Dr. Herts visits Washington

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Dr. Herts was honored to meet Congressman Bennie Thompson. Congressman Thompson has served the Second Congressional District of Mississippi since 1993. The Second Congressional District is one of the largest in the U.S. and covers the vast majority of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, of which Congressman Thompson is a strong supporter. He is the longest-serving African-American elected official in the state of Mississippi.

To learn more about Congressman Thompson, visit http://benniethompson.house.gov/index.php.

Dr. Herts goes to Washington

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Dr. Rolando Herts met Mr. Robert Stanton during his visit to Washington, DC, for the Alliance of National Heritage Areas meeting.  Mr. Stanton is the first African American to be appointed Director of the National Park Service, serving 1997-2001 under the Clinton Administration. He is a friend of the MS Delta National Heritage Area and The Delta Center.

To learn more about his career and achievements, visit http://www.nationalparks.org/connect/blog/former-national-park-service-director-robert-g-stanton.

Tallahatchie County Courthouse

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Yesterday, we took a field trip to the newly renovated Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner.  The renovations have taken the courthouse design back as it was during the trial of Emmett Till.  They have done a beautiful job in the restoration and are providing ongoing dialogue for the community and visitors about the tragedy that happened here in 1955.

Visit our Flickr page to see more images.

Passport Stamps . . .

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Letty and Bruce Johnson from Michigan stopped by today to get their passports stamped. They have travelled to all of the National Parks and are making all of the heritage areas. They said to "watch out" as the heritage area is really going to be getting the visitors!

Afternoon in Charleston, MS

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We had a great visit Friday with Banu Valladares of SonEdna in Charleston about an upcoming project. SonEdna believes that people empowered through the literary arts discern, decide, and design with greater authority, clarity, understanding, and compassion. SonEdna celebrates established and emerging artists with programs including salon presentations, fellowships, writing workshops for young people, school presentations, writer round table discussions, peer critical review for emerging writers, residencies and retreats for established writers, literary showcases and dramatic staged readings of literary works. We also got a tour of CARE (Charleston Arts and Revitalization Effort,) which is where this picture was taken. Great things are happening in Charleston, and we look forward to partnering with them.