EVENTS
The Lowndes County America 250 Celebration programs are currently scheduled for the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library (CLPLS), Mississippi University for Women (MUW), and the Mississippi School for Math and Science (MSMS).
Programs will occur at various institutions so be sure to check each program for its exact location.
November 4, 2025
CLPLS downtown branch
6:00pm
Screening/Panel Discussion on Ken Burn's The American Revolution
January 5-30, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
Freedom: A History of US exhibit
January 6, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
5:30pm
Abraham Lincoln and America 250
Dr. Susannah J. Ural
January 27, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
12pm noon
Ida B. Wells: The Mother of the American Human Rights Movement
Dr. C. Sade Turnipseed
February 19, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
12pm noon
The Emmett Till Generation: Youth Activism, Radical Protest, and Social Change in Jim Crow Mississippi
Dr. Daphne Chamberlain
February 2026
Mississippi University for Women
Time: TBA
"In Order to Be Free (1754-1775)" The American Revolution
by Ken Burns
February 2026
Mississippi School for Math and Science
Time: TBA
Historic Markers Program
March 2026
Mississippi University for Women
Time: TBA
"An Asylum for Mankind"
The American Revolution
by Ken Burns
March 2, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
12pm noon
The Women’s American Revolution
Sarah Hogue
March 30-May 1, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
Becoming the US: Colonial America to Reconstruction exhibit
March 31, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
5:30pm
Fashioning a Revolution:
How Americans Bought, Fought, and Taught Their New Nation into Being
Dr. Peter Messer
April 7, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
12pm noon
Civil War Era Mississippians Debate America’s Founding Principles
Dr. Susannah J. Ural
April 8, 10, 15, & 17, 2026
Friendship Cemetery
7:00pm
Tales from the Crypt Tours
The Mississippi School for Math and Science
April 11, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
Colonial Tea Party
Jeanette Watts
10am-12pm
April 16, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
Spanish Dons in Colonial Mississippi: The Spanish roots of Mississippi’s Cotton Kingdom
Dr. Christian Pinnen
12pm
April 21, 2026
Mississippi University for Women
The American Revolution in the Gulf South
Dr. Max Grivno
12pm
May 8, 2026
Sandfield Cemetery
6:00pm
The Eighth of May Emancipation Celebration
The Mississippi School for Math and Science
May 2026
Mississippi University for Women
Time: TBA
"The Times that Try Men's Souls"
The American Revolution
by Ken Burns
May 2, 2026
Mississippi University for Women
Time: TBA
MUW hosts America 250 booth at Market Street Festival
June 26-August 21, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
Who Can Vote? A Brief History of Voting Rights in the US exhibit
July 16, 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
The Challenges of the First Fifty Years of Women’s Suffrage
Dr. Rebecca Tuuri
12pm
TBD 2026
CLPLS downtown branch
TBD
Dr. Bonnie O'Neill
12pm
The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System, in partnership with Mississippi Public Broadcasting, will host a special screening of the new Ken Burns documentary on the American Revolution on November 4th at 6 p.m. The event will take place in the Meeting Room of the downtown Columbus branch.
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Admission is free and open to the public.
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Following the screening, a discussion on the American Revolution will feature history professors Dr. Judith Ridner, Mississippi State University, and Dr. Jonathon Hooks, Mississippi University for Women.
This event offers audiences a first look at Burns’ highly anticipated documentary and an opportunity to reflect on the enduring impact of the Revolution through the perspectives of leading scholars.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System is hosting the traveling exhibit Freedom: A History of US, organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, from January 5-30, 2026.
Since 1776, when the United States declared independence from Great Britain, the idea of freedom and our understanding of its implications have changed dramatically. Drawing on materials from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, this exhibition traces the evolving concept of freedom from the founding era to the election of Barack Obama. Among the highlights are a rare 1776 printing of the Declaration of Independence, a printed draft and the official copy of the US Constitution, Lincoln’s handwritten notes for speeches, and letters by leading figures such as Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., and more.
