Mississippi Freedom 1992

On Friday and Saturday, May 29 and 30, 1992, the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center in Jackson was the site of the world premiere of Mississippi Freedom, a multimedia performance-theater production that drew on the personal stories of living Mississippians as a way of exploring the legacy of race relations in the state over the previous three decades. 

Created by award-winning New York theater artist Robbie McCauley in collaboration with 11 actors, storytellers and musicians from the Jackson area, Mississippi Freedom placed special emphasis on the “freedom riders" in Jackson and the voting rights struggle of the 1960s as a watershed of change for the entire country. The work was presented by The Arts Company of Cambridge, MA, in association with Potpourri Theater Company of Jackson.

According to Leslie Myers' review in Jackson's The Clarion-Ledger "It's not some Broadway or Hollywood interpretation. The informal, non-fiction script...is illuminating instead of condescending... 'Mississippi Freedom' is dramatically positive, culturally inclusive and philosophically expansive. It speaks to every American."

After it was presented in Jackson, the work toured to six additional locations in the state: Hattiesburg, Lexington, Lorman, Port Gibson, Cleveland and Jackson again (the return engagement was at Millsaps College).  It also went to Houston, TX, and to New York City (for the latter, as a reduced-cast, reconfigured piece titled Mississippi Freedom: In Perspective). All touring was arranged and managed by The Arts Company.

For the six months prior to its first showing, McCauley and her multiracial collaborators collected oral histories from people in the state and elsewhere which formed the basis of much of the dialogue in the piece. This was combined with the performers' own stories and interaction among themselves and with McCauley. Various storytelling styles, local music, historical and contemporary slides and media footage contributed to the social resonance of the work. 

"Having done performances of my own family history as it related to the social history about us in the South (Georgia, where I spent much of my childhood); the West (where my grandfather was a Buffalo soldier); and Washington, DC, (where my immediate family settled, being part of many Black families who migrated North in the 1930s), I have started work with artists in other communities telling and retelling personal stories connected to social events," said McCauley. "I hope, in Mississippi, that telling stories as performance and developing theater arts out of existing culture is encouraged.  Another intention is to use art in a way that celebrates the hard and good changes that Mississippians have struggled to bring about for generations.”

The 11 cast members of Mississippi Freedom were American and Caucasian, ranged in age from early twenties to mid-sixties and at the time lived in the Jackson area, though the original homes of many of them were located throughout the state. Most were involved in or had personal memories of the voting rights struggle in the 1960s. They were: Ona Banks, Veronica Cooper, James Green, Willie Horton, Deborah Imboden, Dick Johnson, Kent Lambert, Sadat Muhammad, Sameerah Muhammad, Sheila Richardson and Kay King Valentine. Along with McCauley, they participated in discussions about Mississippi Freedom with interested audience members after each performance. Biographies of McCauley and the cast members can be found here.

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