The Margaret Walker Center (MWC) at Jackson State University is set to receive a $650,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to help further develop and preserve Black oral history in Mississippi.
Additionally, the funds are expected to help expand the capacity, enterprise, and programming of the COFO Civil Rights Center on JSU’s campus.
“This significant investment in the Margaret Walker Center reveals that JSU and the Mellon Foundation share a common ground, and that is enhancing the lives of students and those in the surrounding communities by helping to provide opportunities and experiences that foster learning and stimulate intellectual thought,” said Jackson State President Thomas K. Hudson. “We appreciate the foundation’s ongoing support of the great work being done at our institution.”
It is not the first time the Mellon Foundation has donated money to the MWC as the foundation gave $450,000 to the center in 2014.
Those funds were used to extend the MWC Mellon Oral Historian position, hire an MWC Mellon Visiting Scholar, fund graduate assistantships, and more.
On top of that, the Mellon Foundation has aided the MWC with producing an array of projects and collaborations, including the development and digitization of oral history collections, giving future generations access to information about distinct communities and cultures.