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The exhibit is open to the public and available for viewing during regular operating hours Monday through Thursday 9am to 6pm, Fridays 9am to 2pm, and Saturdays 9am to 2pm.
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This exhibition was originally developed by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in 2003. In 2018, Gilder Lehrman updated and reformatted the exhibition. The documents and images in the exhibit are drawn primarily from the Gilder Lehrman Collection.
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To learn more about the exhibit, visit www.gilderlehrman.org/programs-and-events/traveling-exhibitions/freedom-history-us.
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For more information on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, visit www.gilderlehrman.org.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Dr. Susannah J. Ural will open the traveling exhibit Freedom: A History of US with her talk Abraham Lincoln and America 250 on Tuesday, January 6 at 5:30pm at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.
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On George Washington’s birthday in 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln spoke to an audience gathered at Independence Hall. Moved by the moment, Lincoln explained that he “never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.” In 2017, Mississippi State University (MSU) received the nation’s largest privately held collection of Lincolniana.
This talk by historian Susannah J. Ural, Ph.D., the Frank & Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln and Civil War Studies at MSU, uses the Williams Collection of Lincolniana to discuss how America’s founding documents inspired Lincoln’s understanding of freedom, democracy, and citizenship during the American Civil War.​
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To learn more about the Frank & Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana, visit www.library.msstate.edu/williamscollection.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Dr. C. Sade Turnipseed will present Ida B. Wells: The Mother of the American Human Rights Movement on January 27 at 12 noon at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.
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Ida B. Wells’s life has intriguing ties to Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, President William McKinley, Booker T. Washington, Duke of Argyll and Sir John Gorst. She was a journalist who wrote about human rights and had a clear understanding about her rights as a woman. This presentation highlights her fearless campaign to realize the most significant contribution to the investigation and avocation against human lynchings. Yet, she is unknown to most people of this generation.​
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Dr. Turnipseed is the Executive Director of Khafre Inc, a Mississippi Delta based non-profit whose mandate is to erect a monument and historical site in tribute to Cottonpickers of the American South, and the founder of the Sankofa Empowerment Initiative, an international student exchange project partnering with Historically Black Colleges and Universities-HBCU's, FESPACO, and Nollywood. Turnipseed was named the 2017 Mississippi Institute of Higher Learning’s (IHL) Educator of the Year.
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This program is sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Dr. Daphne Chamberlain will present The Emmett Till Generation: Youth Activism, Radical Protest, and Social Change in Jim Crow South on February 19 at 12 noon at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.
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This presentation highlights the role of children, between the ages of 7 and 18, as leaders and participants in the Mississippi civil rights movement from 1946 to 1965. This presentation also offers a new perspective on the origins of the civil rights struggle and gives credence to how instrumental young people were to engaging in radical protest and grassroots activism in Mississippi.
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Dr. Chamberlain teaches at Tugaloo College. Prior to her joining Tugaloo College, she taught History and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi and was also the founding Director of the COFO Civil Rights Education Center at Jackson State University. Dr. Chamberlain serves on the boards of several social justice non-profit organizations, has served in the planning of several national and local civil rights commemorations, and served as a scholar-consultant to several history documentaries as well as the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.​
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Mississippi University for Women will present the first episode titled "In Order To be Free (1754-1775)" from the new Ken Burns documentary The American Revolution in February 2026.
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This episode details the growing tensions between the American colonists and the British government over issues of land, taxes, and sovereignty, culminating in the outbreak of armed conflict at Lexington and Concord. What begins as a political clash grows into a bloody struggle that will engage more than two dozen nations and forever change the world.​
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The entire documentary is 6 episodes total with each episode running approximately 2 hours in length.
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Admission is free and open to the public.​
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For more information, call MUW at .
Performance programming announcing state historic marker to Lowndes County’s first black legislators.
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Admission is free and open to the public.​
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For more information, call MSMS at .
Mississippi University for Women will present the second episode titled "An Asylum for Mankind" from the new Ken Burns documentary The American Revolution in March 2026.
