Mississippians

• Oxford High School, circa 1900

We Cannot Walk Alone: Images and History of the African-American Community in Lafayette County, Mississippi.

In 1993 Mrs. Susie Marshall (pictured, left) received Mississippi Humanities Council Grant for her coordinated project “Changes in the African-American Family in Oxford/Lafayette County and Mississippi.” Sponsored by the Senior Sewing and Savings Club, the Oxford Development Association, and the Mississippi Humanities Council, the project consisted of three public presentations held in the spring of 1996.

From this initial grant project Mrs. Marshall and other members of the working group conceived the idea of chronicling the history of the African-American community in Lafayette County. Several families within Lafayette County were asked to write a short family narrative and donate or loan family photographs. These narratives, written in the words of family members along with other community memories form the nucleus of the printed publication which accompanies this website.

In 2002, Mrs. Marshall and Mrs. Niler Franklin allowed the Department of Archives and Special Collections at the J.D. Williams Library to scan the images and transcribe the narratives into a booklet entitled, The Lafayette County African-American History Project.

In commemoration of the 1962 integration of The University of Mississippi by James Meredith, Special Collections included the images and text in an exhibit entitled "'We Cannot Walk Alone:' Images and History of the African-American Community in Lafayette County, Mississippi."

In transcribing the narratives, the staff of Special Collections in direct consultation with Mrs. Marshall kept the language exactly as it was written by the family members and original participants of the project. This is their book and chronicles their history. It is a tribute to the African-American men, women, children, families, organizations, and businesses of Lafayette County, Mississippi.

Exhibit Curators: Jennifer Ford and Jennifer Aronson

Text from the historical marker for Freedmen's Town in Oxford, Miss.

"After the Civil War, many freedmen from Lafayette County moved into Oxford; settled in the area bounded by Jackson Avenue, Price Street, the railroad and 9th Street; bought land, built houses, schools and churches; and exercised the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The residents named their neighborhood Freedmen Town."