(Photo by Justin Wilkens on Unsplash – Yazoo River at Vicksburg during 2019 flood)
Today, December 7, 2024, marks the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Vicksburg, Mississippi Massacres during the Reconstruction period following the United States Civil War.
I grant you that I would not know this were it not for Ellen Morris Prewitt, an author and fellow blogger, who has been researching this in relation to her own family history.
You can read about it all in this guest opinion piece in the Mississippi Free Press. You can also find the link through Ellen’s blog post on its publication. In looking back through her blog archive, you can find posts on Ellen’s journey of discovering her ancestors’ history and dealing with its impact on her own life.
There is a commemoration occuring this weekend in Vicksburg, recovering a history that had been largely forgotten. Thank you, Ellen, for your role in bringing this history back into our consciousness.
Update: Some photos from the commemoration are available on Ellen’s blog here.
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Joanne Corey 
this is new to me and so tragic
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Yes, I think this is not something that has been taught and commemorated as it should be. I so appreciate Ellen for raising it up for remembrance and as a reminder that these kinds of tragedies have repercussions that persist.
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Thank you, Joanne, for sharing my words and broadening the awareness of the massacres. The weekend of remembrance was something—I’m still absorbing all of it
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Thank you, Ellen, for all you’ve done to bring the massacres back into consciousness. I look forward to reading about the remembrance when you are ready to share it.
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