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This episode covers the period from May 1775 to July 1776. New Englanders rush to surround the British Army in Boston, but as war begins Americans find themselves sharply divided. After the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, George Washington of Virginia arrives to command the newly created Continental Army. In July 1776, the Continental Congress issues the Declaration of Independence, insisting on the people’s right to resist tyranny and govern themselves.​
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The entire documentary is 6 episodes total with each episode running approximately 2 hours in length.
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Admission is free and open to the public.​
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For more information, call MUW at .
Historian Sarah Hogue will mark Women's History Month with her talk The Women’s American Revolution on Monday, March 2 at 12pm noon at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.​​
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While the contributions of soldiers in American Revolution are easily seen, it can often be more difficult to envision the role that women played during the war. Women provided valuable support during the Revolution, taking on a variety of wartime roles for the Continental Army: soldier, supplier, spy, and combat supporter. On the home front, women not only experienced battles near their own communities, but also provided important labor for their families that freed men to fight. Women’s new-found freedoms and abilities during the war left them with a lasting question- what rights would they have in their newly founded nation?
Sarah Hogue is a PhD candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her research focuses on New England women’s access to the legal system, economic rights, and active participation in warfare during various colonial wars and the American Revolution.​
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System is hosting the traveling exhibit Becoming the US: Colonial America to Reconstruction, organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, from March 30-May 1, 2026.
Becoming the US is designed to introduce viewers to the beginnings of American history and the skills involved in primary source analysis. Using items from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, it explores individuals, groups, and documents that have contributed to who we are as a country and encourages patrons to think critically about the first-hand accounts of this era.
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The exhibit is open to the public and available for viewing during regular operating hours Monday through Thursday 9am to 6pm, Fridays 9am to 2pm, and Saturdays 9am to 2pm.​
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To learn more about the exhibit, visit www.gilderlehrman.org/programs-and-events/traveling-exhibitions/becoming-united-states-colonial-america-reconstruction.
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For more information on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, visit www.gilderlehrman.org.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Dr. Peter Messer will open the traveling exhibit Becoming the US: Colonial America to Reconstruction with his talk Fashioning a Revolution: How Americans Bought, Fought, and Taught Their New Nation into Being on Tuesday, March 31 at 5:30pm at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.​
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Dr. Messer is a historian of Early American politics and culture at Mississippi State University. His interest lies in the theory and practice of politics in eighteenth-century America, particularly the intersection of natural historical thought and nation building in the era of the Early American Republic. In 2005, he published Stories of Independence: Identity, Ideology, and History in Eighteenth-Century America.​
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He is currently working on a book manuscript: Adultery, Church Pews, Oysters, and Tea: The Very Local Origins of the American Revolution in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Dr. Susannah J. Ural will open the traveling exhibit Freedom: A History of US with her talk Civil War Era Mississippians Debate America’s Founding Principles on Tuesday, April 7 at 12 noon at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.
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The Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi (CWRGM) project is a collection of the state’s governors’ papers that help us understand how Mississippians of all backgrounds debated the founding principles that the Civil War tested. They also show how state leaders interpreted and explained the rights that the Constitution and Declaration of Independence celebrated and protected. In this presentation, Dr. Ural, the Frank and Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln & Civil War Studies at Mississippi State University and Co-Director of CWRGM, will share documents from the collection to help audience members understand how Mississippians remembered and fought over the nation’s founding traditions during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
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Launched in 2019, the CWRGM has made nearly 14,000 of the 20,000 state governors’ papers freely available online with digitized original documents, transcriptions, annotations, lesson plans, and more.
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For more information on the Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi project, visit https://cwrgm.org/.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
"Tales from the Crypt" ​​is a performance and research project created by the late Mr. Carl Butler in 1991. Butler was a history teacher at The Mississippi School for Math and Science (MSMS) and he envisioned a project in which students would combine the best of scholarly research with the best of dramatic performance. Students involved with the project spend a semester embarking upon primary document research concerning the life of someone buried at the sprawling and picturesque Friendship Cemetery in Columbus. The cemetery is home to hundreds, if not thousands, of people who lived, worked, and died in the friendly city. Using their research, the students create a picture of the life of someone who lived in the community by transforming their research into dramatic monologues.
