Early History of the Center

Editor’s Note: the University’s regional studies center was, in its early stages, called the Center for Studies in Southern Culture. By 1978, the name was changed to the Center for the Study of Southern Culture.

The 25-year history of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi has been an exciting one. My original purpose was to write a brief history, outlining the major events of that quarter of a century. But doing that became a very difficult task because of the scope—and indeed the success—of the program. I therefore decided to write just of the beginning and hope to get around to doing more later. Those not familiar with how institutions of higher education work may be interested in, and perhaps surprised by, the groundwork required for creating a new center involving teaching, research, and service.

Writing of the beginning of the Center has reminded me of some important observations.* First, academic programs are often begun by the ideas and recommendations of thoughtful and visionary intellectuals like Professors Michael Harrington and Robert Haws. Second, it takes lots of work on the part of committed faculty and staff members to put together convincing proposals. Third, sound and convincing recommendations get nowhere without the willingness of administrators like Arthur DeRosier, Harvey Lewis, C. E. Noyes, and Porter Fortune to take decisive action and support dreams. Fourth, the Center will remain indebted to persons like Wallace Guess and Joseph Sam, who supported the establishment of the new program as being in the best interest of the University even if they knew that funds for it might come from money that otherwise might have gone to their own departments. Fifth, academic programs are successful only if they have the leadership of dedicated persons like Ann Abadie, William Ferris, and Charles Wilson. And, sixth, as readers of the Southern Register already know, the history of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture is the history of an endeavor that has far exceeded the dreams and expectations of those of us who discussed the possibilities back in 1976.

During the winter of 1975-76, two University of Mississippi professors, a philosopher and a historian, began discussing the possible establishment of a regional studies center here. They invited Dr. Arthur H. DeRosier, who was Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and a professor of history, to Harrington’s office in Bondurant Hall. He liked their ideas and asked them to commit some of their thoughts to writing. “The state of Mississippi,” they wrote to the Vice Chancellor, “is the epitome of the American South in all its complexities, triumphs, and disasters of the human spirit. Here at the University there are numerous but uncoordinated studies in various aspects of Southern culture. Still, there are many and far-reaching possibilities yet to be explored.” They suggested establishing a program that would coordinate existing studies, foster research and publication, and provide services to the area.

On February 23, 1976, DeRosier wrote Haws and Harrington:

Thank you for sharing with me your written and oral comments on a possible Center for Studies in Southern Culture. . . . I am quite taken with the general idea presented. It is my conviction that interdisciplinary, and even interinstitutional, programs are more needed today than ever before. Society does not revolve around single disciplines and no longer can we maintain that a historian should take only history courses, remaining free of the contaminating elements found in other areas. To be a good historian today (and possibly since the time of Herodotus), a scholar should be grounded in philosophy, grammar, literature, geography, psychology, etc., if he wants to offer a relatively acceptable view of some past event, person, or period of time. But we tried to remain ‘pure’ and hence ‘narrow,’ and have paid the price for it.

If this effort is to be successful, we must involve all of the appropriate leaders and scholars from the very first. Therefore, it might be appropriate to allow me to take your short statement to the Academic Council and request that they accept the idea for study. If they are intrigued—and I think they will be—then we can ask the deans to consider their various departments and identify those that should be included in the deliberations from the beginning. The deans can then compile a list of departments and scholars out of which a committee could be appointed; those not on the committee will surely be contacted by the committee for input. This way, or another that accomplishes the same end, will allow us to see the dimensions of the effort and insure that important areas are not neglected during the evolution process.

Vice Chancellor DeRosier invited the professors to a meeting of the Academic Council (academic deans and other administrators) on March 2, 1976. At that meeting, he circulated copies of a preliminary proposal for a center and asked that the deans react to the proposal after they had reviewed it.

On June 1, 1976, DeRosier wrote this memorandum to Harrington, Haws, Ann Abadie, and a number of others:

During the spring semester, two of our fine professors brought forcefully to my attention—and to the attention of the Academic Council—the possibilities open to the University of Mississippi if we consider developing a Center for Studies in Southern Culture, or some other academic agency dedicated to the scholarly study (graduate as well as undergraduate) of the various ramifications of the region in which we live. I am pleased to announce that the idea struck a responsive chord with the Council which voted unanimously to appoint an ad hoc committee to study the possibilities that might be present.

