University to Unveil History and Context Plaques March 2

Six markers offer history and insight into campus sites

OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi will hold a ceremony Friday (March 2) to unveil six history and context plaques, which contain wording recommended by the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on History and Context following months of study and feedback from hundreds of stakeholders.

The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts. Plaques will be unveiled for Barnard Observatory, Lamar Hall, Longstreet Hall and George Hall; another recognizing the university’s enslaved laborers in the construction of Barnard Observatory, the Old Chapel (now Croft), the Lyceum and the Hilgard Cut; and a plaque for the stained-glass Tiffany windows in Ventress Hall recognizing the University Greys, a company of primarily UM students during the Civil War that suffered 100 percent casualties – killed, wounded or captured.

The ceremony will include:

  • Welcome remarks by Chancellor Jeffrey S. Vitter
  • Keynote address by John R. Neff, associate professor of history and director, Center for Civil War Research
  • Introduction of plaque readings by Katrina Caldwell, vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement
  • Reading of the plaques by student ambassadors
  • Closing remarks by Alice M. Clark, interim vice chancellor for university relations
  • A reception will be held in the lobby following the ceremony. Shuttles from the Ford Center to the plaque sites will be available after the ceremony. Student docents and a member of the CACHC will be located at each plaque.

Shuttles from the Ford Center to the plaque sites will be available after the ceremony.

Logistics and planning for the March 2 event are being led by a committee of members of the Oxford campus community:

  • Katrina Caldwell, co-chair, vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement
  • Alice Clark, co-chair, interim vice chancellor for university relations
  • Don Cole, assistant provost and associate professor of mathematics
  • Jennifer Ford, head of archives and special collections and professor, J.D. Williams Library
  • Jeff Jackson, associate professor of sociology
  • Dion Kevin III, Associated Student Body president
  • Amy Lewis, external affairs director, University Relations
  • John Neff, associate professor of history
  • Ethel Young Scurlock, associate professor of English and African American studies and senior fellow of Luckyday Residential College
  • Deetra Wiley, applications analyst and business communications specialist, Office of Information Technology, and marketing coordinator for UM Staff Council

Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter established the CACHC in the summer of 2016 to address Recommendation 5 of the university’s 2014 Action Plan, which urged the university to “offer more history, putting the past into context” and to do so “without attempts to erase history, even some difficult history.” The university’s contextualization efforts were an academically- and fact-focused process.

The CACHC’s full recommendations, its final report, and renderings and map locations of the plaques can be found here.