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Then in April, at night, at the gravesites of the people they have been researching and dressed as the people they have been researching, the students perform as their subjects for the public.
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The project has won numerous awards, including the 2005 Governor’s Excellence in the Arts Award, and has been featured in publications all over the country, including the Atlantic, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and the New York Times.
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The “Tales” project has been helmed by MSMS history teacher Chuck Yarborough since Mr. Butler’s death in 2003. Under Yarborough’s leadership, “Tales” has expanded and grown to become one of the seminal projects at MSMS.​
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To learn more about the "Tales from the Crypt" project visit https://themsms.org/tales-from-the-crypt.
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For more information, call MSMS at 662-.
Join Jeanette Watts; historical dance consultant, writer, and actress; as she hosts the colonial tea party of the century! While enjoying brunch and sipping tea, Watts will teach guests about 18th century manners and clothing. This event will take place on Saturday, April 11 at 10am at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.​​​
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You can bring your own tea cups to use and show off too!
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To learn more about Jeanette Watts, visit History is My Playground: Elevate Your Fundraisers and Events with Historical Dance Programming| Jeanette Watts.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Dr. Christian Pinnen will present Spanish Dons in Colonial Mississippi: The Spanish roots of Mississippi’s Cotton Kingdom on Thursday, April 16 at 12 noon at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.
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Spain has a short, but important part in Mississippi’s history. Between 1779 and 1798, Spanish administrators sought to wrangle profits and people in small outpost, most prominently Natchez, along the Mississippi River. Enforcing Spanish laws and customs in a polyglot and largely Anglo-American population proved treacherous and created economic and social dynamics that gave rise to more than one chaotic episode as people tried to gain influence and power along the Mississippi.​
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Dr. Pinnen is a Professor in the Department of History and Political Science at Mississippi College. He has published two books in 2021: Complexion of Empire in Natchez and Colonial Mississippi. He is the recipient of the 2019 Humanities Teacher of the Year award.
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This program is sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Dr. Max Grivno will present The American Revolution in the Gulf South on Tuesday, April 21 at 12 noon at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.
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The history of the American Revolution along the Gulf South is seldom told. Although most of the Europeans who called the region were sympathetic to the British — or at least hoped to remain neutral — the conflict soon engulfed the territory of what would, in time, become Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Dr. Grivno will examine how the American Revolution transformed the Gulf South. How the Americans, British and Spanish vied for control of the Mississippi River and Gulf seaports, and how the Choctaws and Chickasaws struggled to preserve their homelands by courting the rival powers. He will discusses the consequences of the Revolution for the people of the Gulf Coast. In the aftermath of the war, the Spanish and the Americans vied to control Natchez and the territory around present-day Vicksburg, while native confederacies like the Choctaw and Chickasaw grappled with the rising power of the United States.​
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Dr. Grivno is a Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi. In 2011, he published Gleanings of Freedom: Free Labor and Slavery along the Mason-Dixon Line, 1790-1860. Dr. Grivno’s teaching interests include the Old South, slavery, labor history and Mississippi history.
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This program is sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Since 2005, students at The Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science (MSMS) have commemorated the struggles, contributions and legacy of area African Americans through song, spoken word, and dramatic performance in Sandfield Cemetery. Primary and secondary document research by students in the MSMS African American History class as well as Mr. Yarborough is utilized in public performances recounting the history and contributions of the local African American community during the late 19th and early 20th century.
In recent years, students from Columbus High School, Columbus Middle School and MS University for Women have joined MSMS students in performances.​
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The 8th of May is the date the possibility of freedom came to Columbus and the surrounding area and when slavery for thousands of area African Americans was finally ended. On this date in 1865, Union troops arrived from Alabama and effectively freed the enslaved in Columbus and Lowndes County – a group that made up the majority of the population of this region as well as the majority of the state.
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The program is sponsored by The Mississippi School for Math and Science, Mississippi University for Women, City of Columbus, the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System, Visit Columbus MS, Columbus Municipal School District, and Friendly City Books.
