Founding Mound Bayou

New York Times Sunday Magazine, Nov. 30, 1969, Page SM114

Founding Mound Bayou (Letter to the Editor)

With regard to the suggestion in your Oct. 26 article on Mayor Evers ("The Mayor of Fayette, Miss.") that the all-black town of Mound (not Mt.) Bayou was founded by Jefferson Davis for his former slaves: even a century ago black people did act by themselves in their own interests.

Although many of the first settlers of Mound Bayou had participated in an earlier and abortive experiment at Davis Bend on the former land of Davis's brother, Joseph, the initiative behind the founding of Mound Bayou was black, primarily the work of the black entrepreneur, Isaiah T. Montgomery.

JOSEPH A. HERZENBERG, II.
Dept. of History, Tougaloo College. Tougaloo, Miss.



(Editor's note: Joe wrote this letter to the editor in 1969, but Blogger only allows posts to be categorized as far back as 1970.)

Freshmen current events quiz from Tougaloo College, 1968

These are the results of a freshmen current events quiz Joe gave to his students on Sept. 11, 1968, during his last year as chair of the history department at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. Interviewed by Joseph Mosnier in 1995, Joe called his time teaching at Tougaloo "in many ways the most interesting years of my life."

(Editor's note: This quiz dates from 1968, but Blogger only allows posts to be categorized as far back as 1970.)