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2025 Activities Documenting the Past with Markers
. In 2025, the Foundation helped document the past in Holmes County, Mississippi. We partnered with other organizations to secure two historic monuments, namely, the Alexander v. Holmes County (Alexander) and National Federation of Colored Farmers (NFCF) markers.
Alexander Marker
We are especially proud to have partnered with state and local officials to secure and install the Alexander marker in June on Highway 17, between Tchula and Lexington. The monument was installed on the campus of S. V. Marshall Elementary School (formerly Tchula Attendance Center).
When the nation’s Supreme Court issued the decision on the Alexander case in 1969, the justices mandated segregated schools throughout the nation to end the slow, “all deliberate speed,” pace at which many school districts had moved for more than a decade, and “integrate immediately.” Now, more than half a century after 1969, the monument’s installation commemorates the pivotal role the Holmes County community played in the push for school integration in the South. Holmes County finally has a nationally recognized place in the history of school integration.
The unveiling culminated several years of effort by the Mississippi Freedom Trail, Visit Mississippi, Mississippi Humanities Council, Migration Heritage Foundation, Holmes County Board of Supervisors, and Holmes County Consolidated School District.
Scenes from Alexander v. Holmes Marker Unveiling
Coming! National Federation of Colored Farmers (NFCF) Marker
A contribution from one of the Foundation’s donors will make the NFCF marker possible. The monument awaits installation in fall 2025 at Highway 12 and Howard Road, near Tchula..
Black Holmes Countians began to acquire farms immediately after the Civil War and continued to do so throughout the early decades of the 20th century. The first NFCF group met at Tuskegee Institute in 1922 to help Blacks form local cooperatives to help members acquire farms and market their crops. The first Holmes County chapter was organized seven years later, in 1929. In 1930, the Holmes County membership had grown to more than 300 farmers who represented at least 15 local chapters.
Activities of these Holmes Countians made it possible for the organization to become a national,. The federation held its first national convention in 1930 at Mt. Zion Church in Tchula's Howard Community. The independent status of these pioneers provided a framework for the Civil Rights Movement that flourished in the County during the 1960s. Some descendants of these pioneer landowners retained the land in the area and reside on it to this day
Diane Feldman accounts for some of these Black land owners in her recently published book, titled Borrowed Land, Stolen Labor, and the Holy Spirit: The Struggle for Power and Equality in Holmes County, Mississippi, University of Mississippi Press, (2025). Stay tuned for the fall 2025 installation date. In the meantime, get and read Feldman’s book. It lists the names of many of these pioneer landowners. The book is available from the University of Mississippi Press at https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Books/B/Borrowed-Land-Stolen-Labor-and-the-Holy-Spirit,
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