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To learn more about the "Eighth of May Emancipation Celebration" visit https://themsms.org/8th-of-may-emancipation-celebration.
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For more information, call MSMS at 662-.
Mississippi University for Women will present the third episode titled "The Times that Try Men's Souls" from the new Ken Burns documentary The American Revolution in May 2026.
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This episode covers the period from July 1776 to January 1777. The Revolution, now a war for American independence, faces its toughest challenge yet as General Washington tries to defend New York City from invasion by sea. The resulting Battle of Long Island is a huge defeat for the Americans, who narrowly escape and spend the next several months on the run. In late December, Washington’s army regroups and prepares to attack an outpost in Trenton, New Jersey.​
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The entire documentary is 6 episodes total with each episode running approximately 2 hours in length.
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Admission is free and open to the public.​
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For more information, call MUW at .
This year's Market Street Festival will include a booth with faculty from the Mississippi University for Women's Department of History, Political Science, and Geography. The booth will include forms for voter registration, Constitution Trivia (with prizes!), and free pocket Constitutions.
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Admission is ???
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To learn more about or purchase tickets for the Market Street Festival visit www.marketstreetfestival.com.
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For more information, call MUW at .
The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System is hosting the traveling exhibit Who Can Vote? A Brief History of Voting Rights in the US, organized by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, from June 26-August 21, 2026.
The Who Can Vote? exhibition examines voting rights, emphasizing the role of the US Constitution and the interplay between the states and federal government in determining who is allowed to vote. Beginning with the founding era and going up to the election of 2000, this exhibition explores the complex history of the right to vote that forms the core of our nation’s democracy. Topics include voting as a constitutional right, women’s suffrage, Reconstruction and Jim Crow era voting rights, the Civil Rights Movement, and the enfranchisement of Indigenous peoples.
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The exhibit is open to the public and available for viewing during regular operating hours Monday through Thursday 9am to 6pm, Fridays 9am to 2pm, and Saturdays 9am to 2pm.​
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To learn more about the exhibit, visit www.gilderlehrman.org/programs-and-events/traveling-exhibitions/who-can-vote-brief-history-voting-rights-us.
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For more information on the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, visit www.gilderlehrman.org.
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Dr. Rebecca Turri will present The Challenges of the First Fifty Years of Women’s Suffrage on Thursday, July 16 at 12 noon at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.
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Dr. Tuuri’s presentation examines the first fifty years of the women’s suffrage in Mississippi, with a focus on the work of the Mississippi League of Women Voters (LWV) from the months before the ratification of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment through the late 1960s when the state’s League was transformed into the progressive and interracial group that it is today. Nationally, the LWV was the organization that suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt founded in 1920 to replace the National American Woman Suffrage Association and to help educate the newly enfranchised woman voters in America. Therefore, the LWV in Mississippi was arguably the most important women’s voting organization in the state. This talk illuminates the successes and challenges of Mississippi women’s early efforts to empower voting women around the state.​
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Dr. Tuuri is an assistant professor of African American and American history at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her current manuscript, Careful Crusader: The History of the National Council of Negro Women in Black Freedom Struggle investigates the history of the civil war rights work of the largest black women's organization in the 1960s and 1970s.​
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.
Dr. Bonnie O'Neill will present in September 2026 at the downtown branch of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library System.​​
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Dr. Bonnie Carr O’Neill teaches early American literature and nineteenth-century American literature. Her research focuses on nineteenth-century American literature and culture, with special emphasis on the interrelations of literature and public life. Her book Literary Celebrity and Public Life in the Nineteenth-Century United States (Georgia, 2017) explores the personalization of public life that accompanied an expanding celebrity culture and its effects on authorship and civic discourse. Celebrity culture, she argues, intensifies already-fraught questions of national belonging and democratic participation even as, for some, it provides means of redefining personhood and cultural identity. Currently, Dr. O’Neill is working on a project on Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the popular nineteenth-century minister, lecturer, and activist.​
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For more information, call the CLPLS at 662-329-5300.