The election year cycle brings extra attention every four years to statewide government offices. How those offices affect our lives between elections is the focus of this lesson plan.
Mississippi Studies Framework: Competencies 1, 4, and 5
Grades 6 (with modifications) through 12
The Mississippi History Now profiles on Mississippi’s governors offer brief summaries of the personal and political lives of each of the state’s chief executives. Although students usually are aware of the current governor and perhaps can name others who have served in the position, rarely is there enough time in the classroom to permit them a more personal glimpse into the lives of those who have served in the state’s highest elected position. Students can use these gubernatorial biographies in a variety of ways.
(As published in the June 1927 edition of Woman’s Press)
By Lucy Somerville
Return to Depression and Hard Times in Mississippi
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In the mid-1930s, a visionary experiment in biracial living was begun in the Mississippi Delta.
A casual discussion of Mississippi’s official state symbols in the classroom usually will produce some humorous answers. For example, the “mosquito” is the state insect, or perhaps it’s the fire ant! Rather than identifying the large-mouth bass as the state fish, students often will name the catfish and will only most reluctantly acquiesce when corrected. For years, the catfish has been favorite “eating” of Mississippians, many of whom caught them right out of a river or pond or bought them fresh from a local fisherman.
Throughout the school year, students will analyze Mississippi's four constitutions to determine the various forces that influenced the writing of each one. They will identify specific examples in the documents that indicate how the writers responded to those forces. Students will seek to answer these questions:
Mississippi Studies Framework: Competencies 1,3,4; Objectives 01, 03.
Religion and politics are topics often hotly debated by Mississippians and just as often, deliberately avoided in conversation. This lesson will explore the story of religious groups in the state, beginning with the French and Spanish periods and concluding with the current perception of Mississippi as part of a regional “Bible Belt.” Students will be encouraged to examine relationships between religious beliefs through the years and prevailing societal realities.
Mississippi Studies Framework: Competencies 1 and 3.
Historically, how do the voters of Mississippi vote in presidential elections?
Mississippi Studies Framework Competencies:
Grades 7 through 12.
Much of the story of Mississippi’s people, both past and present, has focused on, as Willie Morris writes, her two great blood sources: Great Britain and West Africa. (Morris, My Mississippi , p.