Therefore, after seeking the advice of the various college and school deans, I am asking each of you to serve on this committee. We offer no blueprint to consider; in fact, we offer no specific directions that your deliberations might take. Rather, we are asking you to meet together, pooling your individual talents in considering the need for such a center. If you feel such a center would be an appropriate dimension to add to this university’s offerings, we would ask that you give substance to the idea by developing a clear-cut proposal for consideration by the Academic Council.

The committee, which included representatives of all University schools and the College of Liberal Arts, the Library, the Division of Continuing Education, and the Accounting Office, held its first meeting on June 30, 1976. Members agreed that the “various cultural aspects of Mississippi and its region should be studied in a humanistic context and that the University has a wide range of resources that make it a natural center for such a project,” according to a report Ann Abadie wrote. “After several meetings during the summer and early fall of 1976,” she continued,

the committee identified many areas that should be investigated, including literature, drama, music, art, history, language, folklore, folkways, institutions, architecture, technology, and the multiracial experiences of the South. Also discussed were the resources of the University such as its faculty, its unique library and museum collections, its media facilities, and its access to the people and institutions of the area. Among the possible activities proposed for the Center were the development of interdisciplinary courses, support for a degree program in historical preservation and conservation, organization of an oral history project, sponsorship of a summer humanities institute for teachers, production of documentary films and recordings, creation of television programs and courses in Southern culture, initiation of a graduate and postgraduate fellowship program to encourage research, sponsorship of a journal and other publications, development of conferences and symposia, and sponsorship of drama festivals, art exhibits, musical programs, and crafts displays.

At their meeting on July 27, 1976, members of the Academic Council “decided that a document be prepared for Council consideration setting up a skeleton structure and providing a charge for the proposed Center for Studies in Southern Culture.” On September 24, 1976, committee members prepared a draft that included information about membership on a board of directors, an executive director and his/her
duties and responsibilities, and institute activities–conferences, the development of a curriculum, and the promotion of research. One of the recommendations in the draft was that the Center “request a consultant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to aid in planning its organization, funding, and on-going activities.”

Where is the money to come from is always a major question at an institution of higher learning. As early as October 4, 1976, Abadie wrote that she had heard that members of one department “are concerned about the establishment of the Center since they fear that it will be funded at the expense of faculty salaries. I hope that Dr. DeRosier will emphasize that this is not the case and that activities sponsored by the Center will have to be self-supporting until outside funding is obtained.”

On October 12, 1976, the ad hoc committee took its final report to the Academic Council:

It was moved “that the Council indicate its approval of this report and recommend to Chancellor Fortune that it be implemented.” The motion carried unanimously.

On October 18, 1976, DeRosier wrote to members of the ad hoc committee, on the subject Establishment of a Center for Studies in Southern Culture:

On October 12, the Academic Council unanimously accepted for implementation the final report that you—as a committee—offered for consideration. It is a pleasure to inform you of this fact, it is even more pleasant to add that Chancellor Fortune accepted the recommendation on October 14. Therefore, as of October 14 your recommendations are the basis of the course we will follow in establishing a full-fledged Committee for Studies in Southern Culture on the University of Mississippi campus.

I am, by this memo, changing your committee from an ad hoc one to a Special Committee. The committee will oversee the implementation of Phase I activities as outlined in your final report. I am asking that you offer all recommendations to me for action or discussion by the Academic Council.

I am also requesting that a member of the committee, Dr. Ann J. Abadie, serve as Acting Director of the Center, not on a full-time basis but in addition to her regular duties in the Division of Special Activities.

I am also adding two members to the committee—one from the Department of English and the other from Public Relations. Therefore, I am requesting that Dr. Evans Harrington and Mr. Edward Moore join this important committee as full members. Hopefully, Mr. Moore will immediately study the efforts of the Committee to date and begin publicizing the creation of the Center and its hopes and aspirations for the future.

