{"id":23321,"date":"2015-03-18T20:23:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T01:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=23321"},"modified":"2015-03-19T12:05:04","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T17:05:04","slug":"23321","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/23321\/","title":{"rendered":"Emmett Till Memorial Commission Hosting Free Program at Sumner Courthouse and Emmett Till Interpretive Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Emmett Till Memorial Commission <\/strong>of Tallahatchie County<\/strong> would like to invite the public to a free program featuring a ceremony, entertainment and reception at the newly restored Sumner Courthouse<\/strong> and Emmett Till Interpretive Center<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Emmett Till Memorial Commission (ETMC) was the idea of the late- Jerome Little, the first African-American president of the Tallahatchie County board of supervisors. The restoration of the courthouse and opening of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center is part of a larger vision that the ETMC set in motion in 2007 to foster racial reconciliation.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour<\/strong> will perform a special show in Sumner, MS<\/strong> on\"TallahatchieCountyCourthouse\"<\/a> Saturday, March 21 at 2 pm as part of the activities to commemorate the opening of the newly restored Tallahatchie County Courthouse<\/strong>. Guests for the one-hour program, to be held in the courtroom of the courthouse, will be R&B singing legend Dorothy Moore<\/strong>, Pulitzer Prize winning-photographer Alysia Burton Steele<\/strong> and the Tutwiler Community Center Student Blues Band<\/strong>. Admission is free and the show will be recorded to be later aired on Mississippi Public Broadcasting<\/strong>. Hosts of the show will be Oxford writer Jim Dees<\/strong> and the Thacker house band, the Yalobushwhackers<\/strong> led by Delta musician\/instructor, Dr. Alphonso Sanders<\/strong>. The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour can be heard in the Sumner area every Saturday at 7 pm on 90.9 FM Greenwood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dorothy Moore<\/strong> hails from Jackson, Mississippi. Her professional accolades began in 1976, when her recording of \u201cMisty Blue\u201d went to No.1 on the R&B charts (No. 3 Pop). Her later hits included \u201cFunny How Time Slips Away\u201d and \u201cI Believe You.\u201d In 1986, she released a well-received gospel album, \u201cGiving it Straight to You\u201d (Word Records). This was followed by a tour of Japan in 1989 with, among others, Delta saxophonist Charlie \u201cLove\u201d Jacobs<\/strong>. Dorothy Moore has earned many awards, including five Grammy nominations, an\u00a0Image Award, NATRA Female R & B Vocalist of the Year, a Billboard Magazine Award, and a Governor\u2019s Award for Excellence in the Arts (1996). She was inducted into the Mississippi Musicians Hall of Fame<\/strong> in 2001. Her most recent CDs include, \u201cGittin Down Live\u201d (Farish Street Records 2003) and \u201cI’m Doing Alright\u201d (Farish Street Records 2005). Dorothy’s newest CD is Blues Heart <\/em>(2013).\u00a0 They are all from her label: Farish Street Records<\/strong> of Mississippi.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alysia Burton Steele shared a 2006 Pulitzer Prize with the Dallas Morning News team, where she was picture editor. She is currently an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media<\/strong>. Her photography book, Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother\u2019s Wisdom <\/em>(Center Street) was inspired by memories of her beloved grandmother, and combines heart-wrenching narrative with poignant photographs of more than 50 female church elders in the Mississippi Delta including, Lela Bearden<\/strong> and Herma Mims Floyd<\/strong> of Sumner. These ordinary women lived extraordinary lives under the harshest conditions of the Jim Crow era and during the courageous changes of the Civil Rights Movement. With the help of local pastors, Steele recorded these living witnesses and shares the significance of being a black woman–child, daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother in Mississippi–a Jewel of the Delta.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Alphonso Sanders is a multi-instrumentalist and Director of the BB King Recording Studio<\/strong> at Mississippi Valley State University<\/strong> in Itta Bena. He has been involved in music education for over 25 years as an educator and performer. He has played the world\u2019s premier jazz and blues festivals including Switzerland\u2019s Lucerne Blues Festival and Montreaux Jazz Festival, and the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands. As a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Sanders studied in China, visiting 12 major cities as he explored the culture of Chinese music and visual arts. Sanders\u2019 CDs include, Mississippi Influences<\/em> (2009) and Twice As Nice<\/em> with Bill \u201cHowl-N-Madd\u201d Perry (2010).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Tutwiler Community Center Student Blues Band is made up of students who attend \"EmmettTillInterpretiveCenter\"<\/a>the \u201cSonny Boy Club<\/strong>\u201d at Tutwiler Education Community Center<\/strong>. The Sonny Boy Club, named for the late blues legend, Sonny Boy Williamson<\/strong> of Tutwiler, is made up of some 40 students who meet twice a week at the center to take instruction from volunteers in the basics of the blues. Music is one of many programs offered at the Center through the generous support of donors. Other programs include poetry, photography and a computer lab. The student blues band made their debut last year. To donate to the community center visit www.tutwilercenter.org<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to its Saturday radio broadcast, the Thacker Mountain Radio Hour can also be heard every Saturday at 7 pm online at http:\/\/www.mpbonline.org\/programs\/radio\/listen-live\/. More information on upcoming shows is available at the show\u2019s website, http:\/\/thackermountain.com\/. Photos from past shows can be found on the show\u2019s Facebook page and podcasts can be heard on the show\u2019s Soundcloud page at https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/thackermountain<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After the Thacker Mountain Radio hour, the co-chairpersons of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, Frank Mitchener<\/strong> and John Wilchie<\/strong> will lead the audience in a short dedication of the Sumner Courthouse. This will include remarks by Timla Washington<\/strong>, aide to U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson<\/strong> and U.S. Senator Thad Cochran<\/strong>, whose leadership helped secure the first funding for this project.<\/span><\/p>\n

More about the Emmett Till Memorial Commission can be found at our website http:\/\/www.etmctallahatchie.com\/pages\/resolution.htm<\/a> and pictures of the courthouse and Emmett Till Interpretive Center can be located at our facebook page https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ETICtallahatchie<\/a>.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Emmett Till Memorial Commission of Tallahatchie County would like to invite the public to a free program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":23322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4934,1],"tags":[5996,6001,6005,5997,5995,956,5991,5988,5992,6003,6000,6006,5999,3138,6002,5990,5989,5994,5993,1413,6004,5998,2738],"class_list":["post-23321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-uncategorized","tag-alysia-steel-burton","tag-bb-king-recording-studio","tag-bennie-thompson","tag-charlie-love-jacobs","tag-dorothy-moore","tag-dr-alphonso-sanders","tag-emmett-till-interpretive-center","tag-emmett-till-memorial-commission","tag-etmc","tag-frank-mitchener","tag-herma-mims-floyd","tag-john-wilchie","tag-lela-bearden","tag-mississippi-public-broadcasting","tag-sonny-boy-club","tag-sumner-courthouse","tag-tallahatchie-county","tag-tallahatchie-county-courthouse","tag-thacker-mountain-radio-hour","tag-thad-cochran","tag-timla-washington","tag-tutwiler-community-center-student-blues-band","tag-yalobushwhackers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ETMC-FEAT.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}