The Delta - Everything Southern Conference comes to The University of Memphis to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the Mississippi Delta in a daylong event at the Fogelman Executive Conference Center on June 29.
"The Delta and the impact of the Delta on the American story is just beginning to be understood," said William Bearden, one of the event organizers. "There has been a phenomenal response. Lots of people from inside the community of Memphis, scholars from other communities and just normal people will all be involved."
There is a $50 registration fee for non-students and a $25 fee for students who aren't from U of M. It is also free for U of M students, but lunch is only provided with registration.
"This is our first conference on the Delta region per se, but it, to a large degree, grew out of a Nov. 16, 2005 panel discussion on cotton that we held in McWherter Library," said Tom Mendina, assistant to the dean of University libraries. "The interest in cotton and related matters was high, and it became evident that we had to accommodate that interest with further programming."
The conference starts at 8 a.m. and lasts until 4:30 p.m.
"We will come out of this symposium with a greater understanding of what the Delta is," Bearden said. "It is the proper time for The U of M to step up because there is a level of interest that no one is fully aware of."
There will be seven speakers that cover a variety of topics, including David Evans giving musical accompaniment to lunch. He will appropriately be playing the Delta blues.
Unita Blackwell is another speaker that attendees should look forward to hearing, according Mendina.
"I suspect that Unita Blackwell's account of her quest for dignity will be riveting," Mendina said. "Ms. Blackwell began life as a sharecropper, became an important factor in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and eventually became the first African-American mayor of a Mississippi city. But I have enormous respect for all of our presenters."
The keynote address will be given by James Cobb, author of "Southern Place, American Place: the Odyssey of the Mississippi Delta."
Cobb is a professor at the University of Georgia who has written several books about the Delta region.
"I think that the average student may not know much about history, and this is an opportunity to learn a lot about a wide swath of history for only investing a few hours," said Nicholas Gotten, board member of the friends of the library and an organizer of the symposium. "No matter what you already know, The U of M offers a number of programs that would supplement what is learned in the classroom."
One of the most interesting things about the Delta is the fact that it has given so much to the rest of the world, according to Bearden.
"This is a very backward and poverty stricken area of the country, but it has produced so many influential people," Bearden said. "It is far out of proportion to their numbers and their background. It is a combo of the river, a hard life and the Civil War that has produced this amazing phenomenon."
