Lost Churches Of Mississippi

Lost Churches of Mississippi is a collection of archival photographs, postcards, and drawings of more than one hundred notable churches and synagogues vanquished by fire, disaster, development, or neglect. Constructed primarily from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s, these places of worship were often among the most visually prominent and architecturally striking buildings in Mississippi. Storms, floods, tornadoes, flames, bulldozers, or the disbandment of congregations razed what once was hallowed. In Lost Churches of Mississippi, architectural historian Richard J. Cawthon reclaims such noteworthy churches as the old St. Paul's Catholic Church in Vicksburg, Bethel Presbyterian Church near Columbus, the old Trinity Episcopal Church in Pass Christian, and the old First Presbyterian Church in Yazoo City. Selections represent over fifty towns and cities throughout the state and are captured in 180 distinctive black-and-white illustrations from several historical archives and other collections. Cawthon discusses the architectural features and historical background of each house of worship and provides a brief introduction that illuminates the study of lost buildings, as well as a glossary of architectural terms and an annotated bibliography. Lost Churches of Mississippi rescues a cardinal legacy and recognizes a portion of the state's rich architectural and religious heritage.

A celebration of the state's sacred places

The Architecture of William Nichols: Building the Antebellum South in North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi is the first comprehensive biography and monograph of a significant yet overlooked architect in the American South. William Nichols designed three major university campuses—the University of North Carolina, the University of Alabama, and the University of Mississippi. He also designed the first state capitols of North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. Nichols's architecture profoundly influenced the built landscape of the South but due to fire, neglect, and demolition, much of his work was lost and history has nearly forgotten his tremendous legacy. In his research onsite and through archives in North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, Paul Hardin Kapp has produced a narrative of the life and times of William Nichols that weaves together the elegant work of this architect with the aspirations and challenges of the Antebellum South. It is richly illustrated with over two hundred archival photographs and drawings from the Historic American Building Survey.

Mississippi Praying examines the faith communities at ground-zero of the racial revolution that rocked America. This religious history of white Mississippians in the civil rights era shows how Mississippians’ intense religious commitments played critical, rather than incidental, roles in their response to the movement for black equality. During the civil rights movement and since, it has perplexed many Americans that unabashedly Christian Mississippi could also unapologetically oppress its black population. Yet, as Carolyn Renée Dupont richly details, white southerners’ evangelical religion gave them no conceptual tools for understanding segregation as a moral evil, and many believed that God had ordained the racial hierarchy. Challenging previous scholarship that depicts southern religious support for segregation as weak, Dupont shows how people of faith in Mississippi rejected the religious argument for black equality and actively supported the effort to thwart the civil rights movement. At the same time, faith motivated a small number of white Mississippians to challenge the methods and tactics of do-or-die segregationists. Racial turmoil profoundly destabilized Mississippi’s religious communities and turned them into battlegrounds over the issue of black equality. Though Mississippi’s evangelicals lost the battle to preserve segregation, they won important struggles to preserve the theology that had sustained the racial hierarchy. Ultimately, this history sheds light on the eventual rise of the religious right by elaborating the connections between the pre- and post-civil rights South. Carolyn Renée Dupont is Assistant Professor of History at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY.

By the time the Great Depression was well underway, Mississippi was still dealing with the lingering effects of the flood of 1927 and the Mississippi Valley drought of 1930. As Pres. Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933, Mississippi senator Pat Harrison, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, oversaw the passage of major New Deal legislation, from which Mississippi reaped many benefits. Other Mississippi politicians like Gov. Mike Connor initiated measures to improve the treatment of inmates at Parchman Prison in the Delta and Gov. Hugh White established the Balancing Agriculture with Industry initiative. Women also played an active role. The Natchez Garden Club successfully spurred tourism by starting the state's first pilgrimage in 1932. Mississippians found employment through the Public Works Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps, which stimulated economic development through new and add-on construction in urban and rural areas and the construction of nine state parks. For black Mississippians, segregation and discrimination in New Deal benefits and jobs continued, but what they did receive from the federal government spurred a determination to fight for equality in the Jim Crow South.

Since the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, Jackson's North State Street has been home to some of the capital city's major architectural landmarks. North State Street was bordered by stately homes of many different styles and periods, from rather simple antebellum cottages, to grand Greek Revival, elaborate Queen Anne, and elegant Colonial Revival and neoclassical mansions, as well as impressive institutional buildings and churches. However, beginning in the early years of the Great Depression, many of these stately homes and buildings were lost, replaced by apartments, parking lots, and commercial buildings. Through the images in this book, those who never witnessed first hand the majesty of Jackson's North State Street will be able to gain some insight into what has been lost and truly appreciate what remains. For those who remember what North State Street was, this book will be a chance to revisit and reminisce about that lost era.