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MS Delta NHA receives Heritage Award

by Nathan Duff

Cleveland, MS (06/14/2024) — Contact: Christy Riddle FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Phone: (662) 846-4336

Email: criddle@deltastate.edu

MS Delta NHA receives Heritage Award

CLEVELAND, Miss. - The Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area (MS Delta NHA) was honored with a 2024 Heritage Award from the Mississippi Heritage Trust at the recent Listen Up! Historic Preservation Conference in Vicksburg.

MS Delta NHA received the Trustees Award for Organizational Achievement. This prestigious award "recognizes outstanding achievement in preservation activities by a group, business, neighborhood, or other organization," according to the Mississippi Heritage Trust.

"We are proud to present the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area with the 2024 Trustees Heritage Award for Organizational Achievement," said Lolly Barnes, Executive Director of Mississippi Heritage Trust. "Whether it is a bricks and mortar project to save a treasured landmark like the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church from being lost to time, innovative interpretive programs of StoryWorks to bring history to life or the convening of like-minded partners to envision the future of Civil Rights Heritage Tourism, Dr. Rolando Herts and his talented team are always ready to lend time and talent to help their diverse group of stakeholders."

Dr. Rolando Herts, Executive Director of the MS Delta NHA, accepted the award with team members Wayne Dowdy and Robertson Scholars Kiestin Jackson, Jessica Johnson, and Annelise Bowers from UNC Chapel Hill.

"The Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area is honored to receive the Trustees Heritage Award for Organizational Achievement," said Herts. "National Heritage Areas might be perceived as an invisible glue that holds cultural heritage ecosystems together in regions throughout the country. Receiving recognitions like this help to make that glue more tangible, more real, which makes us ever more visible to the wonderful communities of hope that we serve."

The MS Delta NHA received the award for demonstrating achievements in three areas: (1) providing community cultural heritage grants to support historic preservation, (2) strengthening funding relationships with national partners like the National Park Service, and (3) strengthening preservation and tourism through cultural heritage interpretation. The award recognizes the MS Delta NHA's regional impacts, as well as relationships cultivated with many organizations and community leaders regionally and nationally.

Herts was also invited to facilitate the panel discussion "Mississippi's African American Heritage Is In Good Hands." The panel highlighted successful cultural heritage development programs in Mississippi's three National Heritage Areas: the Delta, the Gulf Coast, and the Hills.

Panelists included Malika Polk-Lee, Executive Director of the B.B. King Museum in Indianola; Jenna Welch, Producing Artistic Director of StoryWorks Theater in Clarksdale; Reverend Darryl Johnson, Co-Founder of the Mound Bayou Museum of African American Culture and History; Anne McMillion, founder of Jabali Preservation, Inc. in Moss Point; and Yaphet Smith, President of the Keysmith Foundation and Annalise Flynn, Independent Curator both representing the L.V. Hull House in Kosciusko.

National Heritage Areas were not the only branch of the National Park Service represented at the conference. Vicksburg National Military Park received the Heritage Award of Excellence in Archeology for their team's work on the Vicksburg National Cemetery burial recovery. In addition to receiving an award, they presented on cemetery preservation methods and on illuminating stories of fallen Black Civil War soldiers.

Through its Cultural Heritage Grant Program funded by the National Park Service, the MS Delta NHA has uplifted overlooked places and undertold parts of the region's history. MS Delta NHA grants have supported preserving historic landmarks and community stories like the Hawkins vs. Town of Shaw civil rights case for equitable municipal services in Shaw.

MS Delta NHA has also hosted virtual grant workshops in collaboration with the National Park Service, guiding attendees through the federal grant proposal writing process. As a result, The Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, a Blues heritage site that was named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 11 Most Endangered list in 2021, has been awarded over $1.2 million from the National Park Service's African American Civil Rights Grant Program. MS Delta NHA wrote letters of support for these grants.

The MS Delta NHA also was recognized for its devotion to empowering residents to tell their community stories. This work has been reflected in the 2022 MS Delta Civil Rights Archive Digital Storytelling Project created in partnership with the Robertson Scholars Leadership Program at Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill, as well as the 2024 MS Delta Cultural Heritage Ambassadors Program, created in partnership with StoryWorks Theater, the National Park Service, the Walton Family Foundation, and others.

The MS Delta NHA includes 18 counties that contain land located in the alluvial floodplain of the Mississippi Delta: Bolivar, Carroll, Coahoma, DeSoto, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Leflore, Panola, Quitman, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Tate, Tunica, Warren, Washington, and Yazoo. The MS Delta NHA was designated by U.S. Congress in 2009 and is governed by a board of directors representing agencies and organizations defined in the congressional legislation. More information about the MS Delta NHA, including the complete approved management plan, is available at www.msdeltaheritage.com.

Cutline: Dr. Rolando Herts (center left), MS Delta NHA Executive Director, accepting the MS Heritage Trust Trustees Award for Organizational Achievement, and Carrie A. Mardorf (center right), Superintendent of Vicksburg National Military Park, accepting the Heritage Award of Excellence in Archeology.

About Delta State University: Delta State University is a four-year public institution whose nearly 2,700 students come from most U.S. states and more than 35 countries. The university offers numerous unique programs, including the Delta Music Institute entertainment industry program, and is the only university in Mississippi to offer undergraduate and graduate aviation programs. Situated in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, which is recognized as the birthplace of American music, Delta State has become the center of music and culture for the state and the region. The university is also the academic center for the blues, offering an online blues studies curriculum that leads to a certificate for advanced study of blues music. In addition, Delta State offers top-notch academic programs in business, arts, sciences, nursing, and education, and DSU Athletics has won 14 national championships, 70 conference championships, and 37 regional titles.

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Dr. Rolando Herts (center left), MS Delta NHA Executive Director, accepting the MS Heritage Trust Trustees Award for Organizational Achievement, and Carrie A. Mardorf (center right), Superintendent of Vicksburg National Military Park, accepting the Heritage Award of Excellence in Archeology.

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