All of us offer you our best wishes for much success in making the Center for Studies in Southern Culture a viable and exciting new addition to the continuing Ole Miss efforts to offer the best possible educational opportunities for our students and the best possible environment for scholarship for our faculty. I would recommend that Dr. Abadie call a meeting as quickly as possible so that the Center can begin operating and planning for the future.

On October 28, 1976, Abadie called first meeting of the Committee for Studies in Southern Culture, now a special committee. It was “recommended that Bob Haws continue to serve as Chairman, that the Acting Director take minutes, and that proposals for action be presented as formal motions in order to make the intent of the group clear and definite”; a member “described the Consultants Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities and said that the University has a good chance of obtaining a grant for a consultant to aid in defining the role of the Center, in planning its organization, and in seeking funding for its activities”; Abadie “asked the Committee to make suggestions about the following items: institutional background, the problem being addressed, desired qualifications of the consultant, and identification of the faculty”; members discussed the specific “purpose of the Center that we are trying to organize; we must stress some unique feature if we hope to fund our activities.” Committee members “agreed that the University has too many resources to limit the concept of the Center at this time. In the proposal we should describe these resources and request the aid of a consultant to help us determine ways in which we can utilize them.”

At the October 28 meeting there was also discussion of new programs (“While plans are being made for the establishment of a full-fledged Center for Studies in Southern Culture, the Committee, in order to establish the identity of the Center, will encourage the development of projects which can be carried out by individual departments and with joint sponsorships”); coordination of existing programs; and the need to survey centers at other universities “to learn how they operate within their institutions, what is the scope of their activities, and how they are funded.”

Abadie’s first major job as acting director—while continuing her full-time job in Continuing Education—was to prepare a proposal to the National Endowment for the Humanities requesting that funds be provided for a consultant to come to the University. She mailed the proposal in December 1976. On April 17, 1977, Janice Litwin of NEH wrote to Abadie: “The Endowment is now in the final stages of evaluating your proposal, and has asked Dr. Richard Brown, Director of Research and Education at the Newberry Library, to review your request. Dr. Brown has read your proposal, and has tentatively expressed an interest in working with you.” Litwin suggested that Abadie get in touch with Brown and prepare a schedule and budget if Brown continued his interest. After talking to Brown by phone, Abadie wrote him on May 13, 1977: “We are pleased that you have agreed to assist the University of Mississippi in developing its Center for Studies in Southern Culture.” Brown responded on May 24, 1977: “As we discussed, the principal point of this first visit would be to give me some feel for the available resources as well as the central questions with which you are faced.” He suggested a July visit.

On May 23, 1977, DeRosier wrote Doyle Russell, Director of Accounting and Budgeting, asking him to “establish a new restricted account for Studies in Southern Culture designating Dr. Ann Abadie the signatory officer. I would like to transfer $5,500 into that account.” DeRosier changed his mind on June 2, 1977:

Since the University structure necessary to coordinate and administer activities currently being generated through the Committee for Studies in Southern Culture has not been developed, and since the functions of a Center for Studies in Southern Culture have not been sufficiently delineated to develop a separate budgetary unit at this time, I am requesting, upon reflection, that these activities be coordinated and administered through the Division of Special Activities—Dr. Abadie’s home base—until a separate unit is created.

Arthur DeRosier left the University at the end of June 1977, in order to become president at East Tennessee State University. Shortly after he left the University, he wrote to Abadie: “I do hope that Harvey sees the need for such a Center and that he is ready to make the necessary commitment to it.” His reference was to Harvey S. Lewis, who had become Vice Chancellor on July 1 and who was notified on July 8, 1977, that the University had been awarded an NEH Consultant Grant of up to $3,898 for the development of a Center for Studies in Southern Culture. Fortunately, Lewis was also a strong supporter of the Center.

Brown visited the campus on July 26-28, 1977, and submitted the consultant report the next month. He wrote:

There is no doubt of the unique and very great potential that the University of Mississippi has for the development of a Center for Studies in Southern Culture. Such a Center would enable the University to capitalize on its unique resources of place and time to make a significant contribution to scholarship nationwide and to the country’s understanding of both its past and present; it would enhance significantly the service the University can offer both to the state and the region; and it would enable the University to turn some of its resources to purposes of institutional renewal.

