The following guest post from Ash Parker, Collections & Digital Services Librarian at the Hancock County Library System in Mississippi, is part of a series written by members of Internet Archive’s Community Webs program. Community Webs advances the capacity of community-focused memory organizations to build web and digital archives documenting local histories.
Hancock County Library System is located on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and serves a population of around 47,000. Our community and stakeholders are dedicated to preserving the history of Hancock County and the coast—and they told us that this was a priority during strategic planning. This community feedback led the library to join the Community Webs program in the spring of 2023. With support from the program, we began preserving websites related to the area’s culture, civic associations, local government, and more.
In late 2024, staff arrived to discover a devastating leak in our main branch and system headquarters. Our Mississippi/Louisiana Special Collection was particularly affected, and we rushed to fan and dry hundreds of books. As we assessed the damage, it was clear that the pamphlets, books, and newsletters in the collection contained stories vital to this community’s history. We saw the importance of starting a digitization initiative aimed at increasing access to these unique local history resources. We began utilizing the Vault digital preservation service and providing access to our digitized collections through Internet Archive.
OPPORTUNITY TO DIGITIZE THE MISSISSIPPI STAR
When the opportunity arose to participate in the Increasing Access to Diverse Public Library Local History Collections project, a Community Webs digitization initiative supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the timing could not have been better. HCLS had the motivation to begin digitizing our collections and the existing relationship with Community Webs and the Internet Archive was ideal.
But what items to select for digitization? Enter the Mississippi Star.
The recent damage assessment of our Mississippi collection led me to remember a small, booklet-style magazine featuring local people, events, and topics of interest—created for and by the Mississippi Coast African American community. Recognizing the editor, Maurice Singleton, Jr., as a regular library patron, I was able to get enthusiastic permission for the Internet Archive to digitize and share 40 issues of the Mississippi Star.
This publication ran from August 1996 to the end of 2000. The five principles guiding the Star—”family, health, education, business, and culture”—provided the Black community with not just visibility, but the positive representation sorely missing in other local publications. In the first issue published in 1996, editor Maurice Singleton wrote, “Media is often referred to as a ‘mirror’ of our society. If this is the case, very little of what I read in the newspapers or watch on the evening news represents me, my friends, the people with whom I worship or the people with whom I exchange waves over the course of a day.” During its four-year run, the Mississippi Star gave readers a platform to see themselves and their community excelling and achieving together.
The Mississippi Star was digitized at the Internet Archive’s scanning center in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Once the digitization process was complete, Hancock County residents gained easy, online access to a collection that likely few realized was available at their library. Outside Hancock County and Mississippi, researchers and the public interested in a variety of topics—Mississippi history, the Civil Rights Movement and its impact, community-centered media, and more—have access via the World Wide Web to quality scans and full-text search. HCLS hopes to track down the missing issues to be able to provide the full run of this publication in the future.
SPIN-OFF PROJECTS: ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW AND PUBLIC PROGRAM
HCLS partnered with Maurice Singleton on related projects, including an oral history interview in April. Once complete, the audio recording and transcript will join this digital collection and provide additional context and nuance. We also held a public program in May to spotlight and celebrate the collection. Maurice spoke to the community about his memories of publishing the Mississippi Star—the inspiration, influences, and community impact—highlighting some of the more memorable articles. Attendees had a chance to see the physical issues held by the library and browse the digital collection on a touchscreen kiosk. The storytelling and remembrances during the program demonstrated the impact of community-centered archiving. Thirty years later, photographs of fellow community members captured interest and attention as people laughed and connected. Maurice came alive as he told his story and engaged with questions from the audience. As the program closed, the community came together to reflect on the importance of preserving community history. Maurice recalled a gentleman who had gently urged him to “bring back the Star” over the years since he’d stopped publication. This project had brought the Mississippi Star back for Maurice, for the community, and beyond.
SPOTLIGHT ON THE MISSISSIPPI STAR: MEMORABLE ISSUES
The Mississippi Star magazine provided a monthly glimpse into the Black community of the Mississippi Coast and the State in the late 1990s. The publication included local news, features, interviews, book reviews, advertising from local businesses, and letters from readers—all presenting a positive view of the Black community and holding to the values of family, health, education, business, and culture. Maurice shared that readers sometimes referred to the magazine as the Mississippi Jet, referencing one of the few publications with positive Black representation at the time (the other memorable example being Ebony).
Interview with the Family of Slain Civil Rights Leader Vernon Dahmer, Sr.
During its run, Maurice highlighted interviews in 1998 with the family of civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer, Sr. as most memorable and important. Dahmer was murdered in 1966 on orders of the Ku Klux Klan after gaining attention for helping Black Mississippians vote. At the time of the first interview in February 1998, stalled justice was being re-energized. Billy Roy Pitts, who was convicted but had not served a life sentence, turned himself in to state officials and later was a key witness for the prosecution of the KKK leader who ordered the murder.
In a follow-up interview in September 1998, Maurice spoke with the family after the August conviction and sentencing of the man responsible for the murder of Vernon Dahmer, Sr. thirty-two years after the event. Reflecting on the recent trial and what was different from 1966, Mrs. Ellie Dahmer, Vernon Dahmer, Sr.’s widow said, “The climate in Mississippi has changed. People would tolerate what Sam Bowers did in the 1960s. I don’t think he had as many people to sympathize with him as he did then.”
The timely importance of this moment in South Mississippi history was reinforced by the community response. In the March 1998 issue, a reader wrote, “A few words about this heart wrenching story about the plight of Mr. Dahmer and his family. In my opinion this man was truly committed, with great courage and no compromise. I will always remember the Dahmer family when I think of the Kings, Evers and Rosa Parks.”
Interview with and Tribute to Dr. Gilbert Mason
Maurice also interviewed civil rights leader Dr. Gilbert Mason of Biloxi. Widely known for leading the ‘Wade In’ protests in response to segregated beaches on the Mississippi Coast in the 1950s and 1960s, Dr. Mason was a driving force for the Black community on the Coast and a long-serving president of Biloxi’s NAACP. Remembering the protests, Dr. Mason said, “A small group of us had gone to the beach in 1959 and had been threatened that if we didn’t leave the beach they would remove us. That happened before the sit ins in Greensboro. That was one of the first protest acts we knew of. The youth branch of the NAACP had done sit ins, but this was one of the first in the Deep South.”
The Mississippi Star was published decades after the Civil Rights Movement and the key figures and actions from that point in history continued to impact the Black community in South Mississippi in the late 1990s. Feature articles and photographs from community events documented the importance of those historical leaders even as new leaders in the community emerged. Now, nearly thirty years later, this publication speaks to the progress and stories of Mississippi. Evidence of local happenings, successes, remembrances, public announcements, and day-to-day life are now available for locals and researchers from around the globe to access thanks to support from Community Webs and Internet Archive.
Browse the Mississippi Star Magazine collection on archive.org.