes County and Port Gibson. Kerry Taylor's essay shows the lasting importance of Providence Farm, a cooperative that started in 1939, in creating a safe place for discussion of issues of change and leaving memories of challenging both white supremacy and the power of plantation life. Interviews and studies of current projects in Holmes County show the power of what Taylor calls "dangerous memories." Emilye Crosby's study of Port Gibson analyzes how activists joined legal and political challenges to demands for full incorporation into the public space of the town. Demanding equality meant demanding, among other things, equal access to the courthouse and the downtown shopping district. Crosby also analyzes the increasingly aggressive tone and demeanor of activists in the mid-1960s.

The importance of African American music during and since the civil rights movement is the subject of two articles. In a long interview with Molly McGehee, civil rights activist and folklorist Worth Long tells his story and explains the connections between marching for equal rights and documenting traditional African American music. Peter Slade documents the origins of the Black Student Union Choir at the University of Mississippi. The first members recall the choir as an institution that helped form and sustain a sense of community among African American students in the 1970s and allowed students to continue musical traditions from their hometown churches in a new setting.

Whites' responses to the civil rights movement are the subjects of articles by Lauren F. Winner and Joseph Crespino. Winner interviewed a number of black and white women to document struggles over power within everyday relationships inside the homes of white Southerners. For example, in times of tension, some white women refused to allow African American cooks to take home extra food they had come to expect. Others confronted new challenges to their understandings of etiquette when all aspects of segregation and white supremacy were under question. Crespino, studying the sermons of ministers who supported the Citizens' Councils, finds that some argued that the Bible supported racial segregation, while others simply said the Bible was neutral on the issue.

While continuing the lively writing and memorable illustrations characteristic of past issues, this issue debuts two features new to Mississippi Folklife. New editor Ted Ownby studies a film by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in a new feature called Defining the Folk, a section that examines how a source addresses issues of folklife. In the book review section, Todd Moye reviews Hortense Powdermaker's After Freedom (published in 1939), as part of Rereading a Classic, a feature that explores what older books still have to teach us.

One can subscribe to Mississippi Folklife, a twice-yearly publication, for $10.00 by writing to 301 Hill Hall, University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677.