He listed several possibilities:

The establishment of a program of undergraduate studies looking toward the development of major and minor programs in the Study of Southern Culture; the development of in-service training programs for teachers; the establishment of an Oral History Center in the Library; vigorous collection-building in the Library, to build particularly on the promising beginnings of a Mississippi Archive; extension of the very promising beginnings of continuing education programs, notably the Faulkner and History Conferences; the possible attraction of visiting (and possibly permanent) faculty; the development of significant research in the field, and the attraction of major research projects; the development of a graduate program; the attraction to the University of other major projects that now exist in the area; the development of a substantial media capacity for the production of important documents on or about Southern Culture.

Approximately one hundred persons on the campus examined Brown’s report. On August 24, 1977, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts [Gerald Walton] wrote to Abadie: “I am very much excited about the possibilities for
our Center for Studies in Southern Culture. . . . Your committee, will, of course, have to make some pretty strong recommendations in order for us to start the hiring of three or four faculty members and a director, but I think we should keep pushing.”

There was widespread enthusiasm, though there was the expected concern about funding. One faculty member wrote:

The development of a Center for Studies in Southern Culture sounds exciting and expensive . . . Perhaps, grants, endowments, fees, etc., could take care of a substantial part of the operating expenses of the Center. It would be difficult to obtain total support funds from the Legislature. Dr. Brown’s report is an ambitious one, and I am in favor of the development of the Center. However, I feel that the University should not go as heavily into the matter as the report contemplates with the idea of supporting it substantially from appropriated funds.

Another expressed similar concern:

I support the concept of such a Center enthusiastically. In view of the University’s extremely tight financial situation, one that will probably be of major concern at least for the next several years, it is obvious that finding financial support for the proposed Center is going to be a major undertaking. . . . Frankly, without adequate funding in hand or reasonably certain, the Center will be doomed to mediocrity and a marginal existence. I believe funding for the proposed Center can he obtained so I encourage the next phase of the planning to be undertaken.

And another said, “Certainly, Ole Miss has great potential in this area and the support of the administration will be crucial to the proposed center’s success. I believe, however, that a good deal of financial support for such a center could be obtained through outside grants for specific center-sponsored efforts.”

At the September 12, 1977, meeting of the Academic Council “There was general discussion of the Center for Studies in Southern Culture. Further discussion is pending.”
The committee, then, went about preparing a formal proposal, which was submitted to the University’s Academic Council on September 19, 1977. The report began:

The Committee on the Center for Studies in Southern Culture, after nearly 15 months’ deliberation first as an ad hoc and then as a special committee, has completed the implementation of Phase I activities outlined in a report submitted to the Academic Council on October 12, 1976. The consultant provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities visited the University in July and then submitted a preliminary consultancy report for our consideration. Members of the committee have made a careful study of the report and of University-wide responses to it. We concur with Dr. Brown’s statements about the unique and very great potential that the University of Mississippi has for the development of a Center for Studies in Southern Culture and for its goals of serving the region through teaching, research, archival and preservation programs, and programs of public service. We agree with his estimate of immediate and long-run possibilities for the Center. We heartily endorse the whole report and recommend that the Academic Council approve implementation of Phase II activities. . . .

Before making specific recommendations on Phase II activities, members of the committee want to acknowledge their awareness of potential funding problems since the operation of a center such as the one proposed will require a great deal of financial support. If some initial funds are provided by the University, the Center should be able to obtain a large part of its operational funds from public endowments and private foundations. . . . Outside funds are available, but they must he asked for before they can be received. With a strong commitment from the University and with some initial funding, the Center should be able to become self-supporting.

