"If the Tallahatchie Could Talk:" The Impact of Federal Funding on Civil Rights Sites in Mississippi

Abstract

Nearly 70 years after the brutal murder of Emmett Till, an event that galvanized the civil rights movement, President Joe Biden signed Till into the national consciousness. The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument was established through the National Park Service (NPS), a federal agency tasked with protecting and promoting the nation’s historical and cultural resources through national parks, monuments, and reservations. The new Mississippi monument joined a rich collection of grassroots and state-sponsored sites commemorating the state’s Black freedom struggle. The study presented here is the first to evaluate the three types of sites together. Using Mississippi as a lens, this thesis evaluates the role of the federal government in supporting efforts to combat the erasure of African American history. The question at the heart of this thesis is: What is the impact of federal funding on civil rights monuments and memorials in Mississippi? I employ a comparative case study method to construct a profile of seven civil rights sites in the Delta and Jackson, a region of the country known for the most retrograde and violent racist history in the nation. For each case, I conduct a thematic analysis of impact based on field visits, interviews, government documents and data, official tourism materials, and interpretive theory. Then, I walk through principles of tourism economics to unpack the potential impact of visitor spending. I find that civil rights sites can contribute to education; truth-telling; community pride; individual healing; racial reconciliation; image management; and economic development. I argue that top-down intervention through the NPS can specifically shape public memory, strengthen community vitality, and stimulate local economic development.

In Mississippi, grassroots sites, supplementing centralized narratives with local leaders, thrive due to their local character. State sites, while not immune to the complications of curating public memory, reveal that state policy is a valuable tool for commemoration—whether motivated by economic, political, or social interests. This study reveals that NPS intervention, when coordinated with community priorities, can be an effective way to support existing commemorative efforts. The arrangement is symbolic and material, ensuring that the marginalized pasts are incorporated into the national record and providing resources to bring community visions to fruition. Furthermore, policy through NPS can induce visitor spending habits that contribute to struggling local economies. The thesis ends with a brief discussion of best practices that emerged during the analysis: an emphasis on (1) community priorities and (2) standardized data collection. In light of recent pushes to reduce government spending on the NPS and DEI programming—threatening to undo the progress made in addressing painful historical gaps—my findings underscore the importance of continued investment in these kinds of sites. Sites of memory promote cornerstones of democracy, including social justice, accountability, and solidarity.