Hattiesburg was once the largest Freedom Summer site in MS with over 3,000 volunteers.

Hattiesburg is getting ready to celebrate Freedom Summer (again). Once a cradle of the civil rights movement with figures like Clyde Kennard and sisters Joyce and Dorie Ladner, Hattiesburg will celebrate the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer this year, commemorating the summer of 1964 when college students came to Mississippi for mass registration of Black voters. 

The Hattiesburg Public Library will be hosting a film screening of two Mississippi civil rights-era documentaries on Aug. 8 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. thanks to Scott Varnado, a Hattiesburg local and PhD student in film studies at UCLA. The library will also open a special photography exhibition, “Freedom Summer at 60: Mississippi as a Catalyst for Change,” curated in association with Special Collections at the University of Southern Mississippi and the Harvey Richards Media Archive on the same day as the film screening. 

Varnado said the films are a “chronicle of the early part of organizing Freedom Summer, and just really essential viewing for anyone that has an interest in Freedom Summer, Mississippi history and civil rights history.”

The two films, “We’ll Never Turn Back” from 1963 and “Dream Deferred” from 1964, are around 30 minutes each and tell the story of voter registration in Mississippi. The filmmaker, Harvey Richards, a social activist and union organizer from rural Oregan, traveled to the Mississippi Delta in 1963 to seek out voting rights activist Amzie Moore. Together, the two men filmed the documentaries in secret and at great risk, working against local segregationists who would have tried to stop or even kill them. 

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Varnado said Richards was remarkable for his work depicting “the lower rungs of society in an attempt to show images and communities and social issues that were absent from mainstream media.”

Richards’ son and curator of the Harvey Richards Media Archive will give a brief video introduction before the screening.

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The photo exhibit will display a collection of black and white photographs of voter registration efforts in and around Hattiesburg by New York photographer Herbert Randall, who, like Richards, traveled to Mississippi to document Freedom Summer in 1964. Randall’s photographs will be presented alongside color photographs from Richards of Black southerners across Mississippi taken in the same time period. 

“Hattiesburg was an important center for that civil rights activity,” Casey Varnado, Hattiesburg attorney and father of Scott Varnado, said. “We had more Freedom Summer volunteer workers in Hattiesburg than any other location in the state.”

The largest Freedom Summer site in Mississippi, Hattiesburg was once home to more than 90 out-of-state volunteers and more than 3,000 local volunteers.

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Adam Singletary, director of The Hattiesburg Public Library, said the photography exhibit and film screening complement one another by offering a full portrait of Freedom Summer with both specific Hattiesburg content and coverage of the state at large. 

“The films are also unique in that they are not widely known,” Singletary said, adding, “The fact that we can get the license to show them is exciting for the city and for our patrons because they may not otherwise have a chance to watch them.”

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Team USA Gymnastics is proving to be a highlight of the Paris Olympic Games.


The men’s team secured a bronze medal in the team finals Monday, and all eyes are on the women who topped the podium with gold in team finals Tuesday.

There’s excitement just watching the competition, but for some Mississippi gymnasts, it’s pushing them to new heights.

We visited Courthouse Gymnastics Co. in Flowood, where students dressed in their own version of red, white, and blue leotards prepared for competitions.

“They come in four or five days a week, almost 20 hours a week,” explained Courthouse Gymnastics Co. co-owner Mario Gonzalez. “And that’s just what it takes.”

The televised events and the lead-up to them have gotten the girls thinking ahead.

“I went to the Olympic trials, and we were a little farther off, but watching them made me get really inspired to work harder in the gym,” noted Alex Burkhard.

“My dream is probably to be the next Simone Biles,” admits Elizabeth Benslar.

Simone Biles may be setting records but some of the girls brought up other members of Team USA as their favorites. Still, there was plenty of praise for Biles.

While most of us are watching in awe, the girls at Courthouse Gymnastics Co. are analyzing their every move.

“When I learn new skills, I like to watch it,” said Blakely Lott. “So it’s like, ‘Oh, I could do better at this or that. So I like to watch and learn how to do certain skills. Then it’s cool to watch like, ‘Hey, I’ve learned to do that skill now and I used to not be able to.’”

However, the biggest takeaway from watching those women compete at the highest level seemed to be the work ethic. Here’s what some of the students said about the added motivation.

“I literally told my mom, I was like, ‘That just makes me want to go to the gym and do gymnastics now,’” noted Addlyn Pipper.

“I’m gonna get to the Olympics one day,” said Laura Vaiden. “And I just, the next day at gym, I’m like, alright, tomorrow, you’re gonna work hard.”

“Just for a goal for myself, is to see how close I could be to going,” added Alex Burkhard.

Olympics or not, these gymnasts will keep up the work.

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Contact: Allison Matthews

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State University hosted more than 90 scholars from around the state for today’s [July 30] Summer Science & Engineering Symposium in conjunction with the Mississippi Academy of Sciences.

The day’s primary focus was on a variety of student and faculty research presentations shared through oral and poster sessions.

MAS presented a prestigious Presidential Award to Archie Tucker, a longtime USDA Agricultural Research Service area director, whose office is located at MSU’s Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville. After starting work with the USDA-ARS as a 16-year-old high school student, Tucker has amassed over 49 years of service. He is being honored for outstanding contributions to the success of his organization, where he oversees an annual budget exceeding $350 million.

Tucker encouraged students in attendance to be aware of the “tremendous opportunities in science.”

“If you can control your attitude and manage your effort, the sky’s the limit,” he said, noting that there are “tremendous opportunities within the USDA and many other agencies.”

“Don’t let anybody or anything stop you from achieving your goals,” Tucker said.