Specific recommendations of the report were these:

The permanent establishment of a Center as part of the academic structure of the University with the director directly responsible to the Vice Chancellor; the appointment of a Search Committee to find a permanent Center Director (the director should have a doctoral degree in an area related to Southern Studies; he should be a publishing scholar with academic and possibly administrative experience and with demonstrated ability to obtain grants); consideration at the appropriate administrative levels of the relationship of the Center to other University priorities and of the commitments the University is prepared to make in the next few years to the Center (the Chancellor or the Vice Chancellor should appoint a committee to consider these items and to investigate the possibility of applying for an NEH Challenge Grant. In respect to faculty appointments, the committee should consider the possibility of Center professors, dual appointments, visiting scholars, and professorship grants); appointment of a committee within the College of Liberal Arts to plan curriculum for undergraduate studies in Southern Culture leading either to a minor or a major field; selection, in conjunction with Library officials, of two major oral history projects for which funding might be sought; discussion with appropriate University officials and planning committees of ways in which future Faulkner and history conferences might be systematically used to attract visiting or (possibly) permanent faculty to the University; systematic identification of other institutions or collaborative efforts in the area that a Center for Studies in Southern Culture might serve and initial contact to ascertain how such a Center would be most helpful to these agencies; systematic inventory of what other colleges and universities in the area are doing in the field of Southern Culture.

The minutes of the meeting read, “There was extensive discussion of the recommendations from the Committee, centering largely on the question of what costs would be involved and what priority this project should have among the various needs of the University. Dean Walton moved that the Academic Council accept the committee report and recommend to the Chancellor that it be implemented. Dean Sam seconded the motion, which carried with eight affirmative votes [one dean opposed; one dean abstained].”

Chancellor Fortune approved the Academic Council minutes, and Vice Chancellor Lewis, on November 30, 1977, wrote to the committee:

I am delighted to inform you that Chancellor Fortune has approved the creation of the Center for Studies in Southern Culture. I would like to suggest that you proceed with the plans for the challenge grant and that you convey to Dean Walton your ideas regarding organization, staffing, housing, and financial requirements for the next academic year. Our initial efforts may of necessity have to be very modest. Thank you for the time and effort you have devoted to making the Center a reality.

Long before the Center became a “reality,” committee members had begun their planning, asking department chairs and others about a two-year series of programs to be sponsored by the Center for Studies in Southern Culture and the appropriate academic department. Theater Arts replied that “we should find a way to sponsor a two-day conference on Tennessee Williams.” Such a conference was pursued, and Williams was invited, but the meeting did not materialize. [The Center for the Study of Southern Culture did assist the City of Clarksdale in founding the successful Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Symposia, which began in 1993.]

English suggested that “the Center should sponsor a literature conference on the work of Eudora Welty. Invite her as well as leading critics of her work for a 2-3 day conference.” Abadie and committee member James Parker, of the theater department, proposed that “the Committee plan and hold a conference centering upon the life and work of the first lady of Mississippi letters, Miss Eudora Welty.” Parker invited Miss Welty to come in April 1977, when the Department of Theatre Arts would be staging a production of The Ponder Heart. She regretted on September 23, 1976: “I’d like the best in the world to attend, as you invite me to do, but I’m sorry to tell you that I am committed to being at Cornell University at the time.” Parker wrote her again on October 4, 1976, reporting that the production was to be postponed and sugggested another date for the conference.

This time Miss Welty accepted. Louis Dollarhide and others set about the task of lining up speakers for the conference. The Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University sponsored its first event on November 10-12, 1977. As Ann Abadie has explained: “A Eudora Welty Symposium was held at the University to inaugurate the Center. . . . Miss Welty was on hand throughout the three days and concluded the symposium with a selection of readings from her own works. The program also featured a performance of The Ponder Heart and lectures by several eminent writers and scholars, including Cleanth Brooks, Charlotte Capers, Michael Kreyling, Noel Polk, Peggy Prenshaw, Reynolds Price, and William Jay Smith. There were also displays of Miss Welty’s books and photographs. The symposium was attended by over 800 people, including University students and faculty members and nearly 300 visitors from 32 states and three foreign countries.” Robert Penn Warren reviewed the symposium proceedings, Eudora Welty: A Form of Thanks, published by the University Press of Mississippi, on the front page of the New York Times Book Review.

That was just the beginning!

Gerald W. Walton

* I wish to thank Ann Abadie, Michael Harrington, and Robert Haws for access to their records

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Photo captions, from top to bottom:
Gerald Walton, author of Center History
Harvey Lewis
Porter L. Fortune
Eudora Welty and Louis Dollarhide at the 1977 Welty Symposium
C.E. Noyes (left) and Arthur DeRosier