Heather Peerboom’s efforts toward inspiring her young students to enjoy reading earned her the Mississippi Humanities Council’s Humanities Teacher of the Year award at the organization’s 2022 Public Humanities Awards ceremony.
Kids for Wish Kids Coordinator Jane Walsh has worked for the Make-A-Wish Mississippi chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation for more than 20 years, helping schools come up with ideas for how to raise money to help grant kids’ wishes.
Warn Wilson Jr. wrote and illustrated “Brown Money” in 2019 as a way of introducing children to STEM subjects, economics and possible career paths they may had not known about previously.
Heinz Endowments honors Hope Credit Union CEO Bill Bynum for bringing attention to the problem of financial access for the people in the Deep South. The organization added that Bynum received the award for his work at the helm of Hope Credit Union and for combating race, gender and locational barriers to wealth.
Marvin Hogan, founder of Friends of Children of Mississippi, battled for a more equitable education for all Missisippians for 53 years until his recent death on Nov. 6, 2021, at age 83.
In Susan Cushman’s novel, John and Mary Margaret forged a connection in the crucible of 1960s “Ole Miss,” just a few years removed from the bloody riot over the admission of James Meredith that killed two and wounded more than 300, but societal pressures kept them apart for decades. He was Black, and she was white.
Both Fire Chief Deedra Burton and firefighter Lavonda Aldrich say women’s presence in the workforce can be helpful in and out of the fire-response field. They have each come to learn that women who are domestic-violence victims often feel more comfortable sharing sensitive details of abuse they’ve suffered at the hands of a loved one with another woman. They also attest that a woman firefighter can better assist little girls who tend to look for nurturing, motherly figures in trying times.
Dr. Hilliard Lackey, a long-time professor at JSU, has paved a path for students from his own hometown to attend the historically Black college in west Jackson. In the years since, the Lackey Scholarship has gone to students ranked as low as eighth in the class, as well as to the highest-ranked student (other than the valedictorian and salutatorian) who has chosen to attend JSU.
Before he served as district attorney, Robert Shyler Smith was a prosecutor with the City of Jackson and a public defender with Hinds County, but became a private defense attorney involved in many high-profile cases.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
125 S. Congress Street #1324
Jackson, MS 39201
info@mississippifreepress.org
tips@mississippifreepress.org
events@mississippifreepress.org
601-362-6121
The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).
