NEWS NOW
Click the button above to donate to the Victor Quann Jackson Scholarship
Announcing the Victor Quann Jackson Memorial Scholarship
Starting in January 2026, applications will open for the Victor Quann Jackson Memorial Scholarship, which supports first-generation college students who have faced adversity but remain determined to pursue their dreams.
The award honors the legacy of Victor Quann Jackson (Quann), an educator and first-generation college graduate who overcame significant life challenges. Born in New York and raised in foster homes, Quann’s journey to success was anything but easy. After dropping out of high school to work, he took night classes to earn his GED, later earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Chicago State University. Despite facing childhood and health challenges later in life, Quann never let them hinder his pursuit of his goals or his ability to live life unapologetically.
For more than two decades, Quann taught within the Chicago Public Schools system, instilling not only knowledge in his students but also a belief in determination and self-confidence, encouraging them to persevere through adversity and strive for greater heights in life.
Applications open on January 1, 2026, and close on April 1. The award amount is up to $1,000 annually. In addition to the eligibility requirements of supporting undergraduate college students (under age 21) and being a U.S. citizen, applicants are required to submit a 200-300-word essay describing a time in their life when they demonstrated resilience or confidence. They are to share what happened, the resilient qualities shown, what they learned, and how this experience will help them move forward in life.
CLICK HERE after January 1 to apply for the scholarship.
Heritage Center News
Migration Heritage Foundation
PO Box 247
Durant MS 39063
www.mhtr.us
FALL 2025
We sincerely appreciate the past contributions of our donors and hope all of our readers will support us in the future. This publication provides a recap of the activities in which the Migration Heritage Foundation (MHF) has participated throughout the year. It also reminds you to share your blessing on December 2, which is Giving Tuesday. Tax-deductible donations for 2025 can be made to qualifying non-profit organizations through December 31.
Sylvia Gist
2025 Scholarships Awarded
MHF received 25 applications for scholarships in 2025 and made awards in June and July to about half of the applicants. Photos of awardees and the amounts they received are shown below. I join these young people in thanking all who donated.
Kyla Patterson
Beatrice Alexander v Holmes County Board of Education Marker
Unveiled June 17
MHF partnered with the Mississippi Humanities Council, Holmes County officials, and Visit Mississippi to install the Beatrice Alexander v Holmes County Board of Education historic marker on the campus of S. V. Marshall School (formerly Tchula Attendance Center {TAC}) that posthumously recognized Beatrice Alexander, the TAC student for whom the Supreme Court case decided in 1969 was named.
As a ninth-grade student at TAC when the NAACP filed the suit in 1965, Beatrice withstood the pressures that came with being named the primary plaintiff, as her name was first on the list of 377 student plaintiffs, alphabetized. The case gained national notoriety when the High Court ruled in 1969 that all public school districts must end the delay that had existed since their Brown v Board of Education ruling in 1954 and integrate schools immediately.
While Beatrice passed away years earlier, her children and a host of her relatives were present and participated in the June 17, 2025 unveiling.
National Federation of Colored Farmers (NFCF) Marker Unveiled Near Tchula on October 25
Thanks to a generous donation, we installed a historic marker on October 25 that recognizes the National Federation of Colored Farmers (NFCF).
Placed on the grounds of Mt. Zion Church near Tchula, this permanent figure (photo right) recognizes Black farmers in the Hills and Delta sections of Holmes County for the roles they played helping members of their race throughout the nation become self-sufficient farm owners during the 1920s and 1930s.
The NFCF was organized at Mt. Zion Church in Holmes County in 1929. The bold actions of descendants of these pioneer black landowners paved ushered the Civil Rights movement that surfaced in the county during the 1960s and ultimately paved the path to the Alexander v Holmes Supreme Court Decision in 1969.
Book About Holmes County Recently Published
Diane Feldman’s book, Borrowed Land, Stolen Labor, and the Holy Spirit: The Struggle for Power and Equality in Holmes County, Mississippi, was published in July 2025. It is a local history that chronicles how white Americans forcibly took land in Holmes County from Native Americans and used the free labor of enslaved African Americans to develop it for the enslavers’ economic, political, and social benefits.
Feldman discusses how religious beliefs among Black Holmes Countians fueled determinations that founded the Holiness-Pentecostal Church of God in Christ (COGIC) denomination and set a path to the Holmes County Civil Rights Movement.
A “must-read!” Get your copy today from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Borrowed-Land-Stolen-Labor-Spirit/dp/1496857461 or the University Press of Mississippi at https://www.upress.state.ms.us/content/search?search_in%5B%5D=all&SearchText=feldman.
Family Roots Literature Available: The documents below are available from the Foundation. The Cemetery Guides are available in both electronic and printed formats. The book is available only in printed form. The Guides contain a list of names, dates of birth, and dates of death as shown on each tombstone in the cemetery.
Show in the comments section of the order form whether you want an electronic or printed copy of the Guides. Also, show the email address to which the electronic copy should be sent or the physical address to which the printed copy should be mailed. While there is no charge for these documents, a minimum shipping and handling fee is requested. Feel free to donate an additional amount to the Foundation when you place your order.
Thurmond Cemetery Guide, Updated 2024, Compiled by Sylvia Gist, Edwin Gist, and Jacqueline Saffold.
Wade Cemetery Guide, Updated 2025, Compiled by Sylvia Gist
Mis-Educating Blacks in a Southern Rural Community: The Case of Holmes County, Mississippi, 2023, by Sylvia Reedy Gist
Scan the QR Code or CLICK HERE to place an order.
How We Shape the Future
How We Document the Past