The Mississippi Humanities Council, an organization behind events and programs across the state focused on history and culture, is facing steep cuts after the Trump administration eliminated federal funding for its current and future grants.
The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency notified the council of the termination in a late-night email on April 2, MHC Executive Director Dr. Stuart Rockoff told the Mississippi Free Press on April 4.
“It’s really callous. It’s really inhumane, and it is not following proper government rules on grant termination,” he told the Mississippi Free Press on April 4. “According to the guidelines, they can terminate your grant if there’s malfeasance or if you violate the kind of agreements; there was none of that here. Every single state council—and every state has a council—had their funding not cut, (but) eliminated immediately, so we’re unable to draw down those funds.”
The Mississippi Humanities Council’s work helps fund book clubs, museums, historic preservation, historic markers like the Mississippi Freedom Trail markers and various other projects.
About 70% of the Mississippi Humanities Council’s funding comes from the federal government, amounting to $1 million annually—0.000015% of the $6.8 trillion federal budget. Other sources of income for MHC include state funding, endowment funds, donations and cash reserves. Rockoff said the council has seen an increase in private donations since the news came out that DOGE was eliminating its funding.
In 2024, MHC used the money to fund 65 grants, which paid for 750 in-person humanities programs, Rockoff said. In 2025, Rockoff said the council has appropriated or awarded $1.5 million, with $1 million already in the hands of the grant recipients and $500,000 coming from the 2025 fiscal year federal budget. He said the council has 35 open grants that it still has to pay for despite not being able to access federal funds.
Congress sets the U.S. budget each year and determines how much each beneficiary receives. The executive branch of government, which includes DOGE, does not have the authority to provide or revoke grant funds, Rockoff said. He believes the council’s national federation could legally challenge DOGE’s decision to eliminate funding for humanities councils across the nation.
“The biggest blow is not being able to draw down the funds we’ve already been awarded. If we were told, ‘Sorry, there’s no more funding,’ we would have enough money to really continue our normal operations for a good while,” Rockoff said. “But because of this immediate cut, we’ve had to freeze all of our grants, all of our grant payments—really freeze all of our programs. … We’re going to be able to rework our budget and continue some of our work, but definitely not our grant programs until we’re able to get federal funding again.”
MHC had to pause a grant deadline of May 1 for grants for the 2025 cycle due to the elimination of the funding, Rockoff said. The council owes about $58,000 on existing grants that the council no longer will be able to pay for without federal funding, he added.
The Mississippi Humanities Council began in 1972 as Mississippi’s state affiliate for the National Endowment for the Humanities, using federal money to fund public programs that “explore Mississippi’s history and culture,” Rockoff explained on April 4. Each state has its own humanities council under the oversight of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which receives about $207 million annually from the federal government and splits $67 million between all 50 states.
“The root word of ‘humanities’ is ‘humanity,’ and it just struck me of how inhumane this is,” Rockoff said.
The Two Mississippi Museums, the B.B. King Museum, the Eudora Welty House and the Mississippi Blues Trail all got their starts through early-planning grants from the endowment. The council heavily focuses on prison education programs and runs 14 book clubs in prison, six of which met during the first week of April, Rockoff said.
The council also helps out with a variety of historical and cultural programs in Mississippi, including the Oxford Conference for the Book; Behind the Big House in Holly Springs, which offers tours of antebellum homes that focuses on the stories of enslaved people; youth poetry workshops at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson; and the history of historically Black high schools in Shannon.
“What really bothers me is these people with DOGE who are making these cuts, they’ve never been to Mississippi,” Rockoff said. “They don’t understand where Shannon is. They don’t know how Starkville is different from Oxford. They don’t understand what the Delta is or how the Gulf Coast has its own unique culture. They’re making decisions that affect the cultural life of our state in complete ignorance and without any serious study or